Meet our new peregrine falcon! Maiya is 10 years old this spring. She came to us from a raptor breeding program in Washington state.

She arrived on April 1, and spent the first 30 days in quarantine with Julia at her home. Thanks Julia! It was a difficult task for Jules as she was sharing her bedroom with a hawk either in a crate or on a perch.

On May 1, we brought her to the WEI site. Maiya had already demonstrated an intense dislike of being hooded. "Hooding" is using a leather helmet to protect the bird's eyes from light, encouraging calmness and quietness. Becky and Julia worked intensely with the bird to help her overcome her hood shyness.

Maiya met our donors for the first time at a special party on May 21. Since then she has started being part of educational programs. As long as we leave the hood off her she is quiet and easy to work around.

This delightful little "guy" is one of our two African Grey Parrots. Baron came to us in 2001 at the age of ten. Male and female African Greys do not show differences in their feather colors, and this bird has never been sexed. Since the bird has never laid an egg in the spring, we assume that the bird is male.

African Greys are well known for their ability to mimic. Baron has a good vocabulary of sounds and gestures. He says a few human words too. His current training is to get him to whistle the opening musical phrase to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Senegal Coucals are quite rare in the US. This delightful fellow is just under a year in age. Common in their range on the continent of Africa, coucals are related to the roadrunners of the desert southwest in the States. He is between a robin and a crow in body size, with a long tail. Coucals spend a lot of time on the ground, chasing insects and tiny rodents. He is in almost constant motion in his mew, flitting mcuh as he would in the wild.

Roofio has attended two different schools and given four programs. Thus far he comes out of his crate, sits on the presenter's hand for treats, and will vocalize on command. He is handling the presentations well. The students have been exceptionally well behaved, understanding that they are assisting us in training a bird.

A stink bug crawling on the floor of his mew attracted Roofio's attention. He pecked at it, and then performed a circle dance with one wing outstretched over the insect as if to protect it from flying predatory birds. As he dismembered the bug he continued the circle dance.

If you have traveled to Africa and have a birding contact there, please let me know! We need to learn a lot about the natural history of this species.

Our gorgeous Lanner Falcon was hatched in 2004 in Nevada. Lanners are native to Africa. The bird's ancestors had been brought to the US for falconry and breeding purposes.

Gypsy is one of the free-flying birds in the summer shows we do on contract with Reptile Gardens. Lanners are very quick, but not quite the speed demons that peregrines are. Gypsy seems to enjoy his flights to the lure, and doesn't mind the crowds at all.

Steinbeck is our female barred owl. She was hatched in 1993, bird-napped as a baby and hand-raised. She is imprinted on humans, so her behaviors can be unusual and occasionally agressive.

Every spring she lays at least one egg, and faithfully incubates it in the mew. We let her keep it as long as we can, sometimes upward of a month.

Her gorgeous feathers and rich chocolate eyes make her an incredible bird to see up close.

Green-winged Macaws are one of the largest of the macaw family. Ruby came to Wildlife Experiences in 2003. A gentle giant, she is easy to work around. She loves to say "hello" and to dance on her perch or the arm of her trainers. We don't know her actual age. We hope she is young so she will be with us for most of her life!

Our magnificent bald eagle came to us from a rehab center in Nebraska in December 2002. He can no longer fly due to a wing injury. He was likely hatched in 1999 or 2000, based on his feather colors when he arrived in 2002. We believe he is a male based on his body size.

His name is a Lakota word roughly translated as "truth" or "justice", and is pronounced "Whoa-wi-chalk-kae".

Wowi is a star at Bald Eagle Awareness Celebrations around the state, as well as at our free-flying bird shows presented all summer at Reptile Gardens.

This little bare-eyed cocaktoo sayshis name, and also asks, "Whatcha doing?" He was hatched in 1998, and lived in a private home before coming to Wildlife Experiences.