VIRGINIA BEACH — David Greene had no idea why a woman was running up to his car in a Newport News Costco parking lot, waving her arms animatedly trying to get his attention. The 64-year-old hardly had a chance to take his sunglasses off before the woman tapped on the passenger window and said something very odd.
“There’s a bird on your car,” she told him.
Sure enough, Green exited his red Subaru to discover a green-cheeked conure holding on to gasket above his windshield. Greene wasn’t sure where he picked up the avian passenger, but thought it could be as far as Virginia Beach or Norfolk, where he had been earlier that day.
“I reached out my hand, and he got on,” said Greene, a retired Navy officer and York County firefighter. “I brought him closer to me and he didn’t try to bite me, so I figured that was a good sign.”
Now, about six years later, Greene and his wife, Carolyn Tripp, still have the petite parrot, named Velcro. The bird has free range of their Williamsburg home, enjoys pushing items off the kitchen counter and loves his “mom,” Greene said.
At first, Tripp, a certified public accountant, was “adamant” about not having the bird in the house, Greene said. While they looked for Velcro’s owner, they agreed to keep him in their climate-controlled garage.
But the couple never found the bird’s owner, and his time in the garage didn’t last long.
They decided the garage was not a safe place for Velcro after he got stuck up in the suspension of Tripp’s car. After several failed attempts at coaxing him out, they jacked the car up and took the wheel off.
“He came out covered in grease, like an oil spill victim,” Tripp said. “We took him inside and used Dawn dish detergent to clean him off… He survived it.”
Although Greene found Velcro – or Velcro found him – the bird has bonded the most with Tripp.
One night, Greene came home from work to find his wife sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner and watching TV. Velcro was perched on her shoulder, and she was feeding him with a spoon.
“He’s really bonded with her, and he is pretty protective,” Greene said. “I sometimes have to armor up when I go into the kitchen.”
Velcro prefers to stay in the kitchen, entertaining himself throughout the day playing with bottle caps, pill bottles and other kitchen items.
He makes nests in oatmeal boxes and paper grocery bags, shreds paper and enjoys playing with car keys. Tripp and Greene even made him his own set of keys to play with, Tripp said.
While Tripp describes Velcro as “very curious” and “smart,” the bird is also determined, which is evidenced by the “banana story.”
Greene left a banana out in the kitchen for Tripp one day, but it disappeared by the time Tripp returned home from work. Tripp initially assumed Greene had taken the banana with him, but further investigation revealed Velcro had been involved.
The banana was inside one of Velcro’s nests, and he had begun to eat it.
“The banana had to be almost as long as him, and at least twice his weight,” Tripp said. “I have no idea how he was able to get that banana into his bag.”
Velcro doesn’t speak much — green-cheeked conures are not as verbal as other parrots — but squawked several times when a reporter requested comment over the phone.
The Feathered Nest owner Joy Loveland occasionally boards Velcro at her Williamsburg store when Tripp and Greene go out of town.
“They spoil him rotten,” she said. “He’s very mischievous and intelligent – well-cared for.”
“I’ve never met another bird with a story quite like Velcro’s,” she added. “They say birds pick their people, but I didn’t know they pick their cars, too.”
This story originally appeared on our sister publication, WYDaily.com. Fearing may be reached by phone at 207-975-5459.
