Estrella – A True Story of Hope

One morning Lana was walking through the jungle near her home in southern Costa Rica.  She noticed something on the forest floor.  It looked like a brown crumpled leaf.  Bending down to take a closer look, she saw it had a beak.  The tiny creature in her hand was wrinkled and bald but it’s tiny heart was still beating.  There it was,  a baby Red Lored Parrot, barely alive.   Lana took it home and gave the little bird a name.  Estrella seemed like a perfect name, Spanish for star, a tiny falling star.

Estrella was in her native habitat there on the Pacific Coast of Southern Costa Rica.  Red Lored Parrots, a type of Amazon Parrot are also found as far north as Mexico and as far south as Ecuador.  There is also a large population in the Brazilian Rain Forests.  Numbers of this bird found in Mexico and Venezuela have dropped severely due to trapping for the caged-bird trade.  Very few are found in those areas now.

Lana took the weak baby bird home and started to nurture her back to health.  She started by feeding her tiny amounts of mashed fruits and water.  Estrella especially loved the bananas.  The diet of a Red Lored Parrot normally consists of fruits, nuts, and seeds.  As the tiny bird grew, she finally got some green feathers, with some blue on her head and red above her beak.  When she got big enough, she was given a perch on the patio.  From there Estrella could see the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding rain forests.  She flourished in the fresh air and sunshine.  Lana was there to watch her first tiny efforts to fly as she fluttered across the patio and then from branch to branch in the adjoining trees.

Estrella found her voice and would sing from her perch on the patio.  One evening, Lana heard Estrella’s loud screech.  When she ran to see what was wrong, she found Estrella in the clutches of a snake.  With quick impulses, Lana was able to wrestle Estrella away from the snake, not a moment too soon.  From then on, Estrella spent her evenings in a cage on the patio.  There were no more attacks from predators.  Within two months, Estrella was fully grown and able to resume her perch on the patio.  The nesting duration for a Red Lored Parrot is sixty days.

travestyalpha /Foter

Estrella began to enjoy sitting in the trees near the patio in the morning and even venturing to the nearby trees.  She began to spend a few minutes a day out in the trees.  As time went by, she would be away for a couple of hours, then longer.  Estrella was fascinated when she saw the other birds including other parrots just  like her.  She began to spend more and more time further and further from her perch on Lana’s patio.  She would spend hours out in the jungle each day.

One day, Lana saw Estrella flying around and around in circles overhead.  She

menemorice /Foter

looked up and smiled and said “It’s okay Estrella.  You can go now.”  Estrella flew away into the forest for the last time.  From time to time, Lana may see the sun reflected off Estrella’s wings as she flutters through the trees but does not return to her perch on the patio.

This is a true story as told to me by Lana of Costa Rica’s Luna Lodge.  You can meet Lana at  www.lunalodge.com   View the video and see the rocking chair on the patio that was Estrella’s early home.  See the rainforest that is now her home and probably the home of her offspring.  Maybe, you will be fortunate like I was and you can even go there for a visit.

copyright by author Linda Postmus

as told by Lana Wedmore