Birds and people find each other at fair

PUNTA GORDA -- Jamie Staebler was in love.

The baby cockatiel with round black eyes, orange cheeks and a little yellow mohawk rushed toward her finger when she poked it between the wires of the cage. This was no low-maintenance pet -- the bird wasn't weaned yet, and would need to be hand-fed with a syringe several times each day. Staebler, 17, wasn't concerned about that. Jack Bentel, manning the table of Enchanted Exotics, a Fort Myers bird vendor, had shown her how to do it.

"Can I pay you now, and then just run home and get the travel cage and come right back?" Staebler asked Bentel, a hint of desperation in her voice lest someone else should snatch up her sweetheart. Bentel smiled and agreed to the arrangement.

While the magic between Staebler and the baby cockatiel played out in one corner of the Charlotte County Tentatorium on Sunday, the rest of the structure was filled with birds and bird-related paraphernalia for the Caged Bird Club of Charlotte County's twice-annual Bird Fair.

Two colorful budgies on a perch calmly observed the hubbub from their cage on the raffle table. A macaw walked sideways and bobbed its head while soaking up the admiration of a small crowd. A cockatoo with light peach plumage fluffed its feathers in response to a stranger's touch, momentarily looking like a living chrysanthemum.

"The most important thing is for bird enthusiasts to get together to pass on information," said club president Richard Naegeli, who owns 65 birds. "It's more or less camaraderie among bird people."

Staebler won her first pet bird in a raffle at last year's fair, a cockatiel named Lola that later got a respiratory infection and died.

"It's a hole, not having an animal," Staebler said.

Staebler and her mother, Sherri Riordan, decided it would be quicker to buy a travel cage at the fair than to rush to their Port Charlotte home to get a means of transporting the baby cockatiel. Staebler nervously handed a crisp bill to a vendor in exchange for a small black wire cage with a cardboard liner at the bottom. Around her, the sound in the Tentatorium seemed to exist on one of two planes: the general mumbling sound of a crowd of people, and the exotic cawing, chirping and crooning of the birds.

"I'd think the cardboard would be uncomfortable," Staebler fussed to Riordan as they rushed back to the baby cockatiel.

Before placing the young bird in the travel cage, Staebler held her close to her chest. The cockatiel attempted to crawl up towards her shoulder and nuzzled her neck.

Staebler smiled and stroked her new friend.

If You Go

The Caged Bird Club of Charlotte County meets every third Thursday at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County.