Local Focus: Meet Chucky the cockatoo, refugee from Cornwall Park Aviary

Guests get full attention from Chucky, the newest member of the Thomson family in Napier.

After decades at the Cornwall Park Aviary in Hastings, Chucky the sulphur-crested cockatoo has been rehomed to Tania Thomson's lounge.

She said the aviary's other sulphur-crested cockatoo was picking on Chucky causing stress to the poor cockatoo. It was so bad that Chucky started plucking feathers out of his own chest.

"Nobody likes to see an animal in stress. The public started to complain," Thomson said.

"We just adore him."

Hastings District Council's Cornwall Park has had an aviary for a hundred years. The council's open spaces manager, Colin Hosford, said the aviary was a legacy of how parks and reserves were run. It even included caged monkeys in the 1930s.

The council is spending $75,000 on extending the aviary's cages for its two large parrots, a corella called Corella and Chucky's cockatoo nemesis, ironically named Mate.

"When we did the reserve management plans [the aviary] was one of the key elements that people commented on," Hosford said.

"There were people who were concerned about holding birds in captivity, and large members of the community also have a deep affiliation with the aviary since they've been children."

The decision was made to keep the large parrots, but Thomson says caging them is cruel.

She has started an online petition to rehome the birds to a better environment.

"I started the petition because times have changed and we don't put animals in cages," Thomson said.

"They are not artwork, they're not there for our entertainment. It's not right."

The council assures the public there is no evidence the birds are suffering.

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