Exotic birds rescued from El Mirage home find forever homes

PHOENIX - Back in October, at least 600 exotic birds were rescued from a home in El Mirage.

Fast forward two months, and many of them are about to land a new home.

The birds are up for adoption just in time for the holiday season. Jeanine Willingham and her daughter took home two love birds.

“We thought the birds needed a home, so we’re going to give them a good home,” said Willingham.

Nina Cimon got just one to go along with her other at home.

"I told her that we had a Love Bird and he needed a friend," said Cimon. "I wanted to help and said well, we’ll adopt a bird. So today, I’m here to pick up a friend for my little one at home."

The birds were rescued Halloween night. They had been flying around the home in dangerous conditions, but after some rehab with Fallen Feathers Sanctuary, they were ready to soar again.

Peoria’s Pet Market opened up the doors to adopt them out.

“It’s really awesome to see the support," said Jacob Bango with Peoria’s Pet Market. I had no idea -- primarily, we’re a dog and cat store, so to see all these bird customers come through has been really encouraging."

The overwhelming response caused the store to start a waiting list. 300 birds were adopted Monday, with the rest hopefully finding homes Tuesday.

“if I had time to cry of happiness, I’d do that right now because to tell you the truth, when we got all these birds. we were told there were 100-150 birds, and when we were done collecting to find out there was 600, it was a huge surprise," said Jody Kieran with Fallen Feathers Sanctuary. "The question is how are we going to find homes for them?”