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Couple Parrot Success With Aviary

CANDACE C. MUNDY/TAMPA TRIBUNE PHOTO

Rose Bock, of Tampa Bay Avian Center, talks with "Lucky", an Eclectus parrot.

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By STEPHEN HAMMILL, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

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KEYSTONE - Rose Bock had no experience with birds when she met her husband, Scott, 15 years ago.

She was a trained paralegal. He had just moved from Indiana, where he was breeding exotic birds in the snow.

'When we met I fell in love with him and the birds, and I hated my job,' she said, 'so I started tending to them.'

Now she runs the Tampa Bay Avian Center, on 5 acres off North Mobley Road,where she cares for 80 pairs of breeding birds.

'Basically, I breed macaws, cockatoos; I breed African greys, Amazons and their subspecies,' she said.

The birds, mostly colorful, many large, some rare, share a common trait: They make noise.

C.B., also known as 'Crooked Beak,' a blue and gold macaw, likes to chatter.

'I'd be in the office doing paperwork,' Bock said, 'and I'd go, 'La la la la!' and he'd answer, 'La la la la!''

When rubbed on the neck, C.B. responds, 'Mmm, good.'

They learn to speak from listening to people. It is mostly mimicry, but some owners are certain their birds understand them.

This time of year Bock is moving birds and refitting nest boxes in preparation for the mating season.

In the wild, the birds raise their own, but here Bock pulls the eggs and brings them indoors to her nursery. That tends to encourage more egg production. It also causes hard feelings.

'Some of them hate me because I steal their eggs,' Bock said.

A Florida-based distributor buys 85 percent of the aviary's newborn stock. Bock also sells exclusively to three pet stores in New York, Virginia and Michigan.

She tries to keep the individual sales to a minimum. Parents often will buy their child an exotic bird without realizing the investment that goes into it.

'I don't do much retail because I have trouble with that,' Bock said. 'They'll call back three weeks later and I'll end up having to take them back.'

For a pet, she recommends the hawk-headed parrots.

'They look like a hawk and have an Indian headdress,' she said. 'They're very sweet. They like to clown around, lie on their backs and let you pet them.'

Mr. and Mrs. Blue, 15-year-old Hyacinth macaws, started mating for Bock three years ago. Native to the forests of central South America, the Hyacinth macaw is the largest flying parrot species in the world. A classified endangered species, they can live to be 100.

'There are about 2,000 of these left in the world,' Bock said.

Mr. and Mrs. Blue's babies are valued at $9,000 to $12,000. Bock keeps her address out of advertisements to avoid bird theft. Most of her breeding birds were caught in the Australian wild, before that country adopted stricter exportation laws.

Scott Bock has been working with exotic birds for 25 years. He relocated to Florida in 1989 and a year later began building Tampa Bay Aviary.

Bock is up in the middle of the night for feedings. She turns the eggs in the nursery every day. She mixes her own feed to save money - about 400 pounds' worth costs her $225 a month.

'You couldn't do this if you didn't love it,' she said. 'It's a lot of work.'

For information, call the Tampa Bay Avian Center at (813) 920-9334.

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.

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