If you missed my previous updates on Storm, the blue fronted Amazon parrot, you can find them here.

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Day 6 with Storm was full of some learning experiences… I learned he does not like foraging trees. I tried placing him on one in the wide open Florida room we have at our home and though he showed some interest in one of the toys, it lasted a couple seconds and he screamed almost the entire time he was on the tree.

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I thought he’d enjoy some “out of cage” time… but I was wrong, that was NOT his idea of fun out of cage time. And after thinking about it, he does have all that stuff IN his cage.

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Watching pet parrots freefly outside is a breath-taking experience that can’t be matched. Seeing it on video and film is one thing, but being there to witness it in PERSON… is a whole other ball game you won’t be able to even describe.

One of our favorite places to freefly our parrots is Moab, Utah because of it’s gorgeous red-rock terrain and fewer numbers of predators. The wide open space and varied temperature makes for the greatest outdoor adventures for our birds and a great learning spot for them to adjust to wind with all the room in the world to practice in!

Moab is where Cash, our military macaw, learned how to become an outdoor flier for the very first time. Cash was clipped when he came to us at 6 months of age! And if you join us next month, you will see him in person and see how much he has improved on his skill and stamina! He is a very avid learner but has earned the nickname “Crash” for a reason…

The rest of the parrots you will see freeflying in Moab with us are 3 other Macaws, 2 Cockatoos and 1 Congo African Grey. Making it a total of seven birds flying outside! For a sneak preview of what exotic birds like these look like on this kind of terrain, check out the video below taken in Page, AZ which carries the same red rock terrain as Moab with all the birds we will be flying for you out in Moab in April!

If you’re interested in joining us this coming April in Moab, Utah for an amazing experience of watching our parrots freefly right in front of your eyes… please email?info@birdtricks.com?and reserve your spot!

Happy flying and can’t wait to see you all there!

It’s that time of year. (sigh) I hear the same question over and over: “What is happening to my sweet bird?”

Spring is a time that seems to bring out the worst in our companion parrots. Hormones (triggered by weather changes, increased daylight hours and a variety of other factors) start coursing through the blood stream bringing about chemical changes in the body and some pretty odd behaviors. Some parrots seem immune to the effects, some might just be a little “off” for a while, others turn into screaming, biting harbingers of death. Some may remain this way for a couple of weeks, others, several months. Its intensity can also vary in one bird from season to season.

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If you’re just now getting a taste of Amazon Parrot Storm’s story, you should really read up on where it all started five days ago when he wasn’t going to make it another day… you can read about his story and progress up to this point here.

I have very exciting news! And lots of it!

I shared my videos of Storm with a few people who were much more experienced with Amazon behavior than myself. I had my ideas on what Storm was trying to tell me… but no confirmation. Well, I got my confirmation when Anna Sloan (Macaw & Cockatoo Rescue of NM) said to me, “He’s head over heels for you!”

The thing she picked up on that I didn’t was that Storm was showing he was getting mildly anxious because he really wanted to step up and I wasn’t asking him to. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have missed my previous updates on the Amazon parrot, Storm, we are trying to save?from obesity and malnutrition, please click here to find them and get yourself up to date with his progress while being with us.

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The last thing I talked about was changing your bird’s environment, which was the first thing I did with Storm. And boy was there a heck of a lot of progress the past 3 days!

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So, we are pretty sure that the behavior Storm has been showing me is mating behavior. I consulted with a few different people on Amazon behavior and got some great tips for working with Storm. The first tip was never to try to get a chattering Amazon to step up, as it will usually result in getting bit. Now, I haven’t actually asked Storm to step up… YET. But it was still a good thing to know that I shouldn’t even try to take things a step further if he’s?being?a?chatterbox.

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I share my home with five parots: Linus, an umbrella cockatoo – Theo, a goffins cockatoo – Libby, a quaker – and Tinky and DeeDee, my cockateils. Since they will be frequently mentioned in this blog, I think proper introductions are in order.

Linus

Linus is a good boy. Of course the term good is relevant because we are talking about an umbrella cockatoo. He is willful and manipulative. He won’t stay perched for any incriment of time that is currently measurable. He has an attention span that makes the word “NO!” pointless, and the memory of an elephant – he will never let go of the time I carelessly closed his toes in the cage door. And then there’s that plaster cracking scream…he’s a pretty typical cockatoo. Just when I start to wonder about my sanity, he will bury his head under my neck and fall fast asleep. There is NOTHING like the snuggles you get from a cockatoo.

I can’t account for a great deal of his life. What I do know is that he was wild-caught. Since the importation ban in 1992, no wild birds were allow to enter the U.S., making him at least 17 years old. Putting on my detective hat, I investigated the etched numbers on his quarantine band and learned that he arrived in the U.S. through an importation station in California. After that, the trail is lost until he was found in a shelter by his previous owners, the Womachs. It’s gut wrenching for me to think about the likelihood that he was passed around from home to home before he was placed in a shelter, but if the Womach’s hadn’t found him I believe his future would’ve been bleak.

Linus lived with the Womachs and their varied flock. As well as being a bird trainer, Dave is an illusionist. His act, which is booked on cruise ships and around the world, is highly acclaimed and includes his birds. Linus was part of this exciting life and loved performing. He is a cockatoo, after all, and needs an audience to continually remind him of how wonderful he is. Once, when being shipped to port, he was lost by an airline for nearly two days. This resulted in an illness and, ultimately, a change in him that would bring about his move to Austin to come to live with me.

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