‘You’ve got to let them know they can trust you’

Step into Evlyn Lyons’ house in Plymouth, and you’ll likely find the 10-year-old girl working with a bird, perhaps holding it or letting it rest on her shoulder.

“You’ve got to let them know they can trust you,” said Evlyn, who is known among family and friends as well as on Facebook as a “bird whisperer” with a knack for taming exotic birds.

Being tame means “they won’t fly away, or bite you,” said Evlyn, who recently traveled to the Catskills in New York to pick up about 30 birds that an elderly breeder could no longer care for.

While she quietly worked with one of the new birds the rest of the flock she’s fostering — there are about 70 birds, ranging from parakeets to cockatiels to a large Amazon parrot — crowed and cawed and clucked.

“Sun-up, they’re like this,” Evlyn’s mom, Linda Uren said. “As soon as the sun goes down we close the curtain and they’re quiet.”

Midway through a weekday afternoon, the birds did seem to be a noisy group. Still, Uren was able to introduce them to a visitor, and explain some of their characteristics.

“Peggy is a golden sun conure,” Uren said, pointing to a bird with striking orange/gold feathers. “She only has one foot. The other one was infected and her mother bit it off.”

While Peggy doesn’t seem to realize she has a handicap, Uren said, a male companion bird named Mango “feeds her, and when she can’t reach her feathers to preen, he’ll do it for her.”

“I love Peggy,” Uren said. “But Mango is up for adoption and if he was adopted I’d want them to go together.”

Moving on to other birds in other cages, Uren said “I have to apologize for Floyd in advance” as she pointed out a cockatoo. “He came from a family with teenagers that taught him a lot of cursing. He sings and dances and he curses. He (also) calls everyone ‘Sugar’ and asks if you love him.”

Floyd managed to refrain from cursing during the introductions, and Uren continued talking about other birds.

“Mya is a female eclectus parrot and Merlin is a cockatiel,” Uren said, introducing a pair she described as “older and quiet.”

Despite being quiet, “Merlin is our escape artist,” Uren said. “He can get out of his cage and he figured out how to let everybody else out, too.”

At more than 40 years old, Merlin is considered an “elder” while “Mya is middle-aged.”

Next came Andy, an Amazon parrot with a yellow nape. “He thinks he’s a rooster,” Uren said.

And his crows “sound like the squeal of tires before a car hits something,” Evlyn’s dad, Brian Lyons said.

Taco is a bilingual talking bird who can repeat phrases in both English and Spanish. “He’ll ask, Que pasa?” Uren said.

And Mocha, a ring neck dove, was relinquished by a couple who bought him from a breeder, intending to release him at their wedding.

“But the breeder had clipped his wings so when they released him, he dropped,” Uren said. “They didn’t know what to do with him.”

So Mocha found shelter with Evlyn, who fosters birds on behalf of the My House of Wings animal rescue that Patricia Pipan runs in Nanticoke.

“She just has a knack,” Pipan said in a telephone interview, explaining she is extremely grateful for the help that Evlyn provides.

Pipan also hopes that when Evlyn is older she’ll run a local bird rescue.

“I thought ‘Oh my God, I could pass the torch to her,” Pipan said. “She’s so into birds. She’s just great. She’s been phenomenal — her and her mother and her whole family. Everybody’s in on it.”

“Did you hear how she went to the Catskills to get more birds?” Pipan said. “By the time she got home she had 10 of them already sitting on her shoulders wanting to get snuggled.”

“She has the passion, and if you don’t have the passion you won’t want to do it,” Pipan said, explaining that caring for birds takes a lot of work. “There’s very little money coming in, other than donations,” she added.

Already at her young age Evlyn, who studies at home through the Reach Cyber Charter School, has had to deal with angry people — people who were upset that she didn’t approve their adoption of a bird.

There is an application to be filled out, and Evlyn and her mother check to make sure the information is accurate. For example, a potential adopter might say his or her landlord is OK with the adoption, but in reality the landlord doesn’t allow pets.

“You have to learn about a bird to find out if it’s right for you,” Pipan said, explaining it would not be a good idea to surprise someone with the gift of a bird or to try to buy one simply to match the decor in your kitchen.

“Birds are a lifetime commitment,” Pipan said.

Evlyn’s mom discovered her daughter had an affinity for feathered friends when “we went to a pet shop, randomly, and there were two little girls banging on a parakeet cage.”

Feeling sorry for the parakeets, “Evlyn cried her eyes out. So we came home with the parakeets, and she wanted to get more. Then we hooked up with (Pipan) and began fostering.”

While Evlyn has been tending to birds for four years, Pipan has devoted more than 30 years to the cause.

“When my last child went to college I said, ‘God, which way do you want me to go?’ Within the hour a lady at Weis parking lot comes over to me with a little cage and a cockatiel and said, ‘Could you give me $5 for this?’ I said ‘Sure, OK’,” Pipan recalled, explaining she felt called to start caring for birds.

She also chalks up the help she receives from Evlyn to a gift from above.

“I thank God every day,” Pipan said, “that he sent me her.”

People who are interested in learning about bird adoption may contact Patricia Pipan’s My House of Wings at 570-735-4316. Evlyn may be contacted through her Facebook page, EvlynTheBirdWhisperer.