Painting with Parrots at National Aviary

When you have a chance to paint with a parrot at National Aviary, you take it. 

This little beauty (man, I sounded like the Crocodile Hunter just now) is Lucky the Blue-Fronted Amazon Parrot. Not only does Lucky love to paint but the creative outlet is a way to mimic experiences that would naturally occur in the wild like picking up sticks to build nests. There are a few other birds at the aviary that enjoy painting and each has its own painting style, if you can believe it. Lucky likes to slap the canvas with the paint brushes while others use swirling motions.

The zookeepers make sure the birds to use nontoxic paints and actual canvases and the best part? All visitors can register for painting classes. 

Disclosure: I was hosted by National Aviary to give you fine folks the scoop on what makes the zoo so much fun. I was not asked to state a particular point of view and all opinions are my own!