My male Eclectus Pepi, has been a flying nightmare lately. He has gone from being sweet, affectionate and talkative to being moody, unpredictable and often downright nasty. It happened overnight and hasn’t been accompanied by any of the usual signs of sickness.

Of all of my birds, it’s Pepi who seems to have the nastiest bite. He has this knack for getting a tiny bit of skin pinched in his beak. When something ...

Moluccan cockatoo

Q: I see the word “genus” used with parrots a lot. What does it mean?

Lydia B., Chandler, AZ

A: Genus is part of the way we categorize the different bird species. It explains how your bird fits into the grand scheme of life on our planet.

If you were to google species information on your bird, you might see the word “taxonomy” come up. Taxonomy is a system of classification that defines your bird’s place as a member of the animal kingdom. It branches off much like a family tree ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

African grey Stormy playing with rings inside grey aviary

One of the best parts about working for Birdtricks.com is the constant contact with other bird lovers. As owners, the learning never stops and we are always looking for new and better ways to improve our birds’ lives.

Out there, in the avian community, there are countless unsung heroes – rescues who go the extra mile for the birds in their care every single day, without much praise or much help, people who have gone to extraordinary lengths to create amazing habitats for ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

In the above video I announce the super exciting news that I’ve decided to take on Rasta the Alexandrine Parakeet from one of our clients featured in one of our episodes on One Day Miracles. A new DVD series we’ve produced where we go into people’s homes to show them how to fix their birds behavioral problems in one day. We had great success with Rasta, however, when we left, they took some steps backwards and I offered to take Rasta to get him back to the point where they can work with him from ...

Cockatiel

My cockatiels were my first parrots and they were very patient with me while I learned how to be a good caregiver. I hated the idea of them being confined and they spent their days out of their cage intermingling with the humans. Most often, they were riding on a shoulder while we went about our activities but, as ground foragers, they would often make their way to the floor to explore.

I bird proofed the house as much as possible, removed electrical cords and any toxic substances from reach, ...

Read the rest or post a comment »

One of the main problems that I have had with my Blue and Gold Macaw Fid, is getting him to settle at night. He cries when I put him to bed, he cries again when I turn off the light, he screams in fear if anything disturbs him and he often wakes up and starts making a heart wrenching, hiccupping sob noise for no obvious reason.

In my last post on Fid, I ...