Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Foraging for a nutriberry: Galah “Bandit”

Foraging seems like a wild and time consuming idea for a lot of people, but it’s not and it is WORTH IT for your bird to build confidence. I can’t even explain how important it is for your bird not to be sitting around all day bored out of its mind. Boredom causes a huge percent of the behavior problems out there in birds today such as plucking, aggression and biting, etc…

So let’s ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

Camelot macaw

As I was driving the other day, I was thinking about the huge contribution that Irene Pepperberg and the amazing Alex made to our knowledge of avian cognition. Without she and Alex, and our acceptance of her findings, I wonder if the avian community would be using terms like “enrichment” today.
Life was uncertain for Dr. Pepperberg. She became outcast among her peers. Grants to fund her work were hard to come by and it must have seemed to her that her career was always on the verge of ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

Storm, blue fronted amazon

In my early days of bird ownership, pre-internet, doing right by my birds was a lot of guess work. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I came upon learning that an all seed diet, then the norm, was inadequate. I discovered this in two ways: 1) by going to the library and studying the diet of my species wild counterparts, and 2) observing them descending on the vegetables on my plate at dinnertime. That was a hard to miss clue.

I didn’t exactly struggle with bird care ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

There are so many aspects to the training experience for both the trainer and the parrot. It’s about bond building and mutual trust. It’s wonderful enrichment for a caged bird. It’s about cooperation. Mostly, though, it’s about communication. It provides a common language through which a human and a parrot can begin to converse and understand one another. It is exciting and deeply rewarding for everyone.

That I would suggest that someone NOT train their bird is troubling to me, especially when it is such a positive thing. But there are ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

Are you noticing lately that your sweet, happy cockatiel is a little nippy? Has your quiet-as-a-mouse African grey become loud and opinionated? Is your cockatoo cuddling in ways that make you blush?

It’s the onset of the spring season here in the northern hemisphere of the world. Although in most places it is still very cold, our birds are able to perceive the subtle signs of spring, even when all we see is the harshness of winter.

Parrots see things we do not. Their amped up eyesight ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

I try to cover this topic at least twice a year because it’s so important. I never have to look hard to find an event to inspire one of these posts.

I needed some supplies the other day and went to the local bird store where they have a few parrots for sale, among them a female eclectus and a cherry headed conure. Both of the birds had been in the store for several months awaiting purchase. They were, by this time, well adjusted to strangers gathering by their cages ...

Read the rest or post a comment »