When you take inventory of the animal kingdom, you can find some pretty interesting furry friends who exist outside of the norm. Many animals are very different from their typical counterparts, whether it be through genetic predispositions or strange birth defects. Well one furry friend was born not so furry, and it’s all because of a strange disease that it was born with. Blondie, a lovebird from Venezuela, was born with a rare condition called PBFD — he also has a psittacine beak. Because of this condition, he was born with virtually no feathers, and cannot not fly like most birds. While this could have stopped many birds from living a full life, Blondie is making the best of his situation with the help of his human companion Bella Escobar.
Bella got Blondie as a gift from her father, who used to be a bird raiser, when the bird was just 3 weeks old. When he was very young, he still had feathers, which were a bright yellow — thus the name Blondie. He even used to love flying and had favorite places to land. “I remember his favorite place was a lamp in our house. He’s very playful, he would chase us while flying. He is also a very curious bird, he liked to fly to newly discovered places and explore,” said Bella.
Unfortunately, when Blondie was around one year old, Bella and her family began to notice that he was losing feathers on his legs, and then later turned to complete baldness. Blondie even lost his ability to fly. The family had no clue what could be wrong with their beloved bird.
