A Tribute to the Birds of Captivity - Alex (1976 - 2007)

This Friday’s Drawing for a Reader is a bit different. It’s for Alex, the notorious bird brain African Gray parrot. Alex never requested this drawing, and I’m sure if he did surf the web and find it, he’d probably disagree. I like to think he was a bit of a skeptic when it came to studies and research.

That said, when a normal African Gray Parrot can reach up to 70 years of age, with an average lifespan of 50 (almost the same as humans when unaided with medicine) then I’m led to think research and the stress of captivity might in some way contributed to his untimely death.

Yes, this is coming from a monkey who lives most of his life in an astronaut suit. Take it with whatever amount of bird seed you require.