When she was still very young and just fledged, the friendly little budgie wanted to leave the darkness of the nesting box and conquer the world like all young birds do. But instead of leading a good life she ended up in a broom closet with no window, or to be more specific: in a dark cellar room. For years she had to live in this darkness and she became ill, but her former owner didn't care about her and her fellow budgie's needs. In this twilight her sight became worse and worse, but the man still didn't care. But the poor bird was lucky and could escape this terrible life. One day an animal welfare activist visited the heartless bird owner and she was able to free two of the budgies: Folara - that's the name I gave her a bit later - and Liriel.

In the forum of the Club of the German Budgie Friends this lady told the sad story of the two birds and I felt very sorry. I wanted to help and promised to give Folara and the male a new home. Both of them should be able to live a good life in the future. But there was another problem: Folara was unable to fly due to an unknown reason, even the avian vet couldn't tell why. This fact influenced my decision because my bird room is "furnished" for disabled birds like her. On 01/22/2005 Folara and Liriel arrived at my place and became members of the Birds-Online-flock.

Shortly after she moved in I noticed that something was wrong with the budgie lady. Folara walked a few centimetres then stopped and moved her head in a strange way before she continued to walk. Her strange behaviour puzzled me and therefore I tried to find out the reason for it. When she was examined it turned out that she seems to be very short-sighted. After I found out the truth about her sight defect I didn't worry about her any more because she got along very well. After a few weeks she felt so familiar with the bird room that she ran around without stopping, she knew her ways by heart.

Regrettably she also suffered from a damage of her stomach. The avian vet could not tell me what caused this damage which lead to sickness from time to time. When she felt bad she was all fluffed up and she perched somewhere far away from the other birds. The good thing was that this sickness vanished within a few hours in general. Despite of her troubles with her stomach she loved to eat red millet sprays. I was glad she did so because she was much too slim due to her damaged stomach. Regrettably one of these seizures sealed her fate. In the beginning of May 2006 she became seriously ill and despite all my efforts I could not save her life. She was nearly starved and suffering when I decided to put her down. Even though it was obvious that she would never recover and die anyway it was a very hard decision to take...

Since she was so calm and charming, Folara got along well with all the other birds and never fought with her fellows. I don't know why she was not interested in any closer relationship with one of the male budgies of the flock. As it seemed to me she was happy with her life she could lead in the bird room which is light and friendly. In summer 2005 another handicapped budgie became a member of the flock: Tara. In the beginning she was nearly naked and therefore unable to fly. Most of the day she perched right beside Folara and the two females have become very close friends. I loved to watch them caress each other. Even though she wasn't tame I really appreciated Folara and I terribly miss her.

Folara was an English budgie and her colour mutation is called Continental Pied in Green and she also was a Cinnamon.

Meaning of the name
A few months before I agreed to give this budgie a new home I read the Earth's Children novels written by the American author Jean M. Auel. One character in these novels is called Folara. Because I like the sound of it I chose this name for the budgie.