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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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One of my FAVORITE things is taking in other people’s birds and totally transforming them. Me doing this lead to our Total Transformation Course at BirdTricks.com where we realized we should be sharing these tools we use to change other people’s birds with those people so they can learn how to do it themselves. It was a great thing and even after the fact, I still enjoy doing it because every bird teaches ...

There are a lot of big hearted people out there who are just naturally inclined to try to save those in need. I feel similarly. I find it difficult to look away from need even when I know that involvement will make life more complicated for me. I try to do what I can. It’s who I am, and I’m proud of it.

Someone from Austin, the city I lived in before I moved here to Florida, contacted me and asked me if I would speak with a neighbor of his who ...

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Outdoor aviaries have become all the rage in the avian community. It’s a great thing. There are untold benefits from getting our birds into just a few minutes of moderate, natural sunlight daily:

• Sunlight interacts with the oils from our parrot’s uropygial gland (which are spread throughout the feathers during preening) and converts to vitamin D3 in the body. Vitamin D3 has a large role in the body’s ability to maintain normal calcium levels in the blood and to absorb calcium, which in turn determines our bird’s bone, feather ...

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