BENNINGTON — Residents and visitors alike were warmly greeted on Main Street at lunchtime Wednesday by Peaches, a friendly, vocal 35-year-old Moluccan cockatoo.
“He was an egg when I bought him,” said Peaches’ owner, Caroline Poirier, a former teacher from Nashua, New Hampshire, who now divides her year between Maine and Florida. “I waited for him to hatch, and brought him home in two months.”
Poirier and Leon Kenney sat on a bench outside the Banner newsroom at 423 Main St. as they passed through en route to Maine, sharing their lunch with Peaches, who perched (unrestrained) on the back of the seat and politely accepted food from Kenney’s meal. Passersby stopped and patted the bird, marveling at the unusual site.
“He likes people,” Poirier said, adding that Peaches loves to cuddle. “He’s very loving.”
The breed is also called the salmon-crested cockatoo, as seen in Peaches’ coloring. Poirier said these birds can live to be 80 years old.
Peaches does not speak words, but his whistle could be heard throughout the immediate area.
“He has a voice that will shatter glass when he uses it,” Poirier joked.
