I wonder how many of you have done the following:

You give a spoken or visual command for your bird to do something you have trained them to do and they don’t do it. So then you SHOW them that tasty treat you will give them if they do it and give the command again – and guess what? They do it!

This is a great example of the trainer being trained. Parrots are very clever and, if they can make you show them the treat before they will wave, say hello, roll over, whatever it might be, then they will – I always think it’s like a promise that you will give them something!

Ruby, Green-winged Macaw (photo by Ben Coulson)

It’s very easy to get into the habit doing it, I know because I have done it – and even still sometimes fall into the trap when I am presenting a show and I really need the parrot to do that thing I’m asking them to do because otherwise the audience will be disappointed (and I will look a bit silly!).

A great example of this is Flint, the Harris Hawk I work with. He can be VERY stubborn! He is around 18 years old and since his very first days of flying to a glove, has been used to seeing the reward (a tasty chunk of meat) on top of the glove before he takes off. He wants to know it’s there! This just means he is flying to me because he can see the food and wants it, not so much because he is trained to do it.

Flint, Harris Hawk (photo by Laura Martin)

Here’s something new to try – training for HIDDEN rewards. Our Barn Owl has been trained successfully in this way and I’m currently working on this with our Harris Hawk. It’s something you can do with your bird too! So I call Flint to my glove with the piece of food visible on the glove and repeat this several times, then gradually start reducing the amount of food on show until it is completely hidden – when Flint reaches the stage where he is flying to me without knowing 100% that there is food there EVERY TIME, that’s when I will have succeeded.

Flint, Harris Hawk (photo by Ben Coulson)

So translating this to your parrot training, just try making sure your bird completes the desired behaviour before seeing the reward – this makes it more of a reward for doing it rather than a bribe to do it. This also means you can try RANDOM REWARDING (or variable rewarding) – this is how it sounds – you just vary the reward, it makes it exciting! For a simple wave that your parrot will do willingly all the time, sometimes they might get a pine nut, sometimes a whole walnut (obviously depending on species!) – but if it is hidden, your parrot doesn’t know what they will get as a reward and will therefore be more excited to do it. For more on this topic of training, check out RandomRewarding.com.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing a video showing me and some of the incredible birds I am lucky enough to work with to give you a better insight to what I do for a living.

I hope you enjoy it: This is me!

Feathered cast, in order of appearance:

Che and Esteban – Hahn’s Macaws

Bonnie and Alfie – Green-winged Macaws

Kookie –  Kookaburra

Wispa – Barn Owl

Flint – Harris Hawk

Zeus and Athena – White Storks

Ruby – Green-winged Macaw

Rosie – Galah (Rose-breasted Cockatoo)

Molly – Citron-crested Cockatoo

Charlie – Blue-fronted Amazon

(Coco, Blue and Gold Macaw in the background!)

Jasper – Congo African Grey

My name is Heather Scott, and I am the bird trainer and presenter at the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre, which is a small zoo in Sheffield, England. Dave clearly stated: “It’s important to mention you’re on the other side of the pond, since you guys talk funny” so there you have it!

Bonnie, Green-winged Macaw, about to land

In April 2010, I was lucky enough to land this dream job; I present the Parrot Displays which feature all the favourite tricks (bike-riding, skateboarding, basketball, talking and lots more!), along with the Aerial Antics display which includes free-flying Green-winged and Hahn’s Macaws, and birds of prey including Hawks, Falcons, Owls, a Black Kite and a Kookaburra, also not forgetting our stunning White Storks (although they can’t fly just yet, just walk and sort of skip!).

Heather with Kookie the Kookaburra, photo by Laura Martin

As well as presenting the displays, I am also responsible for training all the birds, preparing their food, cleaning their enclosures, providing enrichment, and generally looking after them.

I’m really pleased to begin writing blog articles for Birdtricks.com as I’ve found them to be an incredible resource in terms of training advice and practical information on keeping parrots happy and healthy. Also, as I’m sure many of you do, I feel like I know them quite well even though we haven’t met in person and love seeing their Facebook posts.

I guess mine is a slightly different perspective, as the parrots I train and look after are not my own (although if I could, I would take them all home!) but I do spend a great deal of time with my feathered friends and hope to share fun stories with you about them alongside the useful stuff. Training the Macaws for free-flying is my biggest achievement and I still feel really proud every time I see them soaring up high, circuiting round and round until I call them back in to land!

Bonnie and Alfie, Green-winged Macaws, ready for take off! Photo by Laura Martin

I’d like to point out that I had no previous experience at all with parrots before this so it has been a very steep learning curve for me and I’m still learning new things all the time! Before my first day of the job, I spent a couple of weeks researching as much as I could about parrot care and training but nothing could have prepared me for the amazement of my first day working with them. Just “wow!!” was basically the feeling, I could not believe how incredible it felt just to have a parrot willingly step onto my hand and how lucky I was to see such beautiful birds so close.

I wonder if everyone remembers that first moment?

Ché and Esteban, Hahn's Macaws, photo by Laura Martin

As the weeks went on, I was stunned as I discovered how individual their personalities were and it’s safe to say they secured a place in my heart from day one (and that’s even with Jasper, our African Grey, taking a massive chomp on my finger as a result of my clumsy, inexperienced and nervous attempt at picking him up!)

As this blog is about parrots, I’m just going to sneak in a little something about the meat-eating birds I work with, who are also spectacular! Alfie the Turkey Vulture, for example, is a very impressive bird and clever enough to learn tricks too… trouble is he’s a real character (sometimes a very mischievous boy actually) who has stolen sandwiches and nipped at my ankles many a time! I don’t fly him in the displays anymore but we did have some good days!

Alfie the Turkey Vulture

So back to parrots; as well as Jasper, ’my flock’ consists of Rosie the Galah, Molly the Citron-crested Cockatoo, Coco the Blue and Gold Macaw, Ruby the Green-winged Macaw, Charlie the Blue-fronted Amazon, Barney the Eclectus and also the free-flyers: Bonnie and Alfie the Green-winged Macaw siblings, and Ché and Esteban the Hahn’s Macaw siblings (who only hatched in May 2011). I look forward to introducing them all to you at some point!

For more on the Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre, please visit our website and Facebook page.