At times, Hyatt Maui strictly for birds

Luna was in a talkative mood. “Hello,” she said as she looked, curiosity piqued, at the group gathered by her cage. “Hello, aloha, hello!”

The double yellow- headed Amazon parrot is one of the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa’s friendliest feathered residents. “She laughs, sings and whistles,” said Christina Sagadraca, the hotel’s wildlife supervisor. “She also does great imitations of chicken, cat and monkey sounds.”

The Hyatt Maui is home to about 45 parrots, penguins, cranes, ducks, swans and flamingos. Most have names. Sagadraca, who has worked in the hotel’s wildlife department for 16 years, talks about them with obvious pride and affection.

“They have distinct personalities and are very expressive,” she said. “When you spend time with them, you learn their habits and behaviors, and you can tell how they’re feeling by their facial expressions and body language — just like people. If they’re facing you, that’s a clear sign that they want to socialize. If they’re turned away, they’re feeling anti-social. They’re intelligent and have emotions such as love, grief, fear, compassion and jealousy.”

During an hourlong tour, visitors meet several of the birds in the Hyatt Maui’s menagerie. The parrots exhibited in the lobby are rotated so they have a change of scenery and a healthy balance of “work” and downtime. Every morning, the wildlife staff gauges their mood and determines who’s amenable to meeting people that day.

R2D2, an African gray parrot in her mid- to late 30s, has lived at the hotel since it opened in 1980. She can mimic smoke alarms, telephones, pagers, walkie-talkies and male, female and children’s voices.

“What’s interesting is that in addition to using her tongue to hold nuts in place to crack them, she uses it for touch; it’s like a finger,” Sagadraca said. “The slit in the middle of her tongue is her windpipe. That’s how she breathes.”

Many people are surprised to see penguins in a tropical environment. In fact, only two of the 17 penguin species are found in extremely cold climates such as Antarctica. The rest live in areas that are warm most of the year, including the coasts of Africa, South America and the Galapagos Islands.

Among those is the African black-footed penguin, which is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (iucnredlist.org). The Hyatt Maui is home to seven African black-footed penguins, six of which were born on property.

“At a glance they look the same, but you can tell them apart by the markings on their bellies, which are equivalent to a human fingerprint,” Sagadraca said. “Every marking is unique; no two are the same. Penguins are black and white for a couple of reasons, one being camouflage: When they’re in the open ocean, it’s hard for predators below them to see their white belly and hard for predators above them to see their black back. Another reason is for temperature control. If they’re cold, they face their black back to the sun to absorb heat. If they’re hot, they face their white belly to the sun to reflect heat.”

An easy way to identify the two types of flamingos on property is by word association. Chilly means cold, which usually relates to a pale appearance, so the Chilean flamingo has a white face and legs. Africa is hot, so the African flamingo is distinguished by the hot pink colorations on its face and legs.

Flamingos maintain their red, pink and orange coloring by processing carotenoid pigments in the food they eat, which includes shrimp in the wild. At the Hyatt Maui, they’re fed paprika, spirulina and other supplements to enhance their color.

The tour that Sagadraca and her colleagues lead is full of fascinating facts about the beautiful creatures they’ve come to love and respect. “Our hope is that participants will see the birds aren’t just amenities,” Sagadraca said. “To us they’re family.”

Maui Tastemakers Series

Japengo at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa is hosting the second annual Maui Tastemakers Series, which features five-course Pacific Rim-inspired dinners paired with local beers, wines and spirits.

Ocean Vodka (oceanvodka.com) will be spotlighted at the next event on June 3. Menu highlights include Vodka and Lavender-Cured Pork Loin with shiso chimichurri, creamy polenta, Hamakua mushrooms, pork belly and tatsoi. Gevin Utrillo, Japengo’s chef de cuisine, and Shonna Pinheiro Baltar, Ocean Vodka’s director of marketing, will introduce each dish and pairing.

Seating is limited to 25 guests, and dinner service will begin at 5:30 p.m. The cost is $90 per person (attendees must be at least 21 years old). Reservations are required; call 667-4727.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.