[AMB] A Little Star

“Good morning, everyone!” Lukas’ smile could brighten a room, and the crowd that had gathered greeted back in scattered bursts of noise. On his hand, carefully perched and looking like a proper little lady was Uhane, the Hawaiian crow, and the star of the show. She puffed up, as if sensing the energy in the room and the focus on her. Lukas, still smiling, put her on the stand that had been set up ahead of time for this purpose. He produced a peanut segment from his pockets and gave it to her with a ‘good girl’. He then turned his attention back to the crowd, walking away from the stand with his hands in his pockets.

“I’m Lukas and my co-star here is Uhane, one of our resident Hawaiian crows here at Twinbrook Zoo. Uhane, can you say hello?” She bobbed on the stand, as if gearing up for something, then when he asked her to say hello, she paused, head tilted for a second.

“Hello.”  The crowd murmured in awe. He stopped at the far side of the cleared area and held up his arm and, after discreetly fetching a peanut piece from his pocket, he pushed on a clicker.

“Uhane, here!” CLICK!

On cue, Uhane launched from the stand and flew over to him. He gave her quiet praise and the peanut, and her feathers fluffed around her beak excitedly as she popped it down. Without prompting, she then tried to flip upside down, trying to get closer to the pocket with the snacks and Lukas grinned again, chuckling alongside the laughter from the crowd. “No, silly girl. Up.”

As if he knew she was going to pull this stunt, he swayed his arm and she instead climbed further along his arm, stretching as far as she could. “As you can see, they are very intelligent birds, like most other corvids in their family. Uhane here really likes peanuts and knows exactly where I hide them.”

Gently, he corrected her and put her back on his hand and she fluffed up indignantly, before shaking herself flat again. Lukas turned his attention to the crowd, waiting briefly for the humor to die down. “They’re currently extinct in the wild, having disappeared from the wild as recently as 2002. We at Twinbrook Zoo are working hard to correct that with the help of Uhane and her mate, Ikaiki, hand and hand with other zoos.”

“Uhane, get big!” CLICK! The crow spread her wings wide, making a communicative noise as she did, before fluttering some and tilting her head sideways at him. On cue, Lukas gave her a peanut and praise. “Good girl. Those of you who are big fans of our ‘Alala - their actual name in Hawaii - will know these two as the primary stars of our livestreams, usually with Ikaiki being the center stage.”

He, almost seeming absently, Lukas tossed a couple pieces of peanuts on the ground. Uhane watched them intently, but she waited. “Go fetch.”

She swooped down, chattering happily as she then looked for the pieces. “They have a wide range of vocalizations, with wild ones having around 24 unique calls at minimum. Uhane, what do we say to that?”

The bird flapped her wings, not looking at Lukas while she flipped rocks over, like that would reveal her prizes - even though one was not even two inches from her beak. “Hum-bug.”

“Good girl. Humbug is right! Now, having watched these two alone and with various chicks lent to us or bred through them, we’ve learned that, like humans, their vocabularies differ in amounts and in complexity, but they do have various calls that are consistent.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Uhane bobbing again, this time at him - her usual sign she was readying to fly up and land on him. He tilted his head slightly and without much preamble, she flapped up onto her favorite perch: his neck. He gave her another peanut, this time a whole one, and she cooed happily, taking it in her claws and munching at it. Lukas smiled and looked at the crowd. “Sadly, due to strongly imprinting on humans, Uhane and Ikaiki are unable to be released into the wild on their own, but they make magnificent foster parents - even if Uhane here likes attracting wildlife.”

With impeccable timing, Uhane tossed half her uneaten snack onto the floor, then turned her head to watch, but nothing happened. The crowd laughed again, but Lukas could tell she was getting overwhelmed - it was just tiny things he couldn’t quite put a finger on, such as her breathing changing and her looking around more. He plastered that smile of his on again and looked back to the crowd. “If you wish to see the two of them - and any foster children they may have - they will be at the Tigerplace Conservation room once I’m done here. Thank you everyone for coming. What do we say, Uhane?”

“Buh-ye!”He gave her one another peanut.