Sandie Smith, shown with Wazoo, her green cheek conure, started a bird-sitting service about five years ago. She also volunteers at Brenda's Birds, where she educates customers on bird ownership.

Sandie Smith looks at Roz with adoring eyes, turns her over and gives her a big kiss on her belly.

The African gray parrot lifts her wings for more smooches and then presses her beak against Smith's lips.
"Look," Smith says, pointing to the cherry-red lipstick on Roz. "It's beak-stick."

Smith is a self-professed bird lover.

She loves them so much she calls herself "The Bird Lady."

Besides Roz, a 28-year-old bird Smith has had for 26 years, she has a 5-year-old cockatiel named Aussie and an 8-month-old green cheek conure named Wazoo.

"The cockatiel loves to cuddle and is very loving," the Delray Beach resident says. "The green cheek is a riot.

"He talks more than Roz. He's a prodigy. Every day he'll pick up a new phrase. He'll bite me and then say 'Now, that's not nice' or kiss me and then say 'That's nice'."

But it's not just her own that make Smith, 50, a bird lady.

Five years ago she started a bird-sitting service.

When her clients go out of town, Smith goes to visit their birds. She changes cage linings, fills food and water bowls and, if possible, plays with them.

"I get paid to play with birds," she says with a smile.

It's a demanding job, she says, and she's happy with just three of her own but, the more birds she gets to be around, the happier she is.

Smith also volunteers at Brenda's Birds, a local bird shop where she helps educate customers on bird ownership.

"People tend to gravitate to the big birds," she says. "But, if you've never had a bird before, a big bird will have you."

Most people don't realize how noisy and destructive a bird can be, she says. It saddens her to see someone return a bird because by that point, more than likely, the bird is unhappy.

"They have no idea it's a lifetime commitment," she says, before petting Roz. "I have this one willed."

African greys can live 50 to 60 years, she says, and they require a lot of attention and mental stimulation.

Smith uses toys like bells, ropes and chains to play with Roz, who also enjoys chewing newspaper and romping around different drawers throughout the house.

For the first 14 years, Smith thought the grey bird with a red tail was male and its name was Roscoe.

"Then, one day she laid three eggs," she says. "My first husband had just passed away and I think it was her way of saying, 'I love you and I'm happy to have you all to myself. Here's a present.''"

Smith's first bird was a parakeet, Prego, given to her at age 4.

"He learned how to say, 'I want a martini,' " Smith remembers. "And my parents would give it to him," something she would never do.

Prego used to take a sip of a martini and fly toward a picture on the wall, thinking it was a real scene. He would hit the wall, fall down, get another sip and do it again.

"Kind of like the story of my life," she says.

Smith is a recovering alcoholic."I remember when I couldn't go 10 minutes without a drink," she says.

Her full-time job is as a mental health technician. It's a job she was trained for in "the school of hard knocks," she says.

But it's her love of birds that drives her.

She learned on her own how to hand feed her birds or give them something straight from her mouth, when introducing something new into their balanced diet.

Also, she and her husband of nine years, Darrell, learned that keeping Roz near the bathroom wasn't the best idea.

"She learned all, and I mean all, the bathroom sounds," she says. "It wasn't very charming for our guests."

Now, they keep her near the kitchen, where the only confusion comes from Roz making the microwave sounds.

"We often think our dinner is ready before it is," she says.

Delray woman's special passion is for the birds of all feathers

Anyone from that area know of this store or Lady? Might be a good addition to the group? Just a thought.

I live very close to Brenda's Birds and know of it very well - I've never seen or heard of Sandi - I'll have to keep an eye out for her -