Omar Gonzalez is a well-respected aviculturist and award-winning retailer. His love of birds began when he was a young boy growing up in Cuba. He and his father would catch wild songbirds, known as “mariposa,” and would build cages from twigs for them. Omar’s interest in birds continued to grow and after coming to the United States at the age of seven, Omar’s parents bought him two little canaries. Omar loved his birds and throughout his childhood studied everything he could about them. In his early 20’s, Omar purchased two parrots from a local pet shop. However, back in the 80’s, many birds sold in pet shops were either imported or illegally smuggled into the country and many would die from various diseases. Unfortunately this was the fate of Omar’s pets, and it served as his first real-life lesson on the importance of buying a bird from a clean and reputable store.

Dissatisfied with the unsanitary conditions of most bird stores he visited, he began talking to people in the bird business and found out where the quarantine station was. Again since this was the 80’s, the quarantine station was the place where most pet shops purchased birds, since very few birds were being bred domestically at that time. Upon his arrival at the station, Omar was amazed at the thousands of birds there. That’s when his vision of owning his own bird store first entered his mind. Now armed with the whereabouts of the quarantine station, Omar began buying more and more birds there. Since parrot-taming techniques were quite inhumane back then, Omar relied upon his own experiences with the birds to develop his own methods of taming them. Once the birds were able to be safely handled, Omar began reselling them, first out of his house and then at a local swap meet.

In 1984, even though he was struggling to make ends meet and attending college full time, Omar had saved enough money to open his first store. As his passion for exotic birds grew stronger, he sought new ways to improve bird breeding techniques, find better methods of taming, and even began developing his own line of products. He later designed perches that hung from the ceiling of his store which would allow the birds to socialize with customers.
Birds were happy, business thrived and more stores were opened. Since the beginning, locations have changed and improvements made, but Omar’s dedication to continually improve the life of companion birds has remained constant and that is the reason he felt the need to write this series of books. He feels that it will be helpful to new bird owners, present bird owners, and those who may be thinking about purchasing a bird in the near future.

In 2007 Omar, along with a group from Parrots International traveled to the Brazilian Pantanal to observe, document information, and assist endangered parrots in the wild.