Pionus

 The pionus parrot (pronounced pi-oh-nus) is a species native to Central and South America.They are stocky, medium sized parrots that are sometimes confused with amazons. Aside from being much smaller in stature than the amazon, they can be immediately differentiated by their bare eye rings (reminiscent of conures) and their bright red under-tail covert feathers.

Of the seven pionus species, the maximillians, the blue headed, the white capped and the bronze wing are the four most commonly kept.They are not considered the “lookers” of the avian world, but they all have a larger than life and outgoing personality that makes them an attractive choice to perspective new owners.

The pionus are fun and active birds that enjoy some raucus and rowdy playtime. The pionus is sometimes compared with the caique in their style of play. They are fairly adept at mimicking, and are intelligent parrots. As is always the case with intelligence, it is typically accompanied by unusual behavior.

A friend once told me that her two maximillians would resort to complete deception when frightened. They would begin “gasping”. They might mimic convulsions or a loss of coordination to the point of “falling” from it’s perch. All of this drama could be brought on by the appearance of a broom – the symptoms would remarkably vanish as soon as the broom did. No doubt, this a tactic to deter the attack of predators in the wild. Does it work? Who knows?  But it scared my friend half to death on more than one occasion..