Female eclectus (and male illusionist)

Male rose breasted cockatoo

In the cockatoo family, it’s in the eyes. The females typically have a lighter, chestnut color to their eyes, which is most easily seen in strong light. The male’s eyes are a very dark brown, nearly black. Additionally in the male galah, or rose breasted cockatoo, the eyes rings become rough in texture and tinged with pink (although this is not the case with some males who do not get enough exposure to sunlight.)

Male standard cockatiel

The male standard cockatiel will have a bright yellow head, with clearly defined orange cheek patches, while the female’s head coloring is less distinct. She will also have barring marking the underside of her long tail.

Male budgies

In the budgie, the male typically has a light purple colored cere (the area around the nostrils), and the female’s is shades of pink to brown.

African grey

I had heard several years ago about a method of visually sexing african greys, but I had for one reason or another thought it to be too unreliable because of the way feather color varies in that species.  I had actually snooped under the tail feathers of several greys of unknown gender and never found those tell-tale silver tipped feathers.  I suppose it is possible that all of them were male.

Someone sent me this link recently, and as I have questioned my friends with female greys, most have reported that theirs have this feather coloring. I feel that it is a fairly safe bet that if your has these feathers, it is likely a female. If it doesn’t, I think the bird should still be considered of unknown gender.

Umbrella Cockatoo, Goffin Cockatoo

We wear many hats as bird owners: we’re cooks, toy makers, housekeepers and behavioral analysts.  I once read: “Yur day job iz how ya ern muney, yur reel job iz to spend it on yur handsum burd”  by author Mango McCaw. If your parrot had to go out and find work (oh, the indignity!), what would he do?
I think this is what best suits my birds:

Goffin Cockatoo

Theo, goffins cockatoo, 24
I used to think of Theo as a philosopher, quietly contemplating the things around her.  Lately, though, I have thought of her as more of a novelist.  Her active imagination has more than once created a scary monster out of an inanimate object, the latest being the bath brush in the shower. Yesterday it was a scaly, howling beast intent on savaging the world (or at least the bathroom), today it was just a personal hygiene tool.  I also think that her remarkable measures of patience and tolerance would make her a valued school teacher, although story-time might cause the children to have nightmares.

Umbrella Cockatoo

Linus, umbrella cockatoo, 18
Linus, would be a fine woodworker,  but I think engineering is his true calling.  This bird can do things with his cage cover while I’m at work that defy the laws of physics. Cockatoos are known for their skills in this area, and for their flare for the dramatic, but that he is able to weave the fabric through a dozen cage bars, around his perch and meticulously through the eye-screw hole just baffles me. Then there was the knot I found tied at the end. He is very talented.

Quaker Parrot

Libby, quaker parrot, 4
Quakers are uniquely qualified in the field of architecture, with a little interior designer thrown in.  If you’ve ever seen one of the huge, multi-roomed, condo-like structures that quakers build on city transformers, you’d know what I’m talking about. Libby apparently didn’t get that contractor’s gene but is still an interesting and well rounded little bird.  I think she would do any job well.  As long as she was the boss.  And the food availability was non-stop.  A girl’s gotta keep up her strength.

White Budgies

Nikko and Visa, budgies, 2
Jamie and Dave’s budgies are hard to figure out.  I have always seen them in the roles of the drowning swimmer (Nikko) and the lifeguard (Visa).  When I first came to Orlando, Nikko had contracted a infection which required months of medication.  After the Womachs left for their tour, I was the evil stranger who reached into the cage with a huge hand to capture and torture her. Visa took up the role as bodyguard and positioned himself between my hand and Nikko, threatening to bite if I proceeded.  Recently, I found Nikko in the cage with a toe injury. Visa was standing guard over her.  It was days later that I discovered that Visa also inflicted the injury. So, who knows?  Nikko has had hard life health-wise and might find it satisfying and rewarding to help the less fortunate.  Visa would make an excellent prison inmate.

Cockatiel

Tinky and DeeDee, cockatiels, 16
The cockatiels are not suited to work outside the home.  Instead, they would prefer to be kept in the manner to which they are accustomed.  The pampered life as the wives of an insanely rich man would work well for them.
It’s career day. What line of work is your parrot best suited to?

Blue and Gold Macaw

The cutest things on the planet may very well be (and not necessarily in this order): a baby cracking up laughing, kittens doing just about anything, and birds playing.  Some of the very best memories I have of my birds are of them playing, especially when it involves me.  There’s something so precious about watching the determination of a 100 gram bird tug on something twice its size, and the lengths they will go to to accomplish an nearly impossible task.  I am always on the lookout for things that will peak the curiosity of a nosy bird to inspire play.

Here are some things you can make quickly and inexpensively that can change and grow with your imagination, all of which work best with your involvement:

1.  Birdie tunnel (budgies/finches):
You can make this simple toy from a cardboard paper towel roll and two shoeboxes.  Remove the lids from the shoeboxes and place them open side up.  Cut a hole in one short side of each box just large enough for an end of the paper towel roll to fit through.  Connect all the pieces together with the paper towel roll in the center.  It will look like a dumbbell when you’re through.
I have a friend with 3 little budgies that spent hours with this bird toy.  Eventually she raised the height of the tube to the top of the box and created ramps and steps and climbing ropes for her budgies to reach it.  They went to great lengths to get to that tunnel,  they’d race through and start again from the other side.

White Budgies

2.  Birdie Maze:
Thesecan be both fun and interesting for your bird.  If you have smaller birds, budgies to conures, the  walls to the maze are easily constructed from Legos.  At first make the maze more of a winding tunnel and coax him through it with treats.  As he gets better at finding his way, make dead ends and false passageways that cause him to have to evaluate his moves.  If your bird is a cheater, and flies to the top of the wall to find his way, you can cover the top with a towel if he feels comfortable with that.
For the larger bird, you will need taller, more sturdy walls.  You’d have to have A LOT of Legos.  My daughter’s umbrella cockatoo, Abu, actually taught me this game while I was packing for a move.  She created her own maze from the cartons that were slowly overtaking the living room.  She had a ball.  I told a friend about Abu’s game.  This guy had the largest record collection I had ever seen and he used the milk crates he stored his albums in to create a maze for his amazon.  Last I had heard from him, he had still not returned his record collection to it’s original spot.  This game might not work well for some macaws because their tail is always dawdling two feet behind them.
3.  Play Mat:
What bird doesn’t have the time of his life trying to remove the buttons from your clothing?  Or trying to disassemble your jewelry?  The play mat offers all of those opportunities and more…
Take an old blanket and sew beads, buttons, bows and bells to it.  Or you could be a rebel, and use things that don’t start with a “B”.  You could use a towel and sew on plastic rings, keys, leather strips with beads, wooden cutouts and pretty much anything else you can think of that your bird would enjoy.  The fun for the birds seems to be in tugging on the items, just like the buttons on your shirt.  When you are done playing it folds right up for storage.  If  it becomes soiled, you can put it in a lingerie bag and machine wash it, depending on the durability of the items you have sewn on.
I had made one of these for the cockatiels years ago and this post inspired me to make another. I did make one for Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, a short time after he arrived to live with me.  His efforts were spent trying to fold it back up or dragging it around behind him by one of the plastic rings. I wasn’t yet aware of what a tyrant Linus was with toys, always trying to bend them to his will and make them do things they weren’t designed to do.  He had a good time, though, and that’s the point.

Congo African Grey Parrot, Galah

4.  “Greyzilla”:
I read about this guy somewhere who made a little city out of appropriately sized Legos for his African grey and made up this game called Greyzilla.  It was the grey’s role to come along to destroy and terrorize the city and all it’s tiny, little people.  It was the human’s job to portray the little Lego people running from Greyzilla and begging for their lives.  As Greyzilla crashed his way through town, he showed little mercy for the Lego-ites.  If I remember correctly, though, this compassionate monster tried to reassemble the city when he was through, although probably not to Legoville building code standards.  I can only imagine how much fun they must have had.