Uncle Sandy's Macaw Bird Park, Pensacola, Florida

We went to visit Uncle Sandy's Macaw Bird Park, a sanctuary for macaws, parrots and parakeets that have been surrendered, their owners died, or were found somewhere. 

Who is Uncle Sandy? Was he a real person? Yes, he was. The founder, Sandy Carl Kirkconnell, the son of a Honduran man and an American woman, grew up on a little island off the coast of Honduras where macaws and other majestic birds flew free. He fell in love with the creatures, and opening a free-flight organization during retirement was his dream.

Uncle Sandy

Here is Uncle Sandy with two Green Wing Macaws

 and a Blue and Gold Macaw (on the ground) 

Sandy Carl Kirkconnell opened the park in 1998 as an LLC, and in 2010 got their 501(c)(3) non-profit status.  After he started his sanctuary, birds started showing up at his door. Unable to say no to an animal in need, he created this sanctuary for them and for people to learn more about them. Although Sandy passed away in 2013, a dedicated volunteer base rallied to keep the park operational and helped establish the park into the non-profit organization to continue his legacy of saving birds and educating the public and it still is largely operated by volunteers. Now, saving unwanted birds while educating the public is at the core of the park’s mission. Adoption services are also administered here—you just might fall in love with your new family member while visiting!

“Carl grew up being surrounded by green-winged macaws, having them as pets when he was a little kid,” park volunteer Reed Raulston said. “His original two birds are still here today. His mother moved back to the United States, and he spent his youth here. When he retired from the Merchant Marine in 1995, he bought this property here and bought a couple of birds for his own pleasure.”

We encourage you to visit us and enjoy the birds not only in memory of Uncle Sandy, but also for the volunteers who work tirelessly to keep his dream alive. The unique cries of the macaws quickly attract attention, and Sandy was thrilled to welcome others in enjoying his feathered friends.

The mission of the sanctuary is two-fold:  We are committed to providing a safe haven for unwanted parrots and other species of birds. While some of the birds will always call Uncle Sandy’s Macaw Bird Park “home”, we periodically try to help some of the birds find a new “forever family”.

Their Second mission is to inform and educate the public of the demands of owning a parrot, the kind of lifestyle a parrot lives, and how to provide them with essential needs to keep them happy and healthy.

The educational portion is accomplished with scheduled public shows and daily tours of our park while staff members are available to answer questions. We also provide a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience with one-on-one handling of an exotic bird or visitors may enter the largest open flight aviary in the Florida panhandle where visitors can interact with many at one time!

Hemmingway (Hemi)

Bobo

Bobo has three red stars on his name plate. When we arrived we were given a small cup with some peanuts, cooked macaroni and sliced apples. They told us about the red stars on the name plates -- the more red stars a bird had, the meaner he was and more prone to bite a finger if you got close enough. You had to be very careful when giving the birds anything to eat as they will bite you.

Andy

Andy is a blue and gold Macaw with two red stars on his name plate. He did take some food from me and he's eating it in this picture.

These two are named PaulaDean and Solomon. I don't know which is which, but they are in the same cage together.

Kokoa

Cali - male Catalina Macaw

Could be James Potter or Sunny (4 red stars)

There were two Macaws in this cage, but one of them was up so high I could not get a good picture of it. This guy was much more sociable, even though he is prone to bite with 4 red stars on his name plate. I did get him to take a piece of apple.

Paco Annie or Larry

Lulu

I recall seeing a bird like this one on Facebook dancing to music so I do believe they are pretty sociable. Jim was playing a song and we were trying to get her to dance. The most I got was her head feathers up.

These are Tommy and Ellie -- Green Winged Macaws.

Carl and Katie

Franchie

Jim feeding Gitchy, the Emu

Coral

This little parrot came from an Ohio household where she and her mate were attacked by a raccoon. The raccoon killed her mate and tore off one of her legs. This happened about 20 years ago and she is kept inside another housing unit out of the weather. She is brought out to let people hold her. She has a hard time cleaning her foot, as these birds love to do all the time. So when she is held she immediately starts working on her foot -- that's what she is doing while I was holding her. I held her more upright so it was easier for her to work on her foot.

They even have a rescued turkey here. There is a large cage out in the parking lot where there are some macaws and one turkey. 

I am glad we finally got to visit Uncle Sandy's Macaw Bird Park. It is very close to Styx River RV Resort in Robertsdale, Alabama, one of our OCP resorts we visit on our way east. I would highly recommend a trip here in support of the many volunteers that work here and take care of all the birds. I took a lot of pictures, but they did not come close to the number of birds they actually have here.