The African Greys , throughout their healing, remain wary of the humans bustling around. There are just a few rare ones at ease with the caretakers sweeping their flight-cage clean, bringing them food, changing their water.
Two rare semi-tames sidle close while the rest are on high-alert in the back of the flight-cage.
Those rare ones are called “nganga” or “sorcerer”. They may have been taken as nestlings and never learned life-saving defiance from their parents. Once released from the flight-cage an “nganga” often hangs out, often sleeps on top of the flight-cages.
An “nganga” two days after release, perched in the dining shelter.
Our goal is to get even these ngangas used to wild foods and to have them associate with their fellow parrots. We want them, too, to fly free.
Roasted plantain is a very nice breakfast, but hardly a wild food.
Nevertheless: like this last release, Sunday, March 15th, there is often one who comes back. Who sits in the dining shelter waiting for breakfast. The caretakers let him pilfer his own roasted plantain.
And why not eat with friends?
But like all the others in rehabilitation (now we have over 200 at the Parrot Conservation Center -PCC- in Dingi), he was given a varied diet, including wild foods. The basic “domestic” diet includes peanuts, pineapple, papaya, plantains, maize and palm nuts; these we can buy from local farmers. But, with the exception of palm nuts, these foods are not available to wild birds.
Ibraham (called Ibra) has taken a lead for finding wild foods. He is the head caretaker at Dingi.
Ibra is the adult in the photo; here with kids who brought Myrianthus.
Children eat Myrianthus, too, so they know where to find it. They are enthusiastic helpers. Myrianthus is known to some as the giant yellow mulberry and locally as Ongomu.
Children also gleefully helped collect Macaranga.
Macaranga, although not eaten by people, also grows in young regenerating forest and is easy for kids to collect.
Many adults in surrounding villages have also helped. Ibra takes the motorbike to villages several km away to buy peanuts, plantains and pineapples. The farmers, too, become enthusiastic about the parrots that offer them a new market. In the village of Risasi, Kinois who sold Ibra pineapples, told him about a parrot nest overlooking one of his gardens.
Ibra, on right, with Kinois in his pineapple patch.
In the village of Ipasu, Papa Mandela who supplies peanuts, told him of a parrot nest he saw on the way to his garden. He also made observations of the parrots eating.
Ongokea is not eaten by people, but Papa Mandela (left) saw the parrots eating it.
He collected a good amount of the fruit and, later, Ibra could collect it elsewhere as well.
Likewise, the chief of Ipasu, Chef Kimura, brought in Trichilia. Another fruit not eaten by people but whose bright red aril is much appreciated by parrots.
The bright red aril of Trichilia is much appreciated in the flight-cages.
The team that collected Trichilia. Chief Kimura on the far left in blue boots.
Villagers pointed out three parrot nests in November and December, each nest isolated from others. This is in contrast to the huge parrot nesting-colony southwest of Kindu where 165 active nest-holes existed close together in December 2025. Ibra found each of the 3 nest-holes as an opportunity for observations.
One of the parrot nest-holes on a garden edge.
Fishermen also told Ibra of seeing parrots eating along the Kasuku (Parrot) River. And of how the parrots spend the night in communal roosts in tangles of climbing Raphia palm along the banks of the river. The roosts have become larger after the releases started at PCC- Dingi – the rehabilitation center. Fishermen also confirmed that parrots eat papyrus.
Fishermen help Ibra harvest Papyrus, an important food as it is available year-round and occurring along small and large rivers throughout central Congo.
A parrot enthusiastically eats papyrus in a flight cage at PCC Dingi.
The year-round wild parrot foods, like papyrus, permit the caretakers to keep something of the forest in their diet all year round.
Another year-round food is the seeds of Cassia., a wide spread, colonizing secondary species. The pods of Cassia are collected at our PCC Tshopo as well as the PCC Dingi.
A released parrot eats Cassia. We knew it was released because of the bird-band on its leg.
Cassia (in white bag) can be served year around, here in December with Cannarium (black in front) and Ongokea (round fruits next to it) that are seasonal fruits.
Chimene, from the PCC in Tshopo, is collecting Cassia. A climber is helping her.
Cannarium swcheinfurthii although seasonal, is a particularly appreciated forest fruit from high in the canopy. It is seasonal, only lasting a few months, and appreciated by people as well as parrots (they are delicious the way olives are delicious, but people must soften them first in hot water).
Ibra, in light blue shirt, with collectors under a Cannarium, locally called Mbeli.
Fruits and a seedling under an Mbeli tree. Ibra has tried planting some Mbeli at the PCC in Dingi.
Mbeli, black fruit in bucket, with Cassia, in white sack, with various domestic fruits ready to be distributed between the flight-cages. The other foods include sugar cane, peanuts, papaya, pineapple, plantains (raw), oranges, maize and palm nuts.
We worry less about the nganga now. True, after a release nganga come back for a while,
sometimes they eat the food we leave the first few days for released parrots on top of flight-cages,
or sample the food caretakers prepare to feed those compatriots that are still in the cages.
Sometimes they just visit their friends that still cannot fly.
But always the visits become less frequent and eventually uncommon.
Until there is another group of parrots ready to be released.
Parrots flying free on March 15th 2026.
