Deciding to start an aviary was the easiest part of starting an aviary.  Seemed pretty simple, considering the thirty years experience I had training and handling wild imported parrots.  Now, almost twenty years later with more experience, I am wiser.

 A long time ago, in the early 70's of the last century ,  I  had a opportunity  to work with an import, quarantine station based out of New Orleans.   We would process 500 or more parrots at a time that would arrive by airline in crates packed with standing room only.  I felt such great sorrow for those poor birds taken out of their natural habitat and having to endure this type of treatment.  The ones that did make it were frightened, and usually at least one third of them did not make it from the quarantine station to the wholesale  aviary. 

I left that position, but continued training and socializing parrots of the wild for the next twenty years.   You can be assured that a pirate did not jerk a mature parrot off a branch, and sit him upon his shoulder.  He cut the tree down, killed the parents and robbed the babies out of the nest.

With the Federal regulations tightening on the deportation of parrots  from their native land  and stricter regulations in the United States on importation, the quality of pet parrots will improve.  The more generations bred in captivity the better the outcome for the pet parrot.  I have witnessed parrots that are more responsive and loveable being hand fed, coming from hand fed stock at six months old, than even the youngest wild caught parrots.