In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. The main story told about Icarus in his attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Thus named, this little abandoned infant African Gray. He almost didn't make it.

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Hatched July 29th. A yogurt cup cut in half and lined with paper towel holds him nicely. Three rubber gloves filled with warm water (you just zap them to rewarm the water) are then wrapped around the half cup and covered with a washcloth to keep him warm while he sleeps.

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Parrot babies eyes are always lidded at first. After a week or so, they will begin to open. But there is no mistaking that he can still see you. Especially when it comes to food.

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Icarus wiggling about and peeping as he hears me get his breakfast ready. See his little eye beneath the lid? He can see movement and identify who you are well enough even though his lid is closed.

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A newly hatched baby bird has a small pointed hardened process on the front portion of the upper beak, called the egg tooth. The egg tooth is used by the hatchling to pip into the air cell of the egg, and then to break and unzip the shell. It is then shed sometime after hatching.

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There are different parts of a parrot's foot. One part is the toes and claws. On each foot, there are 4 toes and 4 claws. Two toes are pointing forward, and two are pointing back. This is called zygodactyl (ZI-go-dak-tul). Zygodactyl feet is a way that all parrots are the same. This special type of feet helps parrots grip branches very well.

Above the foot is the ankle. Birds' ankles are very unusual. When a bird walks, their ankle is turned backwards!

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He is so cute! Especially his little feet. There are two common species of African grey parrots. Icarus is a Congo African Grey.

The African Grey Parrot, also known as the Grey Parrot, is a medium-sized parrot found in the primary and secondary rainforest of West and Central Africa. Experts regard it as one of the most intelligent birds. They feed primarily on palm nuts, seeds, fruits, leafy matter, but have been observed eating snails. Their overall gentle nature and their inclination and ability to mimic speech have made them popular pets.

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Cochise is completely smitten with Icarus! Every time I feed the baby, there is the little dog feeling rather large for a change, watching the birds every move.

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Accidentally spilling a little baby food on Icarus' head, I wet a cotton ball, and slightly dabbed the food off his head...but some of the down came right off with the food!

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The Gullet is the tube in a birds throat which allows a birds food to pass down into it's "Crop" where it is ground down before passing into the birds stomach and alimentary tract, and then passes out the waste at the other end.

You can tell when the crop is full by looking below the birds beak between it's breast bones, it will protrude from it's chest. You can see Icarus's full crop just under his neck in this photo. When I first started feeding him, he ate .03 CC's every hour on the hour. Today, at a week old, he eats 2.5 CC's every hour, except at night when he sleeps a straight four hours. Talk about worn out! Thank goodness this will only last a few short months. Honestly, I don't know how I handled all those sleepless years when my kids were but babies.

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I am not getting much sleep, but having a great time. Kind of an oxymoron.

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Where ever I go, this little bird struggles to keep me in his line of vision, cooing all the while. Really tugs at my heart strings!!

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Notice how far down the beak the egg tooth now sits? That's how much he has grown! The little bit of beak exposed past the egg tooth is the same amount that extended past the egg tooth in the first pictures I posted.

Look down alongside the bottom of Ickies neck and you will see the dark formations of pinfeathers.

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Birds have two-part wings. The proximal "arm wing" is rounded on front, humped on top, and sharp on the back -- just like most airplane wings. Further away, the "hand wing" is flatter on top and extremely sharp on the front. The hand wing is so named for it's thumb like protrusion and it's position at the end of the wing.

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You can tell how small this little baby is by the size of the interwoven jean material and stitching on the exposed pocket.

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Parrot babies are fully dependent for 4 to 6 months. Here, Icarus is just beginning to walk (cooing for me as he does so), barely able to hold his head up. Look: You can see the beginning of eye slits on his lids.

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Icarus's eye lids are just developing eye slits while thickening so he can no longer see through them. Every now and then, it appears he is struggling to open them, but it's not time yet.

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You see Icarus here, in a home made neck brace of sorts to help his weak neck as suggested by his avian vet.

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...and what a mess on his face too after he finished his meal. Baby parrots are no less messy than human babies.

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At four weeks old, Icarus's feathers are more developed, but not poking out of his skin just yet...he scratches at them constantly, so it must be an itchy experience. Have you noticed how big his feet are getting?

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Ear vents are more defined now, and Ick can stand for brief periods of time. See that egg tooth? His feathers are just beginning to pop through with little tuffs on the ends.

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First word developing out of Icks constant cooing is "mamama" just like a human baby!

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At least it isn't needed every hour now and I can sleep for up to three hours at a time during the night before demands for food reach my ears.

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Parrots have dry tongues that feel kind of like a baby's finger (really small and stubby). Birds have dry tongues because they don't have any glands to salivate with. If they need to moisten their food, they dip it in water.

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Ick still needs his neck brace, so when he goes to bed, this is how he does it, in a pitcher lined with TP (like any baby, you gotta keep his little bum clean) lol.

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Icarus developed whats called "slow crop", a common parrot chick ailment. The treatment is a little applesauce in the formula and massaging of the gullet contents so they break down and pass through to the stomach, which is what you see me doing here.

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On the side of Ickies neck, is a pink featherless spot of skin. All parrots have two such spots (hard to see when fully feathered) at the back of their gullet, one on each side of the birds neck.

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Banjo loves his little brother! Poor Ick would be nothing but a slobbery mess if I left the two together long because Banjo wants nothing more but to lick the poor little bird clean.

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Nothing but complete joy on Icks face as his wings flap!

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Ick is almost completely gray now, covered in the down of growing feather tufts. His skin has mostly turned a dark gray as well, giving him almost a purplish hue. If you look closely, on his elbows, you can see the beginnings of new feathers, with the tufts just beginning to poke out of the skin.

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Icks homemade incubator with the pitcher he was sitting in when in the neck brace a few photo's ago. He is getting to large to wear the brace, and I am adjusting to the fact his little neck might always have a crook in it.

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It is impossible to get it all as Ick struggles and complains like any child would when getting their face cleaned.

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Far different bird than what he was a month ago!

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Ick is definitely a happy bird!

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I am being preened!

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Banjo doesn't care to play. Despite his 12/13 years of age, he tenderly cares for every animal that needs tending; two day old kittens, baby birds, a squirrel that had been injured, the next door neighbors 130 lb elderly pitbull....

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In the middle of playing together, Cochise suddenly realized he was losing!

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Who ever said birds don't have expressions was never owned by a bird!

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Baby birds have feathers that are soft and warm. They do not get feathers that allow them to fly, swim, and run like their parents until they are older. You see the Ick's adult feathers just developing here.

Feathers are made of keratin. That’s the same stuff that makes up human hair and fingernails, reptile scales, and shells. Keratin also forms birds’ beaks and the scales and claws on their feet.

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OK, I admit it, Ick does sorta of look like a naked turkey, but he is MY naked turkey!

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Feathers are not attached to birds in a random manner over the entire body of the bird. Instead they are usually found in often linear tracts celled pterylae. The spaces on the bird's body without feather tracts are referred to as apteria. The densest area for feathers is often on the bird's head and neck. You can see pterylae easily on Icks head, where the barbs are sticking out.

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Ick weighed less than 1/2 an ounce when first hatched. Today, a whopping 12 ounces!

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Ick's claws are fully hard now, so I have to be a little careful when handling to make sure I don't end up with holes on my arms. Parrot chicks don't know how to grasp right away, and discover their feet much like human children discover their hands. Ick is almost there.

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I am always amazed how similar parrot chicks are to human babies!

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Ick loves to practice his wings. The expression on his face says it all!

The tiny tops of tail feathers are beginning to show too.

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It takes two hands to hold her now.

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Ick won't be eating entirely on his own for a few months yet, but this is a nice start!

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Ick loves his stuffed animals, and commonly sleeps on them when he isn't busy tasting their fur.

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I have to watch it when these two play, as Cochise tends to get extra rough. But note Icks beak....he is no sissy lala!

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Ick goes everywhere I go these days!

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I am beginning to think Ick is an female lol...here I fed him every hour on the hour, 24/7 for that first month, as he graduated to every two hour feedings during the second month, on down to three and then four hour feedings as he turned three months. No matter. The bird is in love with my boyfriend Scott, not from me! Such is life lol.

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It has been a month since our trip up north, when Ick still wore his gray downy feathers. Today at three months of age, Ick is fully feathered, has an almost purple hue and weighs just over a full pound. You would only know he is still a chick by his immature chirp/cry and need to be fed.

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Learning to land will eventually come. Meanwhile, my poor hands, arms, neck, back, and face all wear the battle scars of birdly motherhood. I tried clipping and filing down his claws, but amid squawks and loud screeches, he let sure me know he wasn't having anything to do with it!

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Hopeful because I can hardly keep Ick on it anymore!

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Scott's arms are as chewed up as my own!

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Ick loves to share my dinner with me...sometimes I even get to eat!

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In order to file down Ick's toenails, and clip his wings (for the sake of my arms), he has to learn to lay on his back. Ick is already used to being handled all over his body, but that doesn't make laying on his back come easy. It's a very unnatural and unsafe position for birds. At first, he would flip himself back as soon as I let go, before finally learning that a little patience, and I would turn him back over.

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It only took a few tries, and there he was, waiting to see what I wanted.

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A bird that can fly is far more confidant than a bird that can't. Ick had only been flying for two days, but it was getting out of hand. The silly bird was flying into the windows when I wanted to put him away and chasing me around the house once he discovered he could force me to hold him 24/7 simply by landing on me, flying right back when placed on his perch lol. It's partly why my arms and wrists became so shredded. Not good

For those feeling pity for stripping our feathered companions of their unique and beautiful flying abilities, fear not. All of my birds can fly and do so without flying off into the wild blue yonder. It's more a matter of training. The idea is not to take away Ick's flight abilities entirely, but to gain a little control over his new found freedom before he hurts himself (or me) in the process. I don't trim the outside primary flight feathers on purpose, because that would remove his ability to fly entirely. Rather, trimming the uplift secondary flight feathers on the inside of his wing enable him to still fly, but he can only go for short distances, semi low to the ground. No uplift! This will give him a chance to learn safe landing skills, what is allowed and what isn't and save my poor beat up arms in the process.

Clipping the wings in this manner can be as painless as cutting hair. Usually, the bird has more objection to the restraint involved than the actual wing trimming. The good news is, Ick didn't have to be restrained. He quickly learned to lay on his back and patiently wait to be released, as seen in the prior photos, just before his wings were trimmed.

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Truly happy birds, you can see it in their faces!

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Raising a bird is a lot of work but a rewarding and fun experience too. Who would have guessed a bird could be so personable!

Ick is four months old now, and almost fully mature. We sent in the DNA test kit this week to determine if Ick is male or female....if female, Icks name will change to Chantilly. What's your guess, male, or female?

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Ick loves to hide under my hair. The picture looks so silly after cropping out my face, giving Ick a bit of a "Conan O'brian" colic lol.

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The hat thing has captivated Ick. He loves to pose!

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to the creative talents and thoughtful generosity of Scrapbooking Maven, Ick get's to play a bride this week.

Molly!! It's beautiful!

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Hard to believe Ick was once so little! Here he is, about two/three weeks old.

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