Vegetable smeared beak. The galah/rosebreasted cockatoo equivalent of a milk moustache. Merlin loves his food.

The only stupid question is the one that you don’t ask. I’ve heard that often enough and I’m not entirely sure that I believe it. Mainly because I once worked in a bookstore and was asked if we stocked books that had pages in them? Or the time that my mother asked me what the dishwasher was doing and I answered the dishes? Yes, I’m afraid there are stupid ...

The only times I find myself getting annoyed with another bird owner is when I offer them advice and they immediately shoot it down: “you’ll have to come up with something different – my bird will NEVER go for that”. They insist on using words like “stubborn” or “scared” or “disinterested” to describe their birds. I find that these words often also describe them.

In contrast, my favorite owners are the ones who not only accept the advice they receive but also modify it to suit their ...