Hani Hallal is on a mission to make the world a better place for birds.
Hallal, 20, of Windsor, Canada, is the founder of Bird Tameness Inc., which educates bird owners on training and care and raises public awareness about the mistreatment of pet birds.
Hallal's infectiously enthusiastic YouTube tutorials on bird training and bird behavior have become so popular that he has over 76,000 subscribers. He connects with bird owners around the world, answering questions and offering guidance via Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Hallal offers guidance for owners of birds of all species, from cockatiels to African greys and everything in between.
Interestingly, Hallal has not always been a bird enthusiast. As a child, he longed for a dog or cat. His parents, however, did not share his desire. As a result, Hallal became interested in birds and discovered an unknown passion.
Hallal was taken with the complexity of these creatures and their interior lives.
He says:
"Birds are not like dogs...They do have issues with biting, feather picking, where they pull out all of their feathers if they're stressed."
However, he found that with patience - the ultimate ingredient in the owner-bird relationship - birds were capable of many incredible feats.
Monkey, a Senegal parrot, waits for a belly rub.
Hallal says:
"People don't have the patience...They want to put their bird on their shoulder and pretend they're pirates, but you can't really do that. Birds take time, they need patience."
The more Hallal learned about and interacted with birds, the more passionate he became. He was deeply disturbed by the widespread abuses of pet birds - in many cases due to ignorance - and founded Bird Tameness Inc. in response to the public's need for education and awareness about keeping birds as pets.
Currently, Hallal shares his home with eight feathered friends. They include: Louie, the singing cockatoo; Monkey, a belly rub-loving trickster; and Chili, an Amazon parrot Hallal rescued from a restaurant after a concerned restaurant patron contacted him about the bird's poor condition.
Chili was rescued from a restaurant after a concerned patron reached out to Hallal about the bird's poor condition.
Rescuing Chili wasn't easy. Hallal reached out to his community of followers for help raising the funds required to purchase the bird from its owner. Within three days, his audience helped raise $1,000 - the price of Chili's freedom.
"My heart is filled with so much happiness right now that words could never describe," Hallal wrote on the Parrot Whisperer Facebook page.
Chili's story is at the heart of Hallal's quest to make the world a healthier and happier place for birds. You can follow the "Parrot Whisperer" on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.
What do you think of this young, bird-loving man? Let us know in the comments section!
All photos by Dan Taekema/CBC
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