Henry in his Florida home. This photo of him was in the "Behind the Scenes" section of the September 2001 National Geographic Magazine.
Henry the blue and gold macaw was obtained by National Geographic in 1964 from the Smithsonian's National Zoo. He lived in National Geographic Society's museum Explorer's Hall in Washington, DC for 28 years, as up to a thousand people a day passed by.

He almost certainly began life under the wing of a wild mother in the rain forests of Central America since few if any macaws were being bred in captivity in the 1950's. His first dozen years are rather sketchy, but after moving to Explorer's Hall he sat on a perch among a variety of geography exhibits and appeared on postcards for sale in the gift shop. Most of his excitement came from exhibit builders and from cleaning crews and security guards who would have to return him to his perch when they found him wandering the Hall late at night.

Over the years he needed increasing amounts of medical treatments back at the zoo, and his veterinarians eventually felt he would be better off retired to a quieter home with individualized attention. That's when my wife and I (Both working at NGS at the time) made a bigger commitment than we could ever have imagined – adopting a forty year-old -going-on-three-year-old bird.

For fifteen years he was a big part of our days and, although our hearing sometimes suffered, we now miss his good morning screams.

c.1948 - 2006
Henry in Explorer's Hall in 1991 looking out at a snowy NGS courtyard.
Washington, DC 1993 – a few years after his retirement.
Vacuum attack ! . . . A skill honed over years of playing with nighttime cleaning personnel – 2000.