Squawk Therapy: Helping Students with a Cockatoo

Here’s a news story from:http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/09/22/squawk-therapy-helping-students-with-a-cockatoo_122/

The Chronicle-Telegram Staff

ELYRIA — Move over therapy dogs, there’s a winged one in town.

Max, a 1½-year-old medium sulfur crested cockatoo, makes monthly visits to Ely Elementary School in Elyria along with his owner, Bre Crum, an intervention specialist for Elyria Schools.

Crum, 33, works with 19 sixth-grade students who are learning disabled, cognitively delayed, medically fragile or have ADHD. She uses Max’s visits as a reward for her students, who earn tickets to see their fine-feathered friend.

“I thought it would be neat to expose the kids to a big bird. Some of them will never get an opportunity to interact with a large bird on a personal level,” Crum said. “It works as an incentive for them.”

Besides the motivating reward system Crum has in place, she said there was an unexpected, yet positive, twist to Max’s visits.

The students learned self-control techniques, something they can take with them and use throughout their lives.

“You can’t have the wiggles if you want to see Max, as you cannot approach a bird if you are not calm and collected,” Crum said. “So I worked with them on calming strategies. To get close to him or even to hold him, they had to learn how to relax. Soon the students were bringing themselves down, which was awesome to witness.”

The pet lover got the idea from seeing a golden retriever, also named Max, reading with children at the Avon Lake Public Library. Crum has six dogs, but confesses that none of them would behave well enough to come for a school visit, let alone become certified.

Crum also has two other birds, four cats, two rabbits, a hamster and pond frogs.

Max’s school visits are no dog and pony show. Crum carries him around with her (he’s clipped, so he can’t fly away), and lets the children interact with him throughout the day. She uses his visits to teach mini lessons on animal care and Australia, his natural habitat.

After the lesson, Max and Crum “conference” with individual students, and then Max relaxes on the back of a chair while the students continue their work. When Max is done working, he likes to nap. He puffs up his feathers, pulls up his right foot and falls asleep.

But no matter how tired he may be, he’s always wide awake when students read to him. One of Crum’s students particularly enjoys reading to Max, as he’s determined to teach the bird to read. But it’s the boy who is benefiting, as he’s reading more, and Max doesn’t care if he makes a mistake, Crum said.

Ely Elementary School Principal Jack Dibee has embraced the idea of Max.

“I have been amazed at how the students have responded,” Dibee said via e-mail. “Mrs. Crum really likes to use as many creative ways as she can to motivate students and help them learn. This has been a great opportunity for the kids. It’s great to see Mrs. Crum’s enthusiasm to try different ways to help them learn.”

While Max has no official certification as a therapy bird, he hasn’t ruffled any feathers at Ely Elementary. He did scare a teacher once when he was hanging out on a copy machine, and — of course — there’s the occasional “accident,” but the kids think that is “really cool,” according to Crum.

Max may be the teacher’s pet at school, but he does have a mischievous side at home. He plays in his water, hisses at the dogs, picks at their toenails and even teases them by saying, “C’mon go potty.” Most cockatoos aren’t completely vocal until age 5, when they should be up to saying about 500 words.

Crum, an Eaton Township resident who herself has ADHD, became interested in working with special needs children while doing a service project while a student at Elyria Catholic High School. She went on to receive her bachelor’s in education from Bowling Green State University and licensure from Cleveland State University, and she is currently pursuing a master’s at Ashland University.

“I know having something like a Max would have helped me when I was in school,” Crum said. “My hope was to be able to reach some of the children through a different way.”

At home, Crum notices that being around all her pets is very therapeutic. If her daughter, who also has ADHD, is worked up, Crum gives her some quiet time with one of the cats, and the stroking “brings her right back down.”

Crum estimates that Max will live to be about 80, so she sees a future in bird therapy when she retires. Until then?

“Max will continue to be an incentive on (the students’) crusade to learning,” she said.

Feather plucking in African Grey Parrots.

I was looking through articles in Applied Animal Behaviour Science tonight for another project and came across an article on feather-plucking in African Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus). It provided more evidence that giving parrots the opportunity to forage decreases the chance that they will pluck their feathers. Parrots in the study who had foraging toys in their cage had better feather quality than ones whose food was supplied only in a bowl. The foraging toy was a tube with hole in it that the parrots could roll or swing around, depending on whether it was on the ground or hanging from the cage roof. Food would then fall out of the tube.

Now, I have met some parrots that pluck despite having lots of toys, so a lack of enrichment or foraging opportunities is unlikely to be the only cause of feather destruction in captive parrots. It does, however, seem to reduce the likelihood of it happening.

Here’s the title and abstract (summary of the article supplied by authors for the journal):

Foraging ‘enrichment’ as treatment for pterotillomania

Johannes T. Lumeij and Caroline J. Hommers

^aDivision of Avian and Exotic Animal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiteit Utrecht, Yalelaan 108, 3584 CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands ^bGrote Baan 9, 5445 PA Landhorst, The Netherlands

Abstract

This study was performed to determine whether foraging ‘enrichment’ reduces self-directed psychogenic feather picking (pterotillomania) in parrots. A positive correlation between increased foraging time and improvement of feather score was hypothesised.

Eighteen pterotillomanic African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups in a crossover design for two 1-month-periods. The experimental group received food in pipe feeders, while the controls received food in a bowl in the presence of two empty pipe feeders.

The 10-point plumage scoring system from Meehan was used as an indirect measurement of feather picking behaviour (better plumage results in higher score). Scoring took place before the study; after 4 weeks, just before the crossover; and 4 weeks after the crossover. Foraging time was calculated with a time-lapse recorder.

A pipe feeder significantly increased foraging time and feather score. The logistic model of the influence of foraging time on improvement of feather score was significant (Chi-square 7.1; d.f. = 1; P = 0.0076). Each hour extra spent on foraging multiplies the odds of improvement of feather score with a factor 2.9 (95% CI 1.2–7.0).

The results suggest that the redirected foraging hypothesis might be an explanation for pterotillomania in African grey parrots and provide an effective treatment strategy for this common behavioural disorder. The findings may have implications for the treatment of trichotillomania in humans.

Keywords: Psychogenic feather picking; Feather pecking; Impulse control disorder; Animal model; Trichotillomania; Redirected foraging behaviour; African grey parrot

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 111, 85.

The Importance of Environmental Enrichment for Pet Parrots

 

This is an article I wrote that appeared in the August 2007 issue of Parrots magazine, although the below version does have a few minor changes and the pictures are a bit different.

Introduction

Parrots are among the most intelligent of birds and their cognitive abilities have been compared to those of primates, including the great apes (Emery, 2006). Of course, it is this intelligence that often makes people desire a parrot as a pet, but it is also the reason so many parrot owners often give their pets up. Most people would not expect an intelligent and active primate to be happy in a living room cage, but the equally-intelligent parrots are often expected to live in this manner. The result is often a frustrated, bored parrot that screams or plucks out its own feathers. To figure out how we can prevent our companions from becoming unhappy, let’s first examine and compare the lives of wild and pet parrots.

 

The Life of a Wild Parrot

As it stands, wild and captive parrots live dramatically different lives. Most wild parrots begin their days at dawn, when they awake and begin calling to each other and start their daily morning foraging expedition. This may last a few hours and often takes the parrots far from their morning roosting site. During the afternoon – the warmest part of the day – most wild parrots pass the time by perching together in a group or pairs, where they rest, play, or preen themselves or a companion. Another foraging trip is made in the late afternoon, and afterwards, the parrots then return to a roosting spot where they settle together for the night.

Wild Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in Sydney, Australia.

 

The average wild parrot is rarely alone, as most species occur in family groups or large flocks. During the mating season, parrots tend to stay in pairs and mated pairs generally stay very close to one another, unless the female is in the nest and the male is out foraging for food. Raising young is a very demanding activity for wild parrots, and it keeps them active and occupied. However, this is the lifestyle they have spent one hundred and thirty million years evolving to live. Finding food and raising young in a complex environment and living in a large, social group has also lead to the evolution of relatively advanced cognitive abilities in parrots.

 

The Life of a Captive Parrot

Now consider the life of a captive parrot. Often, companion parrots have trimmed wings, no need to forage, and no young to care for. Their food is delivered to them in a bowl, and most of them spend a large proportion of their time in a cage. The majority of pet parrots do not have a same-species mate, as it is widely stated that a parrot who has bonded to another parrot will not make an affectionate companion. The relatively dull environment of a captive parrot compared to the environment they have evolved to live in makes captive parrots prone to displaying behaviors that their human owners find problematic, such as biting and screaming. Additionally, many will display stereotypies (i.e. doing the same motion over and over again), or will even pull out their own feathers. Some parrots, especially cockatoos, may go so far as to mutilate their own skin.

 

What is Environmental Enrichment?

Does this mean that our companion parrots are absolutely destined to live frustrated, unhappy lives? Not necessarily; at least not if the owner is willing to put some effort into enriching his parrot’s environment. Environmental enrichment refers to any modification to a captive animal’s environment that gives it an outlet to display its natural behaviours and keep it busy and occupied. These can include objects to chew on or play with, or hidden foods that the animal can forage for. It also generally includes placing animals in appropriate social groupings. By providing our companion parrots with an enriched environment, including a wide variety of food, and toys, along with opportunities to play and socialize, they can lead happier lives as pets and will be less prone to behaviour problems.

Jo, a Blue and Gold Macaw I birdy-sat for a couple months, chews on a stick.

 

Why is Environmental Enrichment so Important?

Most conscientious parrot owners have long assumed that their animals would be happier living in an environment well stocked with toys and various objects to chew on, but unfortunately, it’s still not uncommon to see parrots in pet shops and homes living in bare cages. This should not be considered acceptable. During the past decade or so, a vast number of scientific studies on a large variety of species have shown that living in an enriched environment benefits an animal in many ways. Animals living in such an environment tend to be healthier, cognitively superior and far less prone to display repetitive, abnormal behaviors than animals living in a dull environment.

 

Very little formal research has been done on the needs of captive parrots specifically, but this has recently been remedied. A study was done on Orange-winged Amazons (Amazona amazonica) which suggested that parrots in an enriched environment are less likely to destroy their plumage than parrots kept in cages with only bowls of food and water (Meehan et al., 2003). The researchers started with two groups of eight 16-week old Amazons. One group had access only to food and water in bowls and a couple of perches. The second group had to “forage” for some of their food – in some cases, they had to chew through barriers or pull levers to get at food. They also had toys to chew, climb and swing on.

 

The parrots in the enriched group were at first wary of the different things in their cages. However, they soon figured out how to get at the food and they learned to use the chew toys. The plumage quality of each parrot was recorded throughout the study. After a year, six of the eight Amazons in the dull environment, and none of the birds in the enriched environment, began to shred or pluck their feathers.

 

The researchers were able to reverse the effect of feather picking in the six Amazons that did feather pick by putting them in the enriched environment. Initially, they were wary of their new surroundings, but they soon began using the toys. After several months, they stopped chewing their feathers. Each Amazon had been examined by a veterinarian to ensure that the feather chewing was not the result of an undiagnosed medical problem. The parrots all received a healthy, balanced diet, so the feather picking was not the result of any nutritional deficiencies.

 

The researchers also noted which parrots developed stereotypical behaviors – functionless, unvarying, repetitive behaviors that are often displayed by captive animals. In the Orange-winged Amazons, stereotypies seen included pacing, climbing in a circle, flipping around in one corner of the cage, and repeatedly chewing cage wire in one spot. The Amazons in the unenriched cage displayed more stereotypic behavior than the ones in the unenriched cages (Meehan et al., 2004).

 

An earlier study on Crimson-bellied Conures (Pyrrhura perlata perlata) also suggested that enrichment activities can alter the behavior of captive parrots in a positive way (van Hoek and King, 1997). A group of ten birds, eight of which had plucked or destroyed their own feathers, were observed throughout different time intervals in the daytime. In period one, the birds were kept in a cage with one type of perch and food and water presented in bowls. In period two, the birds were kept in a cage with various enrichments, including willow branches to chew on, hidden fruit to find, mineral blocks, egg cartons, newspapers, and fruit baskets. In period three, the parrots had access to a greater variety of perches, including rope and willow perches of varying sizes. In period four, a variety of perches and enrichments were provided. Before the study, observations were also made on the conures to determine how they behaved without any enrichments.

 

During period three, the conures spent more time flying and in period four, they spent more time climbing and hopping. The presence of enrichment items lead to a decrease in the time spent preening. All enrichments were used, but the conures preferred the fruit baskets and branches. Their feather condition stabilized but the conures did not become fully feathered by the end of the study. Even when feather-plucking tendencies are reduced or eliminated, it can take time for the feathers to molt out and grow back.

 

Clearly, captive parrots do not thrive when kept in dull cages for the decades they can live. Parrots in an enriched environment are less likely to display abnormal, stereotypic behaviors or feather plucking. So, how can we enrich our parrots’ environments?

 

How to Provide Enrichment for Pet Parrots

i) Chew Toys

 

Pet parrots generally love to chew and shred things. Wild parrots often have to chew shells or peels to get at their food and most species make their nests in tree hollows, so they often have to chew it up to make it bigger. As a result, most parrots have a strong drive to chew.

Fergus enjoys shredding paper.

 

It’s easy to provide things for a parrot to chew on and destroy, and one does not need to spend money on expensive toys to do this. Unsprayed, non-toxic branches are great for this purpose. Very large parrots, such as Moluccan Cockatoos, may enjoy receiving large pieces of untreated lumber. My own parrots love branches and will eat the buds off of them, and will then peel off the bark. Ripley the Amazon is capable of reducing a large stick into a pile of toothpicks.

Garnet and Emerald enjoy chewing on twigs.

 

Plain cardboard works great as a chew toy too, particularly for the small parrots who may not always like chewing hard pieces of wood. Plain paper is fine as a “toy” as well. Some parrots will pull paper through into their cage if you place it on top. Then, they can shred it to bits. Fergus, a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo I am fostering, likes to shred the rolls of adding-machine or receipt paper I put in his cage. Old phone books can be fun for parrots as well. The inks used in them are generally soy-based and safe.

 

Some birds love to shred, preen and destroy peacock feathers. Lucy, my Maroon-bellied Conure, just loves them. When using peacock feathers as toys, only use natural ones that have not been treated with extra dyes or mite sprays. I ran the feathers I gave Lucy through a wash cycle just to be sure they were safe.

 

Twigs or popsicle sticks from a craft store make great toys for parrots who like to hold items in their feet to chew. I’ve noticed that cockatoos in particular often seem to appreciate foot toys. Pieces of lumber can also be cut into foot-sized pieces. Clean pine cones can make good foot toys as well. Many parrot owners briefly bake pine cones in the oven to kill any pathogens or insects they may harbour.

 

A few cockatoos I have fostered enjoyed shredding baskets I bought for them at the craft store. I buy the ones made of plain wicker that have not been painted or coated in any other way. Baskets can be hung in the parrots’ cage and various foot toys can be placed in them.

Jo destroys a phone book.

 

ii) Foraging Toys

Fresh food need not always be presented in the same dish everyday, although I always make sure that there is a bowl of pellets available for each of my birds. Kabobs work well for presenting food in a new way – just place big slices of vegetables on a stick or blunt-edged skewer and hang it in the parrots’ enclosure. Use a clip to put kale, broccoli, or other veggies in difference places in the cage. Sometimes, presenting foods in new ways encourages parrots to try new foods. My Lineolated Parakeets, Garnet and Emerald, wouldn’t touch broccoli until I clipped it up. Foraging toys are best offered in the morning or evening, as this is when parrots tend to be the most active.

 

Try placing goodies (like seeds or nuts) in a bag or a box for the parrot to rip open. It may be necessary to show the parrot that there is food in the bag or box to get him to try to open it. Nuts in the shell are also great to feed, as the parrot will have to work to get at them. It’s also easy to make a toy out of a coconut shell – just break a coconut in half and remove the meat. The hollow shell can then be used as a toy – drill a hole in the sides and suspend it from a rope and put goodies (like grain or seeds) in there. The coconut meat is also a great treat for large macaws, which need more fat in their diets than other parrots. It’s fine as an occasional treat for other parrots as well.

 

One can also make a “honey stick” like the ones sold in pet stores but with peanut or almond butter or flour paste. Spread nut butter or a paste made out of flour and water on a pine cone or popsicle stick and roll it in seeds, pellets, or dried fruit. A foraging toy can also be made by drilling holes in a chunk of wood and jamming nuts in there. Just be sure the parrot can actually get at the nuts with some effort! I also sometimes place seeds on a clean surface or in a tray of wheat grass so the parrots can “forage” for them. For a large cockatoo I fostered, I would place some seeds on the bottom of a bowl of sticks & rocks. He would have to toss these out to get at the seeds. Since he liked to run each rock through his crest and chew each stick up, this would keep him occupied for quite some time.

Ripley on her swing.

 

iii) Climbing & Swinging

Many parrots love climbing toys. These can include cotton ropes, swings, large tree branches or ladders. Many parrots who enjoy swings (especially cockatoos) will hang on them and flap their wings to make them swing. It’s best to place a swing outside of the cage where there’s more room for the bird to swing around, although they can work well in large cages or aviaries. Ripley’s large swing hangs in the living room by her playstand and Lucy has a few ropes above her playstand she can climb on. The Linnies seem to love their ladders.

 

I would like to add a quick note about rope safety here: please make sure a parrot cannot get itself wrapped up in rope or in loose threads on a swing or rope toy. Loose threads can easily become wrapped around a parrot’s toe, and this could cut off its circulation. It’s part of my bird care routine to make sure that their ropes don’t have any loose threads.

 

iv) Other Toys

Some parrots like mirrors as toys, but others might become too attached to them. Others may try to attack them, and in that case, they are best not used as toys. Some parrots like to groom or beat up stuffed animals, but this is an activity best left for when the parrot is being supervised, as some birds may eat the stuffing or become tangled in it. Other parrots love bells or other noise makers. In general, there are a lot of different types of bird toys out on the market, and rotating toys in and out of a parrot’s cage can keep his environment interesting and stimulating. However, if a parrot has a particular favorite toy, be sure to leave that one in at all times.

 

vi) Social Interactions

 

Parrots are social creatures and need to have a human or another parrot to interact with daily. There are many ways one can interact with a parrot, besides the simply holding and petting him. These include:

 

● Teaching your parrot tricks. Many parrots enjoy learning tricks if positive reinforcement-based methods are used and the training sessions are upbeat. Some outgoing parrots seem to enjoy performing for people.

 

● Encourage your parrot to flap her wings while you hold her up or walk with her. This is great exercise and helps keep wing-trimmed parrots in shape. Of course, an untrimmed parrot can be encouraged to fly where it is safe. In fact, untrimmed parrots should be taught to fly to their owners on command.

 

● Have your parrot with you while you watch movies, read, or surf the internet. Many parrots simply enjoy hanging out with their owners and are content to be with them.

 

vii) Outdoor Excursions

Almost all parrots enjoy being outside to enjoy the sunshine – just be sure your parrot cannot get away by using a harness or cage. A parrot kept inside his whole life may be a bit wary of being outside at first, but he will likely learn to enjoy being outside after some time.

 

Ripley loves going outside on nice days to explore the yard and chew her lilac bush. She is also amazingly secure in public places, so my husband and I take her everywhere we can get away with. Any place that sells food is out of the question, but we’ve taken her to small book stores, aquarium stores, movies stores and hardware stores with no trouble. She has a secure travel carrier so she can be safe in the car. Only very well-trained, outgoing parrots should be taken out like this. Any that show fear on outings are best left at home.

 

Even if they don’t go out much, all pet parrots need some time out of their cages daily. Having a play gym makes this much easier for the owner. A play gym is a spot where the parrot can perch and play with toys that are different from the ones in her cage. These can be purchased, or made out of inexpensive material. For example, a cheap play tree can be made by taking a Christmas tree stand and placing a small, parrot-safe tree in it. The book Parrot Toys and Play Areas explains how to make a variety of different play trees out of branches and/or dowels and PVC connectors.

 

viii) Showers

 

Don’t forget to give your parrot showers. Not only are they essential for his well-being, but many parrots love them. Ripley becomes very excited in the shower and laughs and trills while being sprayed, Garnet and Emerald also love showers and hang upside-down and spread out their wings during one, so they become wet all over. Some parrots, however, prefer to bathe in a shallow dish of water, and some parrots from arid regions of the world, like budgies, like to bathe in dishes of wet greens or wet wheat grass. Lucy, for example, hates showers but will take a daily bath.

 

Conclusion

 

Even though most of us cannot give our parrots the ideal lifestyle they evolved to live, with a bit of work and imagination, it is possible to provide a companion parrot with a stimulating environment. A varied diet, opportunities to forage, climb, fly and chew, along with attention from their owners all contribute to making a parrot’s life much more enriching.

 

References

 

Emery, N. J. 2006. Cognitive ornithology: The Evolution of Avian Intelligence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series B, Biological Sciences 361: 23-43.

 

Meehan, C. C., Garner, J. P., and Mench, J. A. 2004. Environmental enrichment and development of cage stereotypy in Orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica) Developmental Psychology 44: 209-218.

 

Meehan, C. L., Millam, J. R., and Mench, J. A. 2003. Foraging opportunity and increased physical complexity both prevent and reduce psychogenic feather picking by young Amazon parrots. Applied Animal Behavior Science 80: 71-85.

 

Shannon-Nunn, L. and D’Arezzo, C. 2000. Parrot Toys and Play Areas: How to Put Some Fun Into Your Parrot’s Life. Crowfire Publishing, Springfield, VA, USA.

 

Van Hoek, C. S. and King, C. E. 1997. Causation and influence of environmental enrichment on feather picking of the Crimson-bellied Conure (Pyrrhura perlata perlata). Zoo Biology 16: 161-172.

 

Further Information:

**MUST SEE** The Parrot Enrichment Activity Book by Kris Porter

 

-an online E-book with all sorts of ideas on enriching your parrot’s life.

Psittacine Research Project

 

-a part of the University of California, Davis, Department of Animal Science that does research on the needs of captive parrots. There’s an article there on how to choose wooden toys for your parrot.

 

Environmental Enrichment and Welfare in Caged Parrots

 

-an essay on feather plucking and environmental enrichment in captive parrots.

 

 

Site Directory.

Hello, and welcome to my site! This blog is primarily about parrots, and contains several articles I have written for various parrot magazines, primarily Parrots. A couple things were also written specifically for this blog, and I also post interesting news stories about parrots and other birds as I find them.

Please click HERE if you would like to go to a directory of the site with a list of all the posts I’ve made.  There are articles about wild parrots, caring for captive parrots, and parrot behavior, along with news articles about parrots.

Click this link to read more about me and my animals:  Introduction to the site.

Peggy, my Jenday Conure

Rare Parrot Needs the Right Feed to Breed

Here’s a news article on Kakapo parrots from the New Scientist. I went to New Zealand last year, but the last Kakapo are on islands that are off-limits to tourists. I did see a mounted specimen at the National Museum in Wellington (pictured below). I’ll be posting articles I’ve written on the other New Zealand parrots (Kea, Kaka, and Kakariki) soon.

A mounted Kakapo parrot on display in a museum.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg19926734.800-rare-parrot-needs-the-right-feed-to-breed.html?feedId=life_rss20

 

• 10 September 2008
• NewScientist.com news service

THE Atkins diet might work for Hollywood starlets, but it’s hopeless at coaxing the world’s biggest and most endangered parrot to breed. Conservationists have been filling kakapos with high-protein supplements in the hope of boosting their numbers above just 91, but it now seems they have been focusing on the wrong nutrient.

The flightless New Zealand birds only breed when they can feast on the rimu, a conifer that only fruits every three to four years. In non-fruiting years, the scientists fed the birds protein as it is known to be important for breeding in general.

To find out why these breeding programmes failed, nutritional ecologist David Raubenheimer at Massey University, Auckland, compared the nutrient content of the supplements and the rimu. He found the supplements were high in protein and low in calcium, while the fruit was the opposite.

This might be why efforts to get the birds breeding have failed. Calcium is vital for bone growth, says Raubenheimer, and the kakapo have an “unusually large skeleton”. The supplements may have been too protein-rich, he suggests: animals can’t process too much protein, so the kakapo would have stopped eating before they got enough calcium.

A cry for help ruffles feathers

 I heard about this on CBC last night, and Luna actually said a few words into the phone. I hope nothing like this happens to me, as Mitri has a shrill human-like scream. The neighbours do know about him, though.

 

I looked after an Umbrella Cockatoo for a couple of weeks last year. She was a smart, sweet bird, but they really are very high-maintenance pets.  Here is her photo. She would run towards the cell phone and say, “Allo,” whenever it rang. So of course that meant I had to waste a lot of time playing “phone” with her, by putting my cell in different places and getting it to ring.

 

Police rush to Trenton home only to find a noisy cockatoo

Friday, September 05, 2008

BY KEVIN SHEA

“Help me! Help me!”

Police officers called to a South Trenton home Wednesday morning clearly heard what they thought was a female voice calling out for assistance.

Nobody answered the front door, and with seconds ticking away, and a dog barking inside the house, a sergeant ordered officers to kick in the door of the Centre Street home at about 9:50 a.m.

With their guns drawn, officers searched room-by-room and found no humans in distress, but they continued to hear the pleas for help.

In a first floor bedroom, they figured out the mystery: a caged bird, a cockatoo, that was repeatedly saying, “Help me! Help me!”

After police officers figured out there was no alarm, and that they and the 911 callers had been duped, the bird, whose name is Luna, eventually introduced herself with a simple “Hello.”

Luna had struck again, owner Evelyn DeLeon said yesterday.

Her 10-year-old blue-eyed umbrella cockatoo has twice now summoned police to the family’s home and provided the family with some interesting moments over the years with her ever-expanding vocabulary.

About seven years ago, Luna, named for the moon, cried all day, imitating a baby, DeLeon said. Neighbors who heard the cries for hours suspected someone left a baby home alone and called police, who brought the Division of Youth and Family Services with them.

No harmed children, just Luna expressing herself.
“They all laughed,” DeLeon said yesterday of the officers on that call. “But we never thought this was going to happen again.”

DeLeon said Luna learned “Help me!” years ago as a joke. “And I never thought she would use that again.”

“They all laughed,” DeLeon said yesterday of the officers on that call. “But we never thought this was going to happen again.”

DeLeon said Luna learned “Help me!” years ago as a joke. “And I never thought she would use that again.”

Luna often rides on DeLeon’s shoulder when she walks to corner stores, and loves to watch television, where she picks up sounds and words.

She often responds to the telephone ringing with, “Hello.”

But she also has a sultry, drawn out, “Helloooo,” that has tricked many a man in public, who often think DeLeon is coming on to them. “I tell them I’m not the one talking,” DeLeon said.

Over the years, Luna has become bilingual, saying “Hola,” to Spanish speakers, and has picked up some street slang with “Yo,” while sometimes using the more straightforward “Hello” to others.

Yesterday, a Times reporter attempted an interview with Luna, but she was not in a chatty mood, only mustering a “Hello,” and repeating her name several times.

Luna is sneaky as she is gabby, her owner said.

Years ago, the DeLeons came home from a weekend in Atlantic City and Luna was sitting on a rocking chair, watching television. She had somehow managed to turn on the TV.

Yesterday’s commotion started when two clients of DeLeon’s husband’s driving school, which he runs from the family home, came to the front door without an appointment and knocked, then heard Luna saying, “Help me! Help me!”

They called police, who got to the house and called an ambulance and the fire department to respond, not knowing what they would find inside.

After DeLeon arrived home, police officials arranged for the city’s public works department to repair her front door, which DeLeon was pleased with. She understands why they broke into her home.

“You don’t know what I’ve gone through in the last 10 years,” DeLeon said with a happy sigh. “Oh, Luna.”

Living with a Maroon-bellied Conure

On to conures now! Here’s an article I wrote for the December 2006 issue of Parrots magazine. Since I wrote it, I’ve done more clicker training with Lucy. She’s a very fast and eager learner.  I often refer to Pyrrhura conures as macaws scrunched down into a handful of bird. They have a lot of personality, but are a nice size and aren’t too loud.

Living with a Maroon-bellied Conure

As often happens with new parrot owners, a few months after getting my first bird, (Garnet the Lineolated Parakeet), I decided that one parrot wasn’t enough and that I wanted to add another one to the family. After all, I had the room, and had become captivated with these clever, charismatic animals. However, deciding on the species to adopt was difficult, given the wonderful diversity of parrot species available as pets. I did want to limit my search to a medium-sized species, but many such parrots exist. For example, Green-cheeked and Maroon-bellied Conures are gorgeous, a nice size and very clever, but Quaker Parakeets are too, and they are often talented talkers. On the other hand, Senegal Parrots also have that “big parrot in a small body” quality I was looking for and they can also make pleasant companions.

So, I started to keep my eyes open for a parrot of one these species that seemed to like me and needed a home. I eventually came across the website of a local parrot breeder who had two adult Maroon-bellied Conures available, and I decided to have a look at them. They were a breeding pair that was separated because they began to fight with each other. They were about six years old, and since both were friendly to people, they were being adopted out as pets. One of them – a bold female named Callie – was immediately up on my shoulder and would gladly step up onto my hand. It didn’t take me very long to decide to adopt her, and my husband, Quentin, and I re-named her “Lucy.”

Lucy

Maroon-Bellied vs. Green Cheek Conure

The Maroon-bellied Conure belongs to the Pyrrhura genus of conures, which are a group of small, long-tailed parrots from South America. The Lexicon of Parrots lists sixteen different species in the genus, although not all of them are common in aviculture. The Maroon-bellied Conure (Pyrrhura frontalis) and the Green-cheeked Conure (Pyrrhura molinae), are the most common members of the genus in captivity and they are very similar to each other. They are both about cockatiel-sized, and are dark green with light brown chests, blue flight feathers, long, wedge-shaped tails and white eye rings. The names of these two conures do not give away their differences, since both species have maroon-coloured bellies. However, a look at the birds’ tails and heads can allow one to see the difference. A Green-cheeked Conure’s tail will be solid maroon, whereas a Maroon-bellied Conure’s will be maroon on the bottom and light olive-green tipped with brownish red on the top. The top of a Green-cheek Conure’s head will be a dark greyish colour, while the top of a Maroon-bellied Conure’s head will be green.

Other Pyrrhura Species

Several other Pyrrhura species can also be found in the pet trade and like the Maroon-bellied and Green-cheeked Conures, they are small birds that have dark green wings and backs and red or maroon tails. This trait gives this group of birds their name – the genus name Pyrrhura comes from the Greek terms “pyrros” and “auro,” which mean “fire” and “tail,” respectively. Other Pyrrhura conures seen as pets include the Black-capped Conure (P. rupicola), the Pearly Conure (P. perlata lepida), the Crimson-belled Conure (P. perlata perlata), the Painted Conure (P. picta), the White-eared Conure (P. leucotis) and the Fiery-shouldered Conure (P. egregia). Most of the information I provide below on Maroon-bellies will be applicable to these and other Pyrrhura species.

The “Quiet” Conures

As a whole, conures have a reputation for being very noisy birds. Certainly, many of the large conures in the Aratinga genus, such as the Sun Conure, can produce very loud shrieks that may leave their owners wanting some earplugs. The small Pyrrhura conures can also produce shrill calls, but they are not as loud as the calls produced by their bigger, brighter cousins. This makes Pyrrhura conures a suitable choice of parrot for most living situations, including apartments. Lucy is generally quiet during the day aside from a few low-volume squawks, and she will give a few contact calls in the morning if I’m late getting up, but her calls are no where near as loud as the ones produced by Ripley, my Red-lored Amazon, or by Randy, a Quaker Parakeet I am currently fostering for a local parrot rescue. She is, however, a little bit louder than my Lineolated Parakeets, Garnet and Emerald, but “Linnies” are among the quietest of all parrot species.

Pyrrhura conures are not exceptional talkers and most that learn to use human speech only say up to 10 to 20 words, although a few exceptionally gifted individuals certainly exist. Lucy has a low, robotic speaking voice that’s hard to understand and she does not talk much, although she does a convincing (not to mention irritating) imitation of a squeaky rodent wheel. However, I’ve met some Maroon bellies at pet stores and parrot club meetings that chat non-stop in a quiet, raspy voice, so whether or not a Pyrrhura conure says much seems to depend on the individual bird’s personality.

Lucy on her boing

Feeding a Pyrrhura Conure

Wild Maroon-bellied Conures eat foods from at least two dozen plant species, which can include domesticated crop species and introduced exotic ones. Seeds and grains make up a large portion of their diet, as do leaves. This makes the diet of this species a bit different from the diet most other wild parrot species, which do not eat mature leaves. Many wild parrots will, however, eat leaf buds. Since wild Maroon-bellies eat leaves, I would think that pet ones would benefit from having green, leafy foods like dandelion leaves, turnip greens, kale, or mustard greens provided to them. I often clip such foods up in Lucy’s cage. Wild Maroon-bellies also eat sprouts, stems, fruit pulp, insect galls and parts of conifer cones.

Much like their wild counterparts, pet Maroon-bellied Conures appreciate and thrive on a varied diet. Conures that were weaned onto a varied diet, as Lucy was, are very likely to accept a wide variety of foods. Lucy eats a diet composed of about 50% pellets (RoudyBush and Harrison’s brand), with the rest composed of “human food” including whole grains such as quinoa, fruit, vegetables, nuts (including pine nuts), seeds, and lentils. The fruit and vegetable portion of her diet leans heavily towards dark green, red or orange ones like bell peppers (Lucy’s favorite!), mango, sweet potato, carrot, broccoli, and dandelion leaves because of their high vitamin A content. She also adores fresh raspberries (straight from the backyard), corn, snap peas, prickly pear fruits, grapes (seeds included), and bits of apple. Feeding her a balanced diet is no problem, as she will eat nearly anything. In fact, she is as bad as our dogs when it comes to begging for food, since she bobs her head rapidly (a begging gesture) at anyone she sees eating. She is generally given her fresh “people food” during dinner time, so she doesn’t feel left out. She’s quite a messy eater and tosses a lot of food to the floor, so of course our smaller dog, Pharaoh, loves to hang out under her play stand.

Housing a Conure

Don’t let their small size fool you: the Pyrrhura conures are very active birds with a lot of energy! As a result, they need relatively large-sized cages for their size. Pyrrhura conures are about the size of a cockatiel, but I have noticed that most cockatiel cages are a bit small for them. A cage intended for a slightly larger bird is best, as long as the bar spacing is appropriate. Of course, the cage must be outfitted with a variety of perches and toys. For example, Lucy’s cage contains wood perches, a rope perch, and a cement perch. Her toys include a large bundle of twigs and some branches for her to chew on, some peacock feathers for her to preen and destroy, and a ladder. She also has a box of various store-bought toys I rotate in and out of her cage for variety. Most conures seem to enjoy chewing twigs and taking the bark off of larger branches, so I generally recommend clean, non-toxic, unsprayed branches as an enrichment item for them.

A play stand is also an excellent item for a conure owner to purchase or build, as having one will give the owner a place to put the conure when she is out of the cage but not perching on the owner. Being out on the play stand also gives the parrot a change of scenery from the usual cage she is in. I bought Lucy’s play stand at a pet shop, but one can also be made out of natural branches. Lucy’s play stand has a spot for food and water bowls, and hooks that toys can be hanged from. Beside the spot her play stand is usually located hangs a very large, coiled rope she loves to climb and swing on. Conures are very acrobatic parrots, so they often appreciate the opportunity to play on ropes or swings. Many of them also love to play on their backs, but Lucy does not.

Bath and Sleep Time

Most Pyrrhura conures enjoy bathing, and Lucy seems to have a bath in her rather large water dish almost daily, as evidenced by the fact that she, and the papers on her cage’s bottom, are often soaked when I go to check them upon arriving home from work. I also frequently offer her a large, shallow container of water for her to bathe in while she is out of her cage.

A bathing container for a conure should be big enough for the bird to get right into, and the water should be relatively shallow – about an inch or so deep will do; maybe a bit less for a bird that has never tried a bath before. The conure will likely splash the water around with her head so she gets wet all over. Most conures prefer to bathe in a tub of water over receiving a shower. Lucy seems to hate being sprayed, so I do not shower her as I do the Garnet, Emerald, and Ripley. Randy seems to like showers or a bath.

Lucy has a bath

While they love to play and socialize, Pyrrhura conures also need plenty of quiet time to sleep. About 10 hours each night is needed, and most will also appreciate the chance to have an afternoon nap. Many of them also enjoy sleeping in cloth huts, which is fine as long as the bird doesn’t start treating it as a nest area. I offered one of these to Lucy after seeing another conure sleeping in one, but I eventually took it away since she ignored it for many months.

The Pyrrhura Persona

Among the most gregarious parrots I have ever met are several Pyrrhura conures. These little parrots, if treated gently and with affection, are typically very sociable. When handled frequently from a young age by a number of people, most will not become “one-person birds” that attack all but the favored person. Of course, every parrot is an individual, and a few conure owners do struggle with this problem. Luckily, I do not; as Lucy will step up nicely for almost anyone she meets. She is also quite affectionate and allows me to preen the feathers on her head, and she enjoys sitting on my shoulder while I type or read. However, when she gets bored of that, she climbs down and often starts to peck at the computer mouse or keyboard or shred papers. When she does this I put her on her play stand where she can play with something more appropriate. Most Pyrrhura conures love to chew and shred paper, and get into things they shouldn’t. For their safety, supervision is needed when a Pyrrhura conure is out of her cage. These little birds are very curious and may go exploring and create mischief or hurt themselves when not being watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ulsVp6Mvvw

Above: Lucy decides to have a bath at a bird show. She’s very outgoing and likes outings.

Lucy eats a peanut

Nippy?

The most common problem faced by owners of these little parrots is likely nippiness. It is certainly not an unsolvable problem by any means and most conures that are taught commands like “step up”” using kind, positive techniques are easily to handle. Pyrrhura conures in general are not overly aggressive, but potential owners should be willing to work around any nippiness that could occur. Luckily, Lucy rarely nips, and has never broken my skin. Her body language generally lets me know if she’s likely to nip which helps me avoid being bitten. If she’s standing upright with her nape feathers erect, I wait for her to relax before picking her up. When on her cage or play stand, she also sometimes does what I call the “conure strut,” where she slowly struts back and forth while striking at the air with her beak. This little display basically means, “Back off!” Once she stops strutting, she’s again safe to pick up. She was quite cage territorial when I got her, so I had to wait for her to come out on her own before asking her to step up, although she now allows me to place my hand in her cage with no problems.

Feather-picking in Conures

Another potential problem a conure owner may have to deal with is feather-plucking. It’s not common in these birds, but does occasionally occur. About three months after we brought her home, Lucy began shredding her chest feathers. This puzzled and alarmed me, as she was eating a balanced diet, had lots of toys to chew on, got plenty of exercise (she was unclipped) and bathed often. What was I doing wrong?

So, it was off to the veterinarian to make sure she was completely healthy. She was, and the vet recommended that we make sure she had lots of toys to shred and play with to distract her from chewing her feathers. I had been giving her branches and other toys to chew on. However, I did catch her playing with a feather she shed which gave me the idea of giving her some peacock feathers to play with. I ordered some natural feathers, washed them, and clipped several in her cage. She did indeed begin shredding those, in addition to the extra twigs and paper I gave her.

She stopped destroying her chest feathers after a couple of weeks, and they all eventually molted and grew back. Again, almost exactly one year later, she began over preening her feathers again, but this episode was brief and the destruction wasn’t nearly as bad. Her feather condition has since improved. My theory is now that the over preening was a displacement behavior that occurred when she went into breeding mode and did not have a mate. Since she couldn’t mate and lay eggs she put her energies into preening herself, which got so excessive that she wrecked some of her feathers. Giving her extra toys and objects to shred seemed to give her an alternative activity to ruining her own feathers.

Good “Starter” Birds

Many general books and websites on parrots note that Pyrrhura conures can make excellent pets for first-time parrot owners. They do have many characteristics that make this true – they fit into almost any living situation because of their small size and relatively quiet voices, they are easy to train, and they are generally friendly. However, do not let their “starter bird” status fool you into thinking that these are low-maintenance pets, as they are not. I like to think of them as tiny macaws, which isn’t too far off, as the conures and macaws are closely related. A Pyrrhura conure kept as a pet will need as much attention and care as many of the larger birds.

Conclusion

I would recommend a Pyrrhura conure, such as a Maroon-bellied Conure, as a pet to anyone who is interested in having an active, friendly bird with a lot of personality and who doesn’t mind keeping a high maintenance pet. These beautiful, bold little birds have all of the personality and intelligence of a larger parrot without so much noise and expense. Although she’s caused me a bit of worry and can be a lot of work, Lucy has made a fantastic addition to the family because of her friendly, inquisitive personality.

References

Arndt, T. 1996. The Lexicon of Parrots. Arndt-Verlag, Germany. Also available online at: http://www.arndt-verlag.com/

Forshaw, J. M. and Cooper, W. T. (Illustrator). 1978. Parrots of the World. TFH Publications, Neptune, New Jersey, USA.

Kristosch, G. C., and Marcondes-Machado, L. O. 2001. Diet and Feeding Behavior          of the Reddish-Bellied Parakeet (Pyrrhura frontalis) in an Araucaria Forest in          Southeastern Brazil.. Orthinologica Neotropical. 12: 215-223.

Living with a Red-lored Amazon

Continuing with Amazon parrots, here’s an article I wrote for “Parrots” magazine (issue 117, July 2007) about my Red-lored Amazon, Ripley.

Living With a Red-Lored Amazon

The Red-lored Amazon (Amazona autumnalis) is a medium-sized parrot that is native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.I have the privilege of sharing my life with one of these striking, good-natured parrots.My husband, Quentin, and I obtained her through a local parrot club. We received a message from the club’s E-mail list concerning a Red-lored Amazon for sale and it took only a few seconds for us to decide to have a look. We had been considering adding an Amazon to our family for a while because of their outgoing nature and adaptability.We met Ripley and since she was calm around our dogs and seemed to like Quentin and me, we decided to adopt her.

Judging by the open band on Ripley’s leg, which contains a three-letter code for a Florida-based import station, she is a wild-caught parrot.Red-lored Amazons are listed on CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) Appendix II, meaning that the species is not in immediate danger of extinction, but could become so if trade were not regulated. Thankfully, it is now illegal to import wild parrots into the United States and Canada. However, there are sometimes older, mature wild-caught Amazons up for adoption there.

Appearance and Origin

There are four Red-lored Amazon subspecies, with the nominate one, Amazona autumnalis autumnalis (Ripley’s subspecies) being the most common in aviculture.This subspecies is sometimes referred to as the Yellow-cheeked Amazon or the Red-lored Parrot.Like other Amazon parrots, Red lores are stocky, predominantly green birds with bright splashes of colour on their faces, wings, and tails. At about 33 to 36 cm tall, they are one of the medium-sized Amazons, and are smaller than Blue-fronted (A. aestiva) or Double-yellow Headed Amazons (A. ochrocephala), but are slightly larger than White-fronted Amazons (A. albifrons). Red-lored Amazons have (you guessed it!) a red forehead, combined with yellow cheeks, a mauve-coloured crown, and grey-tipped nape feathers.Some individuals have red feathers on the cheeks and under the chin. The eyes are orange and are surrounded by a white ring and the flight feathers have dark blue or red tips.The tail feathers are dark green at the base with lime green tips. A small number of yellow mutation Red-lores have been bred in captivity.

Red-lored Amazon Subspecies

A. a. autumnalis occurs from the lowlands of eastern Mexico south to northern Nicaragua.They also occur on the Bay Islands, Honduras, which are slightly east of the mainland.Additionally, a small number of feral individuals live among larger flocks of Green-cheeked (A. viridigenalis) and Lilac-crowned Amazons (A. finschi) in southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. In northern Nicaragua, autumnalis intergrades with the next subspecies, the Salvin’s Amazon, A. a. salvini. This subspecies is very similar to the nominate one, and the two likely interbreed where their ranges overlap. However, the Salvin’s Amazon is, on average, slightly larger, and lacks the yellow cheek patches that autumnalis has.This subspecies ranges from Nicaragua to western Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The parrot, Tiko, featured in the book, “The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship,” by ornithologist Joanna Burger, is a Salvin’s Amazon.This book is a great read for anyone interested in what life with an Amazon can be like.

The Salvin’s Amazon starts to intergrade with the Lilacine Amazon (A. a. lilacina) in southwest Colombia.The Lilacine Amazon occurs there and in Ecuador, so it is also referred to as the Ecuadorian Amazon. Lilacine Amazons differ from Salvin’s Amazons in having the forepart of the crown red, and a darker grey beak.

The last subspecies is the Diademed Amazon (A. a. diadema).They look quite similar to the Salvin’s Amazon, but the nape is pale green and the cheeks have a bluish tinge. Their range does not overlap with the other subspecies’ ranges, as Diademed Amazons occur in northwestern Brazil. Diademed Amazons are very rare in captivity.

Similar Species

In captivity, the Salvin’s, Lilacine, and Diademed Amazons could be mistaken for the similar and closely related Lilac-Crowned and Green-cheeked Amazons. However, the latter two species have much lighter horn-colored beaks that make them easily distinguishable from any Red-lored subspecies. The yellow cheeks of the Red-lored Amazon make them easy to distinguish from the other Amazon species that have red foreheads.

Feeding a Red-Lored Amazon

Very little is known about the diet of Red-lored Amazons in the wild. Forshaw’s Parrots of the World notes that they feed on fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, buds and blossoms. These likely come from several dozen different plant species, as a study on a related species, the Lilac-crowned Amazon (Renton, 2001), found that the parrots ate the seeds and fruits of at least 33 different plants. Seeds formed the majority (81.8%) of the Lilac-crowned Amazon’s diet, with fruit (8.8%), insects (6.6%), and bromeliad stems (2.9%) forming of the remainder of the diet. Most of the seeds eaten were unripe.

It is not possible to precisely replicate the diet of a wild Amazon parrot for a captive one, as most of the seeds and fruits that they eat are not available to pet owners.

Additionally, a diet consisting primarily of seeds is not necessarily the best one for a pet Amazon, because seeds are high in fat and most pet parrots are not nearly as active as wild ones, which must fly several kilometers each day in search of food. Furthermore, most of the seed mixes available for pet parrots lack many essential vitamins, such as vitamin A, that are needed by parrots for optimal health .Many pet food manufacturers produce parrot pellets that contain all the vitamins and minerals parrots are believed to need based on studies of captive birds of a limited number of species.

Enjoying some millet.

Ripley’s base diet consists of Roudy Bush and Harrison’s brand parrot pellets, and she has a bowl of these available in her cage at all times. Each morning, she receives a treat of either a nutriberry, a small piece of spray millet, or an almond in the shell. Each evening, she is treated to a bowl of fresh food, which could consist of a mixture of vegetables, fruits, or cooked grain. Sweet potato, mango, and red peppers also make up a large part of the fresh foods in Ripley’s diet because of their high vitamin A content. I also sometimes clip broccoli, dandelion leaves, or wheat grass in her cage in the morning before I leave for work. A few times a week, she is given a spoonful of a seed and nut mixture. Ripley seems to particularly enjoy the cooked parrot mix I prepare periodically. This consists of different cooked grains (brown rice, whole wheat couscous, and/or quinoa) mixed with lentils, peas, carrots, and any other vegetables I have on hand. Ripley becomes quite excited when given this, and she trills and whistles while she eats it. Amazon parrots are rarely picky eaters and tend to enjoy their food very much. Unfortunately, they are also prone to obesity, which is why I limit the amount of seed Ripley eats.

The Importance of Showers

Being rain forest parrots, most Red-lored Amazons absolutely adore being showered. This essential part of parrot care should not be neglected, as Amazons that are rarely or never showered tend to have very dry skin and dull, dusty feathers. Ripley loves to be showered with a spray bottle, and becomes very excited and noisy while she is being sprayed. She’ll laugh, whistle, trill, and flap her wings exuberantly during a shower, and she is obviously enjoying herself very much. During showers, I typically keep spraying her until she’s soaked to the skin and couldn’t possibly get any wetter. I aim the spray bottle above Ripley’s head during a shower, as most parrots don’t appreciate being sprayed right in the face. Ripley is given a shower several times each week, and she always appreciates receiving them.

Ripley enjoys a shower.

 

Housing an Amazon

As with any parrot, go with the “bigger is better” rule when choosing a cage for an Amazon. Since most parrots love to climb, at least some of the cage bars should be horizontal. The cage should be large enough to hold several perches, a few toys, and food and water dishes, while still giving the parrot room to move around, climb, and flap her wings.

Of course, an Amazon should not be stuck in a cage all day, as any parrot can quickly become bored, frustrated and aggressive if kept alone and confined constantly. An Amazon whose social needs are neglected will also be more likely to become a problem screamer. Ripley is out of her cage whenever Quentin or I am home and she has two play stands (one on each floor) so she can be with us wherever we are. She does not scream often when we are at home and I think the fact that she is with us while we go about our daily activities explains why. We try not to give her any reasons to scream by making sure she is not lonely or in need of anything.

While they are very social birds, Amazons are flexible and can be independent when needed, so most are capable of amusing themselves while their people are away at work. An Amazon’s cage should be stocked with toys so she will have something to do during the day. Like most Amazons, Ripley enjoys chewing, so she is often given fresh branches and pieces of wood to destroy. I also have a parrot toy box full of toys that I rotate in and out of Ripley’s cage so she often has something different to play with, and I’ve placed all my parrot’s cages in the same room so they can watch and chatter to each other during the day. However, since the other parrots (a Maroon-bellied Conure and two Lineolated Parakeets) are much smaller than Ripley, they are not allowed to directly interact with her.

Personality and Talking Ability

I hate making generalizations about a parrot species’ personality, as every bird is an individual and may have a unique set of quirks, and likes and dislikes. Additionally, a parrot’s personality will depend on how it has been treated by humans. However, Ripley’s bold, outgoing, adaptable and resilient nature exemplifies the “typical” Amazona persona.Amazons are not prone to problems like feather-plucking, excessive screaming, or extreme fearfulness, although these problems are not completely unheard of. Providing a pet Amazon with enrichment and plenty of companionship (human or parrot) makes these problems less likely to occur.

Ripley is a very confident parrot, and she enjoys outings outside the house, and is quite calm, fearless, and well behaved when she goes out. Ripley often comes with my husband and me to several small local businesses that include a book shop, a pet supply shop, an aquarium shop, and a movie shop. She seems to like the tanks of large cichlid fish at the aquarium shop. These fish often crowd up to her when we put her up to the glass and she usually looks at them and whistles or laughs. There’s a fish tank in our living room that she likes to look at as well.

Amazon parrots, particularly the Blue-fronted, Yellow-naped, Double Yellow-headed and Yellow-fronted types, have a reputation for being excellent talkers. Many Red-lored Amazons learn to speak very well, but others do not.Overall, the species is a moderate talker.Quite a few of them, like Ripley, love to whistle and produce other interesting sound effects. She has a large repertoire of loud beeps, squeaks, trills, and whistles, and sounds quite a bit like R2D2 from the Star Wars movies. She also has a very cute, human-sounding laugh that she uses with great frequency. She often does try to speak, especially if she hears people talking, but her voice is not clear and I think she strings together random syllables to try to mimic our speech. So far, all I can make out from Ripley are, “good girl,” “what’cha doin’,” and “where you goin’.”This is fine with me, as I generally do not care if my parrots talk or not and admittedly haven’t put much effort into speech training them, although I do talk to them a lot. Ripley is not at all shy about vocalizing in front of strangers, and she can be very loud when speaking or whistling. She always chimes in with a loud string of gibberish when Quentin or I are on the phone.I would not recommend a Red-lore, or any other Amazon, for someone looking for a quiet pet. Ripley’s natural call is very loud and monotonous, but she only uses it during the morning when she first awakes and in the evening right when my husband or I get home. It is normal for Amazon parrots to vocalize loudly during these times – they are simply calling to their other human “flock” members, which may be people or other birds in the house.

Amazons in general do have a reputation, not entirely unfounded, for being aggressive and difficult to handle during the breeding season. This is particularly true for males. However, in some individuals, breeding season passes with no problems.Red-lored Amazons are one of the gentler, even-tempered Amazon species, but they too may be territorial at times, especially during the spring. Some of them will strike at strange people who come too close to their cages or play stands. Training a particularly feisty Amazon to step up on a hand-held perch can make it easier for an owner to handle him if he doesn’t want anyone reaching in his cage. This type of training is best done using positive reinforcement.

Amazon Body Language

Luckily, Amazons are rarely subtle in their behaviors, and this makes it easier for an owner to gauge his parrot’s mood and avoid bites by not handling the parrot when he is overly excited or agitated.To me, this is one of the strong points of owning an Amazon. If the parrot owner has researched parrot behavior well, an Amazon should be rather predictable. An Amazon’s eyes are usually light orange, which makes it easy to see when the bird is “pinning” or expanding and contracting his irises rapidly. Ripley’s eyes pin when she’s excited, vocalizing, or trying out a new food. Eye-pinning combined with raised nape feathers, and a fanned-out tail generally indicates that the parrot should not be handed. Amazons in breeding condition may strut back and forth while fanning the tail and pinning the eyes. A strutting, displaying Amazon should likely be left alone. Ripley sometimes struts around on top of her cage and when she does, we (Quentin and I) let her be. Once she stops and calms down, we can pick her up again.

One Person Birds?

Amazon parrots have a reputation for being “one-person” birds that will bite and attack all but the favored person. Males in particular have a tendency to do this. However, Amazons and other parrots can learn to tolerate or enjoy being handled by multiple people if they were well socialized as youngsters and were taught to respond to the “step-up” cue with positive reinforcement by numerous people. However, even if they allow themselves to be handled by a few people, many Amazons will still have a favorite, preferred person.

Ripley bonded with Quentin almost immediately, and she would often nip me when I went to hold her. I also could not place my hand in her cage without being bitten, whereas Quentin could easily take her out of her cage. This is ironic, given that it was my idea to get an Amazon, although Quentin loves parrots as well has become attached to Ripley. I did want Ripley to let me handle her since I wanted to be able to take her out of her cage so she could play on her large play stand when Quentin was not home. I started by frequently offering her sunflower seeds, almonds and peanuts, her favorite treats, from my hand. I’m also the person who usually gives Ripley her showers, and I taught her to step up on a hand-held perch so I could get her out of her cage easily and without being bitten. She was often rewarded with a sunflower seed for stepping on a hand-held perch. I then taught her to step up onto my hand (again, using her favourite treats) and I sometimes rewarded her for stepping on my hand by taking her to Quentin. However, I was always careful to never place her on Quentin’s hand (in other words, reward her) after a bite, so she didn’t learn that she will be rewarded for biting. I can now handle her with few problems, and she sometimes wants me to hold her. She lets me know this by looking towards me while bopping her head and raising her feet. However, Quentin is still the only person who can scratch her head, and Ripley often gently holds onto his thumb while she does this. Amazons are rarely “cuddly” birds, although many enjoy having their heads scratched by their favourite person.

Conclusion

Ripley has made a wonderful addition to my family, and I very much appreciate her intelligence, and her gregarious, bold personality.However, an Amazon parrot can be a very high-maintenance pet, so I would only recommend them to people who have the time to allow their pet a few hours of out of cage time daily, who don’t mind a bit of noise and mess, and who have done some research on parrot training and parrot behavior. However, with the right person, a Red-lored Amazon can make an outstanding, life-long friend.

 

References

Forshaw, J. M. 1977. Parrots of the World.T. F. H. Publications, Inc. Neptune, N.J., USA.

Renton, K. 2001. Lilac-crowned parrot diet and food resource availability: Resource tracking by a parrot seed predator. Condor 103: 62-69.

The Behaviour of Wild Amazon Parrots

I think I’ll start with Amazon parrot stuff. The following is an article I wrote for “Companion Parrot Quarterly,” issue 71. Enjoy!

The Behavior of Wild Amazon Parrots

Introduction

Amazon parrots (genus Amazona) can make enjoyable companions for people who appreciate them and understand their behavior. However, they are not necessarily easy parrots to keep and without proper care and training, they can start to become difficult for a variety of reasons. For example, some Amazon owners end up frustrated with their pets, because some Amazons vocalize loudly and excessively, and some will attack certain people and appear to love others. Some fiercely guard their cages, and the rare individual will tear out his own feathers for no apparent reason.

However, when examined in the context of the life Amazons have evolved to live, the reasons behind some of these behaviors will become apparent. For example, wild parrots must be noisy to communicate with other members of their foraging flock, and they are territorial during the breeding season because otherwise they would lose a nesting site to a competitor. This article is intended to introduce the reader to the behavior of wild Amazon parrots so they may better understand their own parrot’s inherently wild nature. Although I focus on one genus, much of the information presented here will also apply to other parrot types.

A Day in the Life of a Wild Amazon

Wild Amazons generally begin their days as the sun rises. At this time, they start calling loudly to each other. They then assemble into foraging flocks and begin their morning foraging expedition. A wild Amazon flock’s morning foraging trip may last for a few hours and can take them miles from thier night roost – up to seven kilometers in the case of Puerto Rican Amazons (Amazona vittata; Snyder et al., 1987). Amazons in the wild must travel long distances to search for food, as they feed primarily on seeds and fruit, and most plant species they eat from produce fruit at specific times of the year, and different patches of plants will often fruit at different times. Thus, sources of food are distributed in a patchy manner across the environment and can take effort to find. Lilac-crowned Amazons (Amazona finschi) must switch habitat types each year to cope with variable food availability (Renton, 2001). During the dry season (April and June) they forage in semi-deciduous woodland and during the rainy season, they migrate to and forage in strictly deciduous forests.

Wild Amazons generally eat a wide variety of food items. For example, Lilac-crowned Amazons eat food from at least 33 species of plants, and their diet includes 81.8% seed, 8.8% fruit, 6.6% insect larvae, and 2.9% bromeliad stems (Renton, 2001). Puerto Rican Amazons eat food from at least 60 plant species, and their diet consists primarily of seeds and fruits, although leaf buds and flowers are also included in their diet (Snyder et al., 1987). Most Amazons forage silently up in trees and rarely descend to the ground.

Although they must travel widely to find food, wild Amazon parrots are not active all day. During the afternoon, they nap and spend time quietly preening themselves and their mates. A second foraging expedition can occur during the late afternoon. As evening approaches (about five to seven pm), the Amazons will begin to assemble into large sleeping flocks. They become very noisy at this time to attract more members to the roost, which can end up containing a huge number of birds. For example, while Yellow-naped Amazons (Amazona ochrocephala auropalliata) forage in small groups, they will sleep in roosts containing up to 300 birds (Bradbury, 2003). Sleeping groups can get even larger than this – for instance, where they are common, roosts of Orange-winged Amazons (Amazona amazonica) can contain thousands of birds (Low, 2005).

Implications for Amazon Owners

When not nesting, wild Amazon parrots spend a great deal of time foraging or resting. Companion Amazons also need about 10 hours of sleep nightly, and those that don’t receive this can become tired and irritable. Many pet parrots also appreciate the chance to have a nap in the afternoon. In households where people stay up late, enabling the Amazon get enough sleep nightly may require that the parrot have a separate, small sleeping cage in a quiet room.

Recent research also suggests that the opportunity to forage naturally is important for pet parrots. For example, one study found that young, captive Orange-winged Amazons that were given the opportunity to forage for food in their enclosure were less likely to overpreen and destroy their feathers than birds that were given their food in a bowl (Meehan et al., 2003). All birds in the study were given a nutritious diet and were checked by a veterinarian to rule out physical causes for the feather destructive behaviors, which can sometimes be caused by illness or malnutrition. This study indicates that, in some cases, overpreening can be a displacement behavior, or one that takes the place of another natural, but unavailable, behavior that the parrot would normally do (such as foraging). This is not to say that all cases of feather plucking are the result of an impoverished environment, but that it may be a contributing factor in certain cases.

There are a variety of ways to give a pet parrot the opportunity to forage. Food can be placed in closed boxes or paper bags so the parrot has to work to get at it. At first, the parrot may have to see the food being placed in the container so he becomes more motivated to go after it. Food can also be presented in new or different ways beyond placing it in a bowl. For instance, slices of vegetables can be put on a blunt-edged skewer and hung in the cage, or pieces of kale or broccoli can be clipped up in different locations in a cage or on a play stand. Seeds can be spread on a clean surface for the parrot to search for, or pieces of dried fruit, nuts or seeds can be jammed between the scales of a clean pinecone. With some creativity, it need not be too difficult or expensive to give a parrot ways to have to “work” for his food.

Wild Amazon Vocalizations

Parrots are often expected to learn some of our language, so it’s only fair that parrot owners learn a bit of theirs, as wild parrots have very rich vocal repertoires of their own. Bradbury (2003) lists several different types of vocalizations noted in a study on White-fronted (Amazona albifrons) and Yellow-naped Amazons:

1) Loud Contact Call: This call is typically very loud and monotonous. In the wild, separated pairs use it to call to each other, foraging flocks use it to get assembled and parrots at a night roost use it to recruit other parrots to the roost. Many companion Amazons will use a loud contact call to keep in touch with their owners. Give your parrot a shout back if he pages you like this.

2) Soft Contact Call: Flocks of flying Amazons will call to each other softly, presumably to keep together.

3) Preflight Call: This brief call is given before a parrot takes off in flight.

4) Begging: This is crying vocalization given by very young parrots. A crouching posture and wing quivering typically accompany it. A newly adopted juvenile parrot, even if weaned, may resort to begging in a new home if he feels unsure of what to do. Soft food offered from a spoon or the fingers will help reassure the young parrot.

5) Pair Duets: Mated pairs of birds from many tropical species, from songbirds to parrots, duet with each other. In wild Amazons, males and females will vocalize together, often outside of the nest. These vocalizations presumably let other parrots know that a particular territory and nesting spot is taken.

6) Warbles: These are soft, highly variable noises produced by wild Amazons during rest periods. Their function is unknown, as Amazons will warble even while alone. Instead of warbling, many pet Amazons will practice human words and other sounds they have learned during rest periods.

7) Agonistic Protest: This is a high-pitched squawk or squeal produced by an angry parrot.

8 ) Distress Call: An injured or distressed parrot will produce this call.

9) Alarm Call: This is a loud, sharp cry given in response to a predator, such as a bird of prey. This will cause nearby birds to fly away. Flocks of Puerto Rican Amazons often contain sentinel birds that perch at a spot higher than the rest of the flock’s and continually scan the surrounding areas (Snyder et al., 1987). Generally, no specific bird always acts as a sentinel – one bird may be a sentinel one moment, and then another bird may take over at a different time or place.

10)Postcopulatory call: This specific vocalization has been heard in White-fronted Amazons. They have a specific call that is produced after mating.

There are likely other calls with different functions in other Amazon species. Captive Amazons can, of course, learn many additional calls from their environment. Vocalizations in parrots and other animals can be either innate (“hard wired”) or learned. Much of a parrot’s vocal repertoire, even in the wild, appears to be learned. Studies on the dialects that exist across the range of wild Amazons confirm this. Yellow-naped Amazons have different regional dialects or variations for several of their calls throughout their range in Central America (Wright and Dorin, 2001). Regional dialects have been observed in other Amazon species as well (Nottebohm, 1970; Kleeman and Gilandi, 2005). There are two possible reasons that Amazons may have regional dialects: 1) Movement of birds between dialects is limited so the populations eventually become genetically distinct. Therefore, the dialects are innate, or genetically determined. The dialects are not learned. 2) There is movement of birds between vocal dialects, so parrots are capable of learning new variants of a call after they have dispersed.

Wright et al. (2005) found that there was dispersal and gene flow between two Yellow-naped Amazon populations with different dialects. This indicates that the Amazons learn a new dialect after they have dispersed. Thus, wild Amazons are “open ended” in their learning. In other words, they can learn new vocal variants throughout life. This implies that, in human homes, older adult Amazons are capable of learning some new words and vocalizations as well. Most songbirds, on the other hand, tend to show “temporally restricted” learning, meaning that they can only learn new vocalizations during a sensitive period, usually early in life.

Social Behaviour

Although wild Amazon parrots roost and forage together in flocks, most literature on them notes that the fundamental, permanent social unit is the pair (Snyder et al., 1987; Bradbury, 2003). This is because, while the particular birds that an individual Amazon forages with during the day often changes, his mate will almost always be with him. Wild Amazons spend a lot of time with their mates, and preen them (typically on the head) during rest periods and sleep in close contact with them. They also tend to fly side by side with their mates while traveling.

This behavior could account for Amazon parrots’ general reputation for being one-person birds. Wild Amazons do feed and roost in flocks, but intimate contact and relations are typically limited to a parrot’s mate or young. Therefore, it may be unfair to expect a pet Amazon to act equally friendly to everyone in the family and strangers, as pet dogs often do, because many pet Amazons tend to choose a favorite person, just as they choose a favored mate in the wild.

This does not, however, mean that all pet Amazons can only be handled by one person. These flexible, intelligent birds are very capable of learning new behaviors, and most can learn to tolerate or even enjoy being handled by multiple people. Amazons that have been handled by many people since fledging are more likely to learn to accept handling from several different people. It is also possible, but sometimes difficult, to teach an established “one person” Amazon to accept handling by others. Ripley, my teenaged Red-lored Amazon, has clearly chosen my husband, Quentin, as her preferred person, because she always willingly steps up for him, but would sometimes strike at me if I put my hand too close to her. However, I’ve managed to teach her to step up on a hand-held perch from her cage, and to step onto my hand when she’s away from her cage, by using clicker training. We now have a good relationship with each other.

Advantages of Group Living

If Amazons prefer to interact closely with their mates, then why do they live in large flocks? There are a few potential factors that could account for the evolution of this behavior. First, since the foods that most Amazon parrots eat is scattered around the landscape, having more sets of “eyes” available to look for food ensures that large patches of edible food will be located more easily. However, since parrots flock even when food is very abundant (Snyder et al., 1987), there must be additional benefits of group living. Another potential benefit deals with the threat of predators. Amazons will let other members of the flock know if they spot a predator by vocalizing and flying away. A larger group means it’s more likely that predators will be spotted before they have a chance to strike. Additionally, if there are more birds in a flock, it becomes less likely that any particular member will become the target of a predator’s attack.

Aggression and Territorial Behaviors

Amazon parrots have a reputation for being aggressive, especially during the breeding season. Unfortunately, this often leads people to label them as “mean.” This is unfair because parrots in general never bite without reason, or out of spite. Wild Amazons rarely bite or attack each other, although they may get into minor squabbles over preferred perches or food patches. However, there is one exception to this general rule: wild Amazons will fiercely defend nest sites and will fight over them.

Wild Amazon parrots generally nest in very deep holes in old, large trees, although a few rare exceptions to this exist. For example, on Abaco, the Bahamas Amazon (Amazona leucocephala bahamensis) will nest in underground limestone caves (Low, 2005). When they nest in trees, Amazons do not create the holes from scratch, although they will enlarge existing tree holes by chewing on them. Male Amazons will often chew up the nest tree just outside of the nesting hole. Providing captive Amazon parrots with plenty of wood to chew on gives them an outlet for their drive to carve up the tree that their nest hole is situated in. Many Amazons like to chew wood year round, but many become more voracious in their chewing habits around the breeding season. I’ve noticed that Ripley is far more destructive during spring than in other seasons. Some Amazons will even try to tear up couches, walls or other furniture to make a “nest,” although Ripley does not do this.

Since suitable nest sites can be very scarce, wild Amazons will guard their nest sites from other parrots. Both sexes, but males in particular, are very territorial around the nest site just before and during the breeding season. The nest site may, however, be defended to a lesser degree year round. Puerto Rican Amazon pairs will visit their nest site from time to time during the year and will defend the area around it, which could range from just the tree it’s in, to a radius around it of up to three meters (Snyder et al., 1987).

These behaviors may possibly account for why some Amazons may be more difficult to handle around their cages, especially during breeding season. They aren’t trying to be mean – it’s simply in their nature to defend a nesting site by striking at or chasing intruders, and since most pet Amazons don’t have a nest, they guard the cage instead. Of course, many owners of Amazon parrots who have a strong bond with their pets can place their hands in the cage with no problems. When this isn’t possible, stick-training a parrot using lots of positive reinforcement (i.e. no chasing the bird with a stick!) can make him more manageable around his cage, particularly if he won’t let hands near him.

Amazon Parrot Body Language

Luckily for companion Amazon keepers, parrots do not bite without warning or reason. It may seem that way sometimes, but in such cases, the human likely did not catch the warning or the reason the animal bit may not be immediately obvious. Most animal species have certain ways of letting other animals know that they are likely to bite, so physical conflicts that could cause injury can be avoided. Disputes in wild parrots are usually resolved through vocalizations and posturing (the exceptions being fights over nests), and one parrot will generally give up fly away before a physical fight breaks out. Flying usually not an option for pet parrots, which often have their wings clipped. However, companion parrot owners can avoid bites by being aware of their parrot’s body language and not handling him if he’s clearly agitated.

The behaviors that indicate that an Amazon parrot is more likely to bite include eye pinning, tail flaring and nape feather erection. Eye pinning refers to the behavior where the bird rapidly expands and contracts the irises. Some Amazons pin their eyes when vocalizing or eating a favored food, so the context that the eye pinning is occurring must be considered to determine if the parrot is likely to bite. Some Amazons occasionally put on an impressive display where they strut, flare their tails and pin their eyes. This is a signal to stay back!

Courting and Sexual Behavior

Amazons mature between three and six years of age, depending on the species. This is when they attempt to find a mate. But since both sexes look the same, how do they tell each other apart? Well, although the sexes of most Amazon species (except the White-fronted and Yellow-lored [Amazona xantholora] Amazons) look identical to humans, they do not necessarily look identical to each other. This is because parrots can see wavelengths of light (in the near ultra-violet spectrum) that humans cannot. Using spectrometry, Santos et al. (2006) found that male and female Blue-fronted Amazons (Amazona aestiva) differ in the brightness and hue of the colors on their forehead, wing tips and alula. These differenes lie in wavelengths of light that parrots can see and humans cannot.

Wild Amazon parrots will “bow” to each other during the courtship phase. As breeding season approaches, the pair will start to spend more and more time around their nesting hole, and they will eventually start to sleep outside of it. They will also frequently duet loudly to each other near to it. Roosts of wild parrots tend to shrink as the breeding season approaches, because more parrots start to sleep near the nest hole (Cougill and Marsden, 2004). As breeding season approaches, the male will begin to regurgitate food frequently to the female. The female will ask for food by bobbing her head up and down (some pet parrots do this as well), and the male will reciprocate by feeding her. He will bring food up from the crop by bobbing his head rapidly and he will then deposit food directly into the female’s mouth. Some male Amazons will regurgitate food to their favorite humans if they do not have a parrot mate. This behavior is best ignored if it occurs.

A feeding often precedes copulation. During copulation, the male will perch beside the female, and with one foot on her back and one on the perch, he will bend his tail and place his vent under the female’s tail from the side. During cloacal contact, the male often fans one wing over the female’s back. This is the typical mating position for Neotropical parrots.

Once eggs are laid, the male will feed the female, since she must stay in the nest to incubate the eggs and cannot leave to forage. She will only leave the nest briefly to be fed by the male and to defecate. A few days after the eggs hatch (after 26-29 days for most Amazons), the male will begin to feed the babies as well. For the first few days of their life, the female will stay with the chicks, but soon she will start to leave the nest to forage with her mate for a portion of the day. Wild Amazon parrot chicks are usually ready to fledge after about two months, and once they have fledged, they do not return to the nest cavity. After fledging, chicks stay with their parents for a month or so, where they learn to find food and eat on their own. They will still beg food from and be fed by their parents for some time after fledging. They become fully integrated into adult flocks about one to three months after they have fledged (Low, 2005). After three years or so, they will start to search for a mate of their own.

Conclusion

Studying the behavior of wild parrots can help pet Amazon keepers understand the apparently quirky habits of the ones living in our living rooms. After all, they are still wild animals at heart. I would recommend that anyone interested in learning more about wild Amazons join the Amazona Society (http://amazonasociety.org/), which publishes a quarterly newsletter that often contains updates on studies on wild Amazons, along with great information on companion Amazons. It also organizes annual trips to areas where wild parrots can be observed. Rosemary Low’s book Amazon Parrots: Aviculture, Trade and Conservation also contains excellent information on Amazons in the wild. It can be hard to find, but it can be ordered here.

References

Bradbury, J. W. 2003. Vocal Communication in Wild Parrots. In: Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture and Individualized Societies. De Waal, F. B. M. & Tyack, P. L. (eds.) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U. S. A.

Cougill, S., and Marsden, S. J. 2004. Variability in Roost Size in an Amazona parrot: Implications for Roost Monitoring. Journal of Field Ornithology 75: 67-73.

Low, Rosemary. 2005. Amazon Parrots: Aviculture, Trade and Conservation. DONA/Insignis Publications.

Kleeman, P. M. and Gilardi, J. D. 2005. Geographical Variation of St. Lucia Parrot Flight Vocalizations. Condor 107: 62-68.

Meehan, C.L., Millam, J.R. and Mench, J.A. 2003. Foraging Opportunity and Increased Physical Complexity Both Prevent and Reduce Psychogenic Feather Picking by Young Amazon Parrots. Applied Animal Behavior Science. 80: 71-85.

Nottebohm, F. 1970. The Ontogeny of Bird Song. Science. 167: 950-956.

Renton, K. 2001. Lilac-crowned Parrot Diet and Food Resource Availability: Resource Tracking by a Parrot Seed Predator. Condor 103: 62-69.

Santos, S. I. C. O., Elward, B., and Lumeij, J. T. 2006. Sexual Dichromatism in the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot (Amazona aestiva) Revealed by Multiple-Angle Spectrometry. Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 20: 8-14.

Snyder, N. F. R., Wiley, J. W., and Kepler, C. B. 1987. The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural History and Conservation of the Puerto Rican Parrot. The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Wright, T., and Dorin, M. 2001. Pair Duets in the Yellow-naped Amazon (Psittaciformes: Amazona auropalliata): Responses to Playbacks of Different Dialects. Ethology 107: 111-124.

Wright, T. F., Rodriguez, A. M., and Fleischer, R. C. 2005. Vocal Dialects, Sex-biased Dispersal, and Microsatellite Population Structure in the parrot Amazona auropalliata. Molecular Ecology 14: 1197-1205.

Welcome.

Hello and welcome. My name is Jessie, and Peggy is my Jenday Conure. This blog is where I post the articles I have written about wild and pet parrots. I have written primarily for “Parrots” magazine, but I’ve also written for “Companion Parrot Quarterly” and “Good Bird” magazine. I also post interesting links, videos, and articles about parrots and other animals as I find them.

A bit about me: I’m from Alberta, Canada and have lived here my whole life. I’m originally from Lethbridge, but I’m currently living in Edmonton.  I recently completed my Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Alberta and my academic interests are quite broad and include population genetics, systematics, and behavioral ecology. My thesis work specifically was on the evolution and behaviour of pikas. Pikas are small relatives of the rabbit, and there are two species in North America: the American pika and the collared pika. Both are very cute and generally live on alpine boulderfields. There are also about 28 species from northern and central Asia and the far southeast of Europe.

I also completed my M.Sc at the University of Alberta, and it was in Systematics and Evolution. I received my B.Sc in Biological Sciences at the University of Lethbridge.

I am currently (April 2012) a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta, at both the North Campus (in Edmonton) and the Augustana Campus (in Camrose). In Camrose, I teach laboratories for an introductory course in evolutionary biology and a second-year course in vertebrate anatomy. In Edmonton, I teach the lecture portion of a fourth-year course in Ornithology. I also taught labs in behavioural ecology, techniques in molecular ecology, and systematics while I was a Ph.D. graduate student. While I was an M.Sc. student, I taught two different botany labs: one in plant morphology and one in flowering plant systematics.

An American Pika I photographed in Banff National Park.

I’m quite passionate about biology and my non-professional interests tend to be nature or animal oriented as well. I love to go birdwatching, hiking, and horseback riding.  I love traveling as well and have been all over North America, New Zealand and central Brazil. I’ve also been volunteering with various animal-related organizations since I was 15. I volunteered at the Lethbridge Humane Society for nearly seven years, and I’ve fostered a few parrots for two different rescues since moving to Edmonton. I also edit the newsletter for the Edmonton Pet Parrot Association and have done bird surveys in Elk Island National Park as a volunteer.

I enjoy watching and studying wild parrots and have several as pets. My own parrots include  Lucy (a Maroon-bellied Conure), Ripley, (a Red-lored Amazon),  Peggy (a Jenday Conure),  Garnet and Emerald (the Lineolated Parakeets), Mitri (a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo), Chiku! (Green-cheeked Conure) and a Bourke’s Parakeet and a Budgie. I also have two button quail, who live with the linnies and an aviary full of society, spice and Gouldian finches.  I also have two dogs (Pharaoh, a mix and Micro, a Maltese), two cats (Phoenix and Freya), two snakes (a Ball Python and a Ribbon Snake), Brin the Chinchilla, and a Chinese water dragon. Oh, and my husband who luckily enjoys animals as well!

I also like riding horses, although I don’t have the time or resources to own my own horse. For now, I am just taking lessons, in English riding.

If anyone out there wants to contact me, I can be Emailed at jzgurski “at” ualberta “dot” ca.

The list of parrot-related articles I have had published are as follows:

1) An Introduction to the Lineolated Parakeet. Companion Parrot Quarterly, March 2006, Issue 69.

2) Living with a Maroon-bellied Conure. Parrots, December 2006, Issue 107.

3) Living with a Red-lored Amazon. Parrots, July 2007, Issue 114.

4) The Importance of Environmental Enrichment for Pet Parrots. Parrots, August 2007, Issue 115.

5) Meet the Kaka – the Kea’s Lesser-known Cousin. Parrots, November 2007, Issue 118.

6) The Behavior of Wild Amazon Parrots and its Implications for Companion Parrot Keepers. Companion Parrot Quarterly, Winter, 2007, Issue 71.

7) One Day of Parrots in Sydney Australia. Good Bird, Winter 2007, Volume 3-4.

8 ) A Trip to New Zealand: The Land where Birds Rule. Good Bird, Spring 2008, Volume 4-1.

9) Parrot Rescues. Parrots, May 2008, Issue 124.

10) Meet the Kea. Parrots, July 2008, Issue 126.

11) Clicker Training as a Tool for Managing Aggressive Parrots. Parrots, November 2008, Issue 130.

12) Play Behavior in Wild Parrots. Companion Parrot Quarterly, Issue 72.

13) The Evolution and Behavior of the Extraordinary Eclectus Parrot. Parrots International, 2009, Issue 2.

14) Living with a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Parrots, June 2009, Issue 137.

15) The Benefits of Fresh Foods for Parrots. Companion Parrot Quarterly, Issue 74.

16) In the Land of the Hyacinth Macaw. Parrots, February 2010, Issue 145.

17) The Diversity and Classification of Parrots. Companion Parrot Quarterly, Issue 75.

18) The Nest Building Behavior of the Adaptable Quaker Parakeet. Parrots, July 2010, Issue 151.

Here are some photos of my animals:

Mitri chewing on his wicker basket

Peggy the Jenday Conure

Lucy on her boing

Ripley the Red-lored Amazon

The button quail settle down for the night. I've taken these guys to a couple of animal behavior labs and everyone seems to love them. They're very cute!

Pharaoh the mixed breed. We don't know his breed or mix, but he's an awesome dog! Very friendly.

Compy the retired racing greyhound who passed away from cancer recently. He was a very gentle dog.

Freya watches Mr. Snake, the ribbon snake.

Phoenix checks out some hay I put out for a bunny I was taking care of. Luckily, he knows not to eat it.

Flammie, a Chinese Water Dragon.

Lineolated Parakeets

Chiku! a Green-cheeked Conure cross.

Bourke's Parakeet

Micro the Maltese and Phoenix.

Society Finches

Rocket, the Morgan/Appaloosa I have been part leasing.