Quantcast

Biz Born Of A Love For Birds

Ida Fereira holds a cockatoo she raised and John Fereira holds a rabbit.
Ida Fereira holds a macaw she raised and John Fereira holds a rabbit.

John Fereira has been raising birds since he was 6 years old, living in his native Portugal.

“It was a hobby. I just liked birds. I’d buy them and breed them,” he said.

For the past 32 years, he and his wife, Ida, have been raising and selling them in their store, For Birds Only, which has become a fixture at 176 Jericho Tpke. in Mineola. The business has expanded to include tropical fish and other animals over the years and John enjoys every aspect of it.

“I like my business, the customers, the birds and the fish,” Fereira said.

He had an uncle and cousins living in Mineola when he settled there after migrating from Portugal in 1970.

John and Ida had met years before in Portugal. She migrated to the U.S. five years after John. They married and worked for several years together at Sidney Gold, a sweater warehouse in New Hyde Park.

Fereira, 60, immediately became involved in the Portuguese American Club, where he has been an active member for the past 45 years. And he continued the hobby of his youth in the basement of his house, selling the birds and gradually developing a small business out of it.

After 10 years of working out of his house, he lost his job in the warehouse when it relocated and he decided to open a storefront on Jericho Turnpike. “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to open my own business,’” he recalled.

When For Birds Only opened in 1984, it was the only store on Long Island that specialized in selling exotic birds, from finches, cockatiels and canaries to more exotic parrots, cockatoos and macaws. An advertisement he placed on TV helped to kick-start the business and draw a growing customer base.

“My store got a really big name. We had customers from all over Long Island,” Fereira said.

Five years after opening the business, he bought the building next door and expanded it to its present configuration. And today, he typically has 1,000 birds that fill the store with their songs and squawks. After expanding, he also started selling fish, both fresh- and saltwater species.

“I found a lot of my customers owned fish,” he said.

His inventory has since expanded to include an even broader range of house pets, from chinchillas and rabbits to bearded dragons and geckos.

Fereira sells a full line of supplies for all of the animals he sells, and added dog food to his inventory a few years ago in response to customers.

But the primary focus remains the birds, many of which they breed and raise themselves.

“It’s very nice, but a lot of responsibility, a lot of care,” Ida said.

She said she thinks of the baby birds she feeds and nurtures “like little children” and she continues to care for them when customers bring them back to the store to have their nails clipped.

It’s a work-intensive business, with the birds, fish and other animals all requiring daily attention. “It’s seven days a week,” John said. “And there’s not a lot of profit.”

Competition from pet store chains and sales of pets online has changed the landscape over the years. But For Birds Only counters that competition with lower prices.

“The chains are bigger, but we have lower prices than the chains,” John said. “And we specialize.”

The Fereiras said they’ve cultivated a customer base by word of mouth that draws people from as far away as upstate New York because of their reputation for personalized service.

It’s been a family business, with the Fereiras’ two daughters, Michelle and Elizabeth, helping their parents in past years.

“They’re great people. I’ve known them for 32 years,” said Jerry, a customer visiting the store recently.

“We have good loyal customers,” John said, adding that they’ve served successive generations of family members as customers over the years.

And old customers often just stop by to visit the store that has become an iconic business in Mineola.

“People come back just to say ‘hi’,” Ida said. “And some just call to make sure we’re still around.”