Nice story. We have tons of birds at our house, given the wife has 4 bird feeders hanging. Back in 1978 I was living with a GF in Orange CA in a townhome with a tiny fenced in backyard. One Saturday the GF comes in from the backyard and says there’s a small blue bird on the grass. Hmmm, I go out and sure enough it’s a blue parakeet. I walk over, bend down , and put my finger in front of it. He hops on my finger and I bring him inside. Someone obviously lost their pet. Long before computers, we put a hand written sign at the end of the street. So later that day the GF goes to the store to get birdseed, as we gotta feed this guy. Long story short, no one claimed him. We taught him over 50 different things to say. We named him George.
Had friends over about a week after we found him. We were sitting around the table playing cards and drinking. I had a glass of red wine, and here, George flys over to the table, hops up on the wine glass and starts sipping. Turns out he loved red wine! So I tried Chardonnay the following week and he liked that too! What a wino. Any time he saw me with a glass he’d fly over and want some, it was pretty funny.
About a year later, had friends over, playing cards around the table. George flys over to see what we’re drinking. He hops up on my friends drink, bobs down and takes a good sip. He raises his head up, spreads his wings, all his feathers extend, his falls backwards off the glass, stumbles backwards off the table, flutters his wings for a soft landing on the floor. Funny as hell watching him, as my friend was sippping on straight tequila ! George never drank a clear liquid from a glass again, only red wine.
