In November 2000, I got Icarus from the animal shelter of my town. This budgie hen who was born in the beginning of 1997 and her partner have been brought to the animal shelter many weeks before, because their previous owner had no more room for the birds in his flat, he told the staff. Icarus regrettably was completely unable to fly due to a deformation of her spine. But Icarus always was very courageous and got along well in my bird room despite of her handicap. She spent most of her time with the two males Jupiter and Kiki who are disabled like she was.

At first, Icarus always perched close to her former companion Puck at their favourite resting place in a corner of the bird room that I furnished in a special way for my flightless birds (see photo below). Puck, who was able to fly, quickly joined the healthy members of the flock and left his old friend Icarus behind. Fortunately, Kiki and Jupiter were there and they loved to spend their time with the handsome lady Icarus. In addition, my other budgies often came to visit the handicapped birds down near the floor of the bird room where they were all happily singing budgie-operas together. Well, at least it sounded like operas in my ears...

On 08/30/01, Icarus unfortunately left the flock without warning. She suddenly died without having any pain and without showing any previous illness.

Meaning of the name
Since Icarus was incapable of flight, I decided to name her after a minor planet which is designated after a legendary person of an ancient tale. The original Icarus came too close to the sun while riding above the sky and therefore fell to the ground. The minor planet Icarus was discovered in 1949 and he orbits the sun together with an innumerable amount of other planetoids just between the planets Mars and Jupiter. My little budgie was called Charly in the home of her former keeper.