LEWISTON – The red parrot pulls her feathers. Two of the cockatiels were abandoned and one has a damaged leg. The unnamed little white dove can’t walk.

They squawk and chirp, all ruffled feathers and agitated glances for strangers. But for owner Yves DeHayes, they’re calm, beautiful, cooing.

“I just love them,” he said.

DeHayes, 68, can’t remember when he started rescuing birds, or why. But at some point over the past few decades, crows, turkeys, cockatiels and doves began appearing in his life. Sometimes owners dropped them off without a backward glance. Sometimes police found an injured bird and called him. Other times, DeHayes said, the animals just showed up.

“When they were good, they’d fly off and that’d be it,” he said.

In recent years, DeHayes has gone from a house to a mobile home. With less room, he can’t take in wayward wild turkeys or injured ravens like he used to.

But in the back of Obie’s Shoe Repair, his tiny Lisbon Street shop, DeHayes keeps Elliette, Twinkie and friends, his six permanent rescuees.

“I can touch Elliette, pet her. Nobody else can. She’ll bite their fingers off,” DeHayes said.

Elliette, a bright-eyed, talkative red African grey parrot, arrived on DeHayes’ doorstep about 15 years ago. She was pulling her feathers, and her former owner couldn’t deal with it.

DeHayes has tried to treat the feather-pulling, with limited success.

“It’s a habit that she does,” he said.

Twinkie and his cockatiel pal were abandoned, too, left outside to fend for themselves when “someone brought them, opened the cage and left.” A third cockatiel arrived with a damaged leg.

Two doves, one brown and white, one pure white, found their way through friends of friends. The white one can’t walk, but in DeHayes’ cupped hands he coos and flaps his wings.

Every morning, first thing, DeHayes gives the birds food and water, cleans their cages and deals with any broken toys. He closes the door that separates the animal room from the rest of his shop and lets the birds fly.

Outside the downtown shop, DeHayes cares for wild birds, too, tossing food to about 150 pigeons every day. Some know him so well that they come up to him. But it’s his rescued birds who climb onto his arm, who whistle when they see him.

Elliette smacks kisses.