That's fascinating stuff.HawBawJaws wrote:He/she was one of the easiest ones to work with. There was olive, a hybrid macaw that had been captive bred in a Swedish zoo, so technically a buffwing (cross between a buffons and a greenwing macaw) absolutely beautiful and scary intelligent, could do every trick. Also hyper aggressive towards all the other birds, with the exception of rolf, a big greenwing. (she had also been trained by a left handed trainer, so if you tried to pick her up from the right, she'd take your fingers off. She also escaped her cage one night, went along the row of cages, then attacked a wee patagonian conure called Sonia that had stuck her head through the bars. We found her in the morning with most of her beak missing, thankfully the vet was able to superglue it back on. Honestly.) So, we had to keep rolf between olive and the others, long as olive had a direct line of sight to him, she was cool. Rolf had depression, he plucked his feathers. He had pair bonded with a sweet wee blue and gold macaw called minnie. So as long as he was next to her, he was cool. Then there was scruffy, another blue and gold, he was our talking bird in the show, and a mischievous wee bugger. He fancied minnie, so as long as he was on the other side of her, he was happy, minnie wasn't fussed by him, she was happy as long as she was next to rolf. Finally there was Claude, another wee blue and gold, with a squinty lower mandible on his beak. He painted, among other things. We reckon he fancied scruffy, so we'd sit him the other side, he was happy. I think scruff just wanted to be friends with him though! And that was just the macaws. Had 2 African greys, 2 patagonian conures, 2 quaker parakeets (the only parrot that actually builds a nest, rather than using an existing hollow of some sort), 2 rainbow lorikeets, and finally my favourite - bindi, a beautiful wee citron crested cockatoo. She was an absolute pet, would sit on my shoulder all day long, preening my sideburns. Used to wander round the zoo with her in between shows, she'd wave at folk and say hello. Fun times.
Tempy wrote:If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.
davyK wrote:A parrot is literally for life. Live as long we do I believe?
Tempy wrote:If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.
cockbeard wrote:Tempy wrote:If twitter has taught me anything it’s that birds are pretty clever or at least really good at seeming clever. Japanese and Korean folk love them.
Birds are pretty switched on little buggers. Crows creating and using tools to feed, communicating with each other, I'd stick them up there with dolphins and octopuses, way above dogs and pigs
cockbeard wrote:That's one of the reasons I'd rank them so high. It's one thing to use a tool, it's another to manufacture a tool, that a complete extra level of abstraction and forethought
Time_on_my_hands wrote:Great stories about birds, there. We've been slowly attracting more into the front garden and it's paid off with the sight of young bluetits and sparrows flitting about. Trouble is, the car-proud neighbours (who had the tree in the stret cut back to avoid blossom and leaves falling on their cars) keep dropping passive-aggressive comments re birds crapping.
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