Blue throated macaws

This question seems to be coming up a lot recently on the birdtricks facebook page and other places I visit regularly. I appreciate that people have the good sense to ask, but it’s a very difficult question to answer without knowing the person asking it, without getting a sense of the person or what their lifestyle is. I normally spend more effort trying to talk people out of getting birds than recommending a species to them.

Owning a bird takes a lot of time and work:
Are ...

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Cockatoos are weird. I’m sorry, but they are. It is this fact that makes them such a challenge, so interesting and my favorite species of bird. I understand what mine like and dislike. I know to avoid what makes them nervous or over-excited. I get it that they are high strung sometimes and that their moods can turn on a dime. One minute I can be a valued flock member; the next I’m at the top of their ten most wanted list.

Over the years I have tried to compile a mental list of ...

Umbrella Cockatoo, Goffin Cockatoo

We wear many hats as bird owners: we’re cooks, toy makers, housekeepers and behavioral analysts.  I once read: “Yur day job iz how ya ern muney, yur reel job iz to spend it on yur handsum burd”  by author Mango McCaw. If your parrot had to go out and find work (oh, the indignity!), what would he do?
I think this is what best suits my birds:

Goffin Cockatoo

Theo, goffins cockatoo, 24
I used to think of Theo ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

Q:  Why does my bird act crazy when it rains?

Laura G.,  Oakland, CA

A:  Rain can mean many things to a parrot.  The warm rains of spring mean that the plants are being nourished and food will soon be plentiful.  It is a precursor to breeding season and can signal the onset of hormonal behaviors.  Parrots are able to detect a change in barometric pressure and may be aware of a coming rainstorm well before we are.

At other times of the year, a rain shower will inspire my ...

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Blue throated macaw

Think, for a moment, about all of the life-stages a human being goes through from birth to old age, and the way each stage effects and changes the person that you are:  from the complete dependence of infancy to the confident and very mobile 6 year old; from the hormonal teen years to early adulthood, the child bearing years; from adulthood to middle age; from middle to old age, where health might start to decline.  Then consider the long life span of our companion parrots.  Parrots go through ...

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Blue and Gold Macaw

The cutest things on the planet may very well be (and not necessarily in this order): a baby cracking up laughing, kittens doing just about anything, and birds playing.  Some of the very best memories I have of my birds are of them playing, especially when it involves me.  There’s something so precious about watching the determination of a 100 gram bird tug on something twice its size, and the lengths they will go to to accomplish an nearly impossible task.  I am always on the lookout ...

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