A beloved Halifax mascot has finally made a friend and his health seems to be improving, according to the Ontario nature park where he is rehabilitating.
For 20 years, Merlin the Rainbow Macaw greeted visitors at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic until he had to retire due to declining health.
During COVID, Merlin had fewer interactions with his human friends. He plucked his own feathers, a behaviour some birds exhibit when under stress.
His caregivers decided to find Merlin a new home last spring so he could recover. Perhaps he could make new flying friends and learn to be a bird after being surrounded by humans his entire life.
Taryn Hipkiss, the general manager at Safari Niagara, said Merlin’s feathers have regrown and he now shares a staff-only enclosure with Kiki, a female blue and gold macaw.
“We feel that Merlin is making some good progress,” she said, noting he might be in an outdoor display open to the public this summer if his progress continues.
Merlin the Macaw has been greeting visitors at the Halifax museum for almost 20 years. But staff at the museum say his health is declining, despite his relative youth. Merlin will soon move to a zoo in Ontario so he can be around other exotic birds and maybe even learn to fly.
Concerns over mobility, diet, hygiene
When Merlin arrived, Hipkiss said there were concerns about his mobility as he would hesitate to leave his perch.
While Merlin can’t fly yet, Hipkiss said his caregivers made a plan to make him walk around his enclosure as much as possible.
“His and Kiki’s food is strategically placed so that he is encouraged to travel with locomotion,” she said.
The staff also had to diversify Merlin’s diet and encourage him to bathe himself.
“We’ve also introduced easy foraging options to help him [be] interested in exploring his entire space,” she said. “So this is to teach him and encourage foraging and independent natural parrot behaviour.
“[Bathing was] something that Merlin was very hesitant for and showed no interest in in the beginning.”
Making a friend
Hipkiss said the team at Safari Niagara has also paid attention to Merlin’s social life.
Parrots are very social birds that can become depressed if they are kept alone, she said.
This meant that Merlin had to get over his social awkwardness as part of his recovery.
Hipkiss said Merlin avoided Kiki at the beginning because he had spent his life around humans.
“They were just sharing the enclosure but weren’t really having much interaction with each other,” she said.
“Kiki would come over and kind of investigate him and he would allow that, but he would not approach her.”
Zookeepers encouraged Merlin to interact with Kiki by making them share food and water.
They also placed a flock of six macaws in an enclosure across from Merlin so he could observe other birds interacting, said Hipkiss.
This seems to have improved his social skills, as Merlin now frequently interacts with Kiki.
“They get along very well,” she said.
‘Prime example’ of recovery
Hipkiss said Merlin’s progress makes him “a prime example” of bird rehabilitation at the zoo.
She added that macaws usually live until their 80s, which means Merlin, who is in his 20s, has many years ahead of him to adapt to his new life.
“He’s been making his transition,” she said. “He is doing very, very well. We do take all of our cues from Merlin, so Merlin basically decides how fast or slow his progress [is].”
