Yesterday, I saw a red-headed escapee resting before he headed back into the depths of the thousand acre nature preserve that lies within view of our living room perch. There wasn't any sense in calling any authority figures -- between the lakes and the swamp -- that snake and alligator infested woods, is safe haven for those who are brave enough to enter it. He's not worth capturing is the general consensus. Come winter, he may not survive.

As I watched him flit away, I could only smile and remember Curley Bird and his Wifey. Curley Bird always did have a lot to say about being held prisoner and I have the scars to prove his indignity. Maybe both of them thought it's better to live free, however briefly.

I tried to explain to Curley Bird that our mutual friend Bob, had made him and his wife prisoners, but he was having none of my excuses and alibis. Indeed, when Wifey died, he blamed me, even though it wasn't my fault that my husband turned off the heat when we left for the weekend. He was the one who gave no thought to the comfort of those who had only a coat of feathers for warmth.

Curley Bird was having none of my justifications, as I reached out to comfort him when Wifey died of pneumonia. He bit me so hard, that my husband had to pry him off my finger with all the great force his six-foot-five height and two hundred and fifty pound brute strength could muster. Curley Bird was mad and wanted to send both his captors straight to hell.

Curley Bird's Bird Family Are A Diverse Group

Curley Bird and Wifey were Greater Sulfur-crested cockatoos. Cockatoos are medium-sized parrots with a tall crest on the head. They are native to the Australian region and range north into Indonesia and the Philippines when found in the wild.

The greater Sulfur-crested cockatoos if found also in Australia and Tasmanis in the wild, where it is not always popular, for it is known to raid fields in flocks. The smaller variety Sulfur-crested cockatoo inhabits the Sunda Islands and Celebes. Both varieties are white birds with a pale yellow crest.

There's another kind of cockatoo, the Leadbeater's cockatoo. Also native to Australia, it is pink and white. It's crest is red, yellow, and white.

Smaller species of cockatoos, common in captivity, are the Gray and Pink Reseate cockatoo. Along with them are the cockatiel -- a small gray bird with long pointed tail and crest. The head of the male is yellow, with an orange dot on the cheek, while the female's head is dull green, also with an orange dot.

They have other relatives, like the Black Cockatoo of New Guinea and the Cape York Peninsula where a large species, entirely black in color except for the bare cheeks of an intense red. Similarly, there are close relatives with yellow cheek markings, and one with a red tail marking.

One odd fact about Cockatoos, is that they have on their feathers, a peculiar powdery substance with a distinctive smell, found in a smaller degree on many other parrot species.

Cockatoos are members of the same bird family (Psittaciformes) as the parrot. This family is divided into a number of groups found in the tropical regions in the wild, all over the world. This family also includes:

• Cuckoos
• Macaws
• Lorikeets
• Lories
• Lovebirds
• Hototogisu
• Keels
• Keas
• Stringops (Owl parrots)
• Parakeets

Now, it's easy to distinguish members of the parrot family from other birds. Your first clue is that the top of the beak is sharply curved, in a quarter-circle. The lower mandible (lower half of the beak) is much smaller than the upper one and can be moved in almost any direction.

Parrots, like most birds, have four toes on each foot. Like owls, cuckoos, and woodpeckers -- the parrot has two toes directed forward and two toes directed backward. In contrast, most birds have three toes directed forward and only one toe directed backward.

Parrots are grain-eaters chiefly, but their diet includes fruits of many kinds, buds, and probably some insects in the wild. In captivity, they learn to eat many other foods. One warning though, do not give parrot parsley -- it is deadly poison to parrots.

Members of the parrot family are good climbers. Some have a long tail, but none of them uses the tail as a prop in climbing as the woodpeckers do.

The strong bill is sometimes used as a third foot in climbing. Many species are capable of swift and sustained flight. Most of them are gregarious -- in that, they live in groups. They nest in tree hollows and law a number of roundish white eggs.

Their bright colors and their intelligence and ability to learn to imitate the human voice has caused them to be man's prisoners since the earliest times. Tame parrots are long-lived and some species breed freely in captivity.

While parrots make amusing pets, because of their longevity and habits, they are not a pet to be considered for human family membership without true knowledge of all that is involved in taking care of them.

While short tailed members of the parrot family are usually represented in zoos by the Gray Parrot of Senegal and West Africa, with its red tail, and by the Amazon of tropical South America, in whose plumage the color green dominates --- there are many other varieties of parrots and coloring of them.

The Lories and Lorikeets are short-tailed parrots, found in the wild all the way from India to Australia. They have a peculiar brush-like tongue that is well adapted to collecting their food, which consists, at least in part, of the nectar of flowers and the gums of trees.

Lorikeets come in a variety of colorings, red, multi-colored, and green being the most common. Perhaps my favorite being the Rainbow Lorikeets, when tamed they are very sweet and gentle birds.

Lories can be also found with multi-colored markings, but one of the most interesting is the Cardinal Lories, who are bright red in coloring.

I sometimes think that Parakeets are the most exploited little birds on the planet because they are so widely sold as pets. They are the smaller species of the parrot family, and long or short-tailed that we Americans are so familiar with.

I'd like for people to be aware that parakeets in the wild were once abundant in flocks in the southern United States. The variety of parakeet was the Carolina parakeet. Thanks to humans it was extinct by 1913. Back then, the species was destroyed by farmers whose fields and orchards it raided. The Carolina parakeet was bright yellow with an orange head. Relatives of this lost bird, the Conjures, of which there are many species are still somewhat abundant in South America.

While we always had lots of pets when I was growing up, one of my favorites were a pair of Lovebirds that my mother bought me when I was a young teen.

Lovebirds are quite small, short-tailed parrots, usually of green plumage. The gray-headed species, common in captivity, comes from Madagascar. In captivity they can be somewhat of a messy bird in that they like to sling their seed carcases about.

Close relatives of the little parakeets are the Macaws, the largest of the parrot family.

They are showy birds, with the red and blue Macaw perhaps the most handsome, and the Great Green Macaw being almost as popular.

There is also the Great Hyacinthine Macaw, with purplish blue plumage, which is the largest of the parrot family, a good three feet in length.

From New Zealand, the Kea, is of the sub-family Nestoriane. It is a dull colored parrot with a peculiar sickle-shaped beak. It is one of the few Alpine parrots in the world. It is also a flesh eating parrot. Additionally, they could be one of the smartest birds in the world.

After the introduction of sheep in New Zealand, the key accidentally tasted sheep fat on butchered carcasses and developed a habit of devouring the kidney fat of the live sheep, which its long and powerful beak permits it to reach. The loss of sheep was great and herders hunted the Kea until it was brought to the verge of extinction. For many years, there was great debate about whether or not this bird would attack live sheep, in 1993 it was successfully proven in a video taping.

The Strigops (aka Owl Parrot or Kakapo) of New Zealand is a strange parrot with the appearance of an owl. It has dull green and yellow plumage.

It is nocturnal, like most owls, and almost flightless. It lives in burrows in the ground. As it's flesh is good to eat, it has also been hunted until almost extinction. Today, there are only a little over one hundred of them and are most endangered in terms of possible extinction.