Wildlife of Riviera Maya: parrots guarding a grocery store in Playa del Carmen

Hi Steemers!

Today, I would like to share another animal story from our current Mexican hometown Playa del Carmen with you. A few blocks from our apartment, there is a little grocery store that we pass by almost every day. There is a metal holder for water barrels in front of the store and we often see a couple of beautiful parrots sitting on it.

One day, I asked the owner of the store how come the birds just don’t fly away and here is what she said.

She found one of them when it was a baby. It was injured. She took it home, cared for it and helped it heal the injury. The little fella got attached to her and followed her everywhere, even to work. She never put the parrot in a cage so he could move freely all the time. He loved sitting on the metal holder in front of the store and that´s where he met the other bird. She came to visit him more and more often until they eventually became an inseparable couple.

^{Click on the image for full view}

Every time we pass by the store, the birds are together – whether it´s on the water barrel holder or inside the store on their human caretaker´s shoulders.

I don’t remember their names but we call them the guard parrots as it really looks like they are guarding the store :)

This is also my entry for today´s #animalphotography contest hosted by Hive account@juliank.