by Bill O'Rourke

Many of us use branches of Manzanita wood as perches for our fine feathered friends. They are almost impossible to destroy and as such make great additions to our indoor bird habitats! Manzana is the Spanish for apple and Manzanita is the diminutive form of the word. When translated, Manzanita means "little apple". The fruit on the tree does seem to resemble tiny apples but I actually think they look more like cherries. It's a good thing that I wasn't around when they named these plants or the Manzanita might have been called the "cereza pequena" tree or "little cherry" tree.

Taxonomically the Manzanita tree and the bearberry are part of the genus Arctostaphylos. The following is the actual classification of the "little apple" :

• Kingdom: Plantae
• Division: Magnoliophyta
• Class: Magnoliopsida
• Order: Ericales
• Family: Ericaceae
• Genus: Arctostaphylos

Manzanitas are evergreen shrubs or small trees, found in the North American west. They can be found in areas of southern British Columbia in Canada, Washington, California and New Mexico in the United States, and throughout much of northern and central regions of Mexico. There look is familiar to those of us with parrots as they are characterised by smooth, orange or red bark and branches of many unusual shapes. There are about 60 species of manzanita. They range in size and include smaller coastal and mountain species, then ranging on up to small trees that can be upwards of 25 feet tall. After the Manzanitas bloom in late winter and early spring, berries will emerge and ripen during the late spring and summer. Although I've never tried one, it is said that the fruits of most Manzanitas are edible but they taste awful.

The wood is extremely hard and if you've ever tried to drill through it in order to use it for your parrots, you've probably broken some drill bits in the process. I recently modified a parrot stand by removing the piece of hardwood that was on it and exchanging it for a piece of Manzanita wood that is of an appropriate size. This involved drilling two holes going through the wood in the same direction and being 15 inches apart. Sounds easy right? Well to start with, I needed to drill what are called pilot holes using several sizes of bits. I had to start by making smaller holes and then enlarging each hole until it was of the proper diameter. I broke several bits in the process as they heated up due to friction and cracked. I found that using diamond tipped drill bits worked extremely well but it is still possible to crack the smaller bits as you hit harder spots or "knots" inside the wood. I also found that it worked better to place the Manzanita wood in a vice in order to hold it in place while I drilled through it. The torque of the drill was too much to handle if I tried to hold the wood in one hand and drill with the other. That works with pine but forget it with manzanita wood!

If you live in an area where Manzanita grows, you can harvest your own but you must be extremely careful not to break local laws. Some Manzanitas are endangered and protected by law. In fact, one subspecies (Arctostaphylos hookeri ravenii) of Manzanita is so rare that that in 1987 there was only one plant in the wild in the continental United States. It is probably easier and safer to purchase perches that are already set up to go into your birds cage or play area!

You can purchase Manzanita perches of all sizes here at The Perch Store. The natural branches do a great job of keeping your birds feet exercised and in my opinion are the easiest perches to keep clean. I highly recommend Manzanita perches for your parrots!

Bill O'Rourke is a moderator on ThePerch.net message board. Please visit his site, Birds Come First, by following the link below.

Website: http://www.birdscomefirst.org