What Needs to Be Said

What needs to be said is that no matter how hard we try to provide the right environment when hand raising parrots, we can never provide every essential thing chicks need to grow into well-adapted and well-adjusted psittacines.

Star with one of her parents

I hand-raised cockatoos in the distant past and I now advocate for letting parrot parents do the job. I realize my advocacy is like telling a screaming parrot to be quiet, as this is usually ignored and the screaming continues. 

However, I will press on to champion for the right of captive parrots to raise their own offspring. Watching Star, a fourteen-week-old Bare-eyed Cockatoo, flourish under her parents’ care underlines for me how important it is for young parrots to be educated by their parents.

Let’s look at some contrasts I’m finding between parent-raised and hand-raised cockatoos using fledgling Star and my own hand-raised birds as examples.

Foraging

Before cleaning the cockatoos’ aviaries the other day, I put up various browse for Star and her parents and the hand-raised cockatoos to forage upon.  I was amazed at the length of foraging activity Star and her parents displayed. The full two hours I cleaned, they were actively engaged, ferreting through the offerings finding leaves, seed heads, or berries that suited their fancies.

Star forages on garden-grown millet spray.

In the “hand raised” aviary there was initial interest in the browse, but that ended quickly as the interest was instead focused on me by landing on my shoulder or by watching what I was doing from a perch. The only bird who kept at the job of foraging in the hand-raised flock was Ritzie, who was parent- raised.

This diligent foraging activity of the family certainly shouldn’t be unexpected or surprising; after all, we are all primed by our evolution to forage for food. Even though parrots and people are endowed with an inherent drive to search for food, we must learn to how to successfully do so. Having models to learn from is the easiest and most efficient way to develop and master foraging skills. In Star’s case, her teachers are her parents.

Star forages on rose hips with her parents.

And it’s just not parrots who learn from their parents, as the following example shows. Dr. Courchesne, a veterinarian, who teaches biology at Northern Essex Community College explains:

Late August is high time for harassment [of people by gulls],” she said, “because the young have fledged and their adult parents take them to foraging spots, which include beaches and boardwalks, to find food and to teach them the ropes. The gulls, like the humans, bring their whole families. They’re being so pushy for food because they’re such committed parents,” she said.[i]

While people at the boardwalk have learned to forage for their food from snack bars (and are, no doubt, teaching their kids to do the same), gulls have learned how to forage on the food people carry away from the snack bars. Thankfully, Bebe and Flash are not teaching Star to swoop down and steal a sandwich from me, but they are certainly teaching her which foods are tasty and where to find them in the aviary.

Most hand-raised fledglings are at a disadvantage when it comes to foraging. They typically do not have an adult conspecific or even a parrot of another species to model foraging behavior; or, if they do, the adult parrot may not have learned all the fine skills of foraging or developed the motivation to search for food other than from a food bowl.

I found many common refrains on foraging and the companion parrot with a quick online search that reflected the following: Be persistent! Pet birds often require repeated encouragement until foraging becomes a way of life. In fact, many hand-raised bird will give up relatively easily when they cannot find food right away.

I personally have experienced the above statement with my own hand- raised birds. I was lax at enriching the fledglings’ environment with browse or toys many years ago and, as a result, those adult birds illustrate a lack of foraging interest today. Some of the flyers don’t bother to seek foraging opportunities even when out free flying.

The free flyers forage in the garden.

That said, the cockatoos are intelligent and inquisitive animals and over the years some have learned foraging behavior from interacting with foraging toys or from finding sunflowers and millet grown in the garden. Here, though, it must be said that they take a lot of their cues from watching the parent-raised flyers raid the garden.

Socialization

When one thinks of a socialized companion parrot, usually what comes to mind is a parrot who is nice to people; that is, she is a friendly, malleable bird who is not fearful of us or our environment. The parrot has been taught to behave in a manner that is acceptable in our human community and way of life. On the whole, hand-raising a parrot does accomplish those goals, if done with skill and compassion.

Socialization, the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society, does take place with the parent-raised parrot of course. However, it is a socialization of another sort, in that the parents are teaching their young to behave in ways that are acceptable to parrot society.

Unfortunately, many hand-raised parrots miss out on this opportunity. The effect of this missed education sometimes manifests in a parrot who is afraid of other psittacines, or shows no interest in parrots, or may not have a clue as to how to behave successfully with others.

In Learning and Behavior, Paul Chance states: “…organisms are especially likely to learn a particular kind of behavior at one point in their lives, these stages for optimum learning are referred to as critical periods.[ii] With that in mind, my goal, with her parents’ help, is to teach Star to be successful in both human and parrot society at this critical period in her development.

As always, it is engrossing watching Bebe and Flash teach young Star how to be a proper cockatoo. And they don’t always use positive reinforcement methods when teaching Star about correct cockatoo etiquette. For example, Bebe will quickly give Star a strong bop with her beak if Star muscles in on food Bebe doesn’t want to share.

Star forages alongside her neighbors.

Star is further taught about cockatoo conduct by the cockatoos who live in the next door aviary. Even though they do not physically interact with Star, no doubt she is learning much about cockatoo socialization from observing the behaviors the others exhibit. For instance, she has become quite comfortable munching beak to beak (separated by the aviary wire, of course) with her neighbors as they all take advantage of a picnic of browse that is offered them in the same locale.

On first look this may seem inconsequential, but indeed learning to be near other non-familial cockatoos provides important lessons. Not only is she learning that other cockatoos can exist together amiably, she may pick up a new tip or two by watching how they forage.

At this juncture in Star’s life she is learning how to behave in cockatoo society, but not yet in human society. At Star’s age, a hand-raised cockatoo would be far advanced in knowing how to succeed with people. My goal is to teach Star how to succeed in my community and, with the help of her parents, in her community. This education will give Star effective skills for navigating both worlds.

She’s already on her way by learning that people can offer her good things. She watches as her parents get goodies on their training perches from me as well as from people they do not know.

Star looks on as her parents accept treats from visitors.

I interact with her parents daily. She sees the calm behavior her parents exhibit when I’m with them and that is a valuable visual lesson for her. I’m excited by the progress she is making as she is getting physically closer to me each time I am in the aviary.

Star eats on the training perch quite near to Chris, following her parents’ example.

Star’s learning and behavior development and comparing that progression with the behaviors of my hand-raised cockatoos is a fascinating, stimulating, and humbling journey that I invite you, the reader, to continue to join me on as I discuss more observations and dichotomies in my next blog.

[i] James Gorman, In Defense of Gulls, New York Times, 8/24/2019.

[ii] Paul Chance, Learning and Behavior (Wadsworth, 2003) pg. 434.

Chris Shank’s love of parrots and knowledge of animal training began several decades ago. Her professional experiences include a degree from the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College in California, an internship at Busch Gardens’ parrot show, work as a dolphin trainer at Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara and later in Hassloch, Germany.

Her love for cockatoos came after a relocation to the Philippines. Once back in the United States, she established her aviary Cockatoo Downs, where she has regularly offered training and education to parrot owners for many years now. She is an internationally-recognized expert in free flight.


Contradictory Cockatoo Behavior

The most fascinating thing about watching Bebe and Flash Bare-eyed Cockatoo raise their chick, Star, is that their behaviors change as does the growing inventory of Star’s exploratory actions. Let’s look at some examples.

The Power Struggle

In my last blog episode, I mentioned the power struggle that exists between Flash and Bebe, first over who would brood the eggs, then feed the chick, and now feed and stay near the fledgling, Star. I’ve consulted with an experienced cockatoo breeder in Australia about what is, in my eyes, unusual behavior. He could not give me an answer.

He did mention, though, that in captive breeding situations cockatoos can be quite difficult, as some males show intense aggression towards their mates before going to nest. I was aware of that conduct, having bred cockatoos myself. What I haven’t observed before is anything like this constant changing of who’s “in charge” of Star.

I’m thinking that this may be a natural behavior, distorted by captivity. In the wild, while one bird broods the egg or chick, the other would typically be out for some length of time finding food. When the far-ranging mate returns, the length of time has been such that the at-home mate is ready to leave the nest box, thus letting the returned cockatoo take over brooding duties.

In the aviary, food is conveniently only a few wing-beats away. When one mate leaves the fledgling’s side, the other swoops in to take over, regardless of whether enough time has elapsed.

This is all just conjecture on my part and may well make no sense at all. I could not find detailed descriptions of wild Bare-eyed Cockatoo nesting behavior, so this is the best explanation I can come up with at this time. If anyone has any other ideas or information regarding this behavior, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Feeding and Foraging

Star, at 13 weeks of age, is still being fed regurgitated food by her parents, so whoever is on Star-watch will feed her. When I fill up the food station, the controlling parent at the time will not allow the other admission to it.

Again, I ask “Why is this?” How does this relate to cockatoo behavior in the wild? Do paired cockatoos keep their mates from accessing food in nature? Most likely not, since there is probably food readily available elsewhere.

That there is an “argument” between Flash and Bebe over food access in the aviary is probably due to limited availability, since there has been only one feeding station. Providing only one food station in a captive environment can cause resource guarding. We may see it between two companion dogs when they are fed their dinner. We can see it in a group of horses when fed communally in a paddock. I answered my own question by providing one more feeding station and the resource guarding ceased.

Free Flying Behavior

Another change in parental behavior involves Flash and Bebe’s free flying. While the pair was brooding the chick and continuing  until a few days after Star had fledged, it was typical that both birds would go out to fly when I opened their door. Off they’d go, sometimes at great length and other times just for a short stretch of the wings.

Star flies down close to Chris for the first time to forage.

While her parents were out flying, Star would sit quietly tucked in or behind the birch tree that grows in the back of the aviary. At this time of her life she did no exploratory flying in the aviary on her own.

When I offered Bebe and Flash an opportunity to free fly one morning not too long ago, neither took me up on it. Okay, that wasn’t too unusual. What was unusual is that in the weeks following, going out to free fly wasn’t part of Flash and Bebe’s agenda.

Sharing fresh millet spray with Father Flash

As Star’s exploratory behaviors have increased, so too have the parents’ intense surveillance over her. In other words, as she becomes more independent, the parents’ concern about her whereabouts grows.

It seems that it should be the opposite; that is, as Star’s independence grows, so should the loosening of parental apron strings. Again, I’ve come up with another hypothesis.

Even though Star is becoming quite competent at negotiating the aviary by flight, she has not acquired adult capabilities. Her flying is not as physically robust as her parents. Even her ability to walk on a perch is not up to adult standards yet. However, she doesn’t hesitate to fly about the aviary with as much gusto as she can muster.

The Awkward Star

I compare this extra Star attention by Flash and Bebe to human parents whose baby is learning to walk. Once some competency has been achieved by the toddler, parents are more acutely aware of her movements, as she can quickly get herself into a pickle from her new walking ability. So it may be for Star’s parents, while she is in her “toddler” stage. In the wild, her new flight skills could easily lead her into dangerous situations.

Raptors are keenly aware of juvenile birds. Fledgling parrots have all the characteristics of defenseless youngsters. Fledgling vocalizations sound different from their adult parents. Their flight skills are certainly different from those of mature birds. Their size may be different. Their mannerisms may be more awkward and so on.

Raptors pick up on these youthful characteristics with ease and understand that an effortless meal is available for the taking. Hence, Flash and Bebe watch Star even more closely during this “toddler” stage of her development, even though she is safe in the aviary.

Behaviors I see displayed by Star and her parents are no doubt colored by their captive environment. However, observing Flash and Bebe raise Star is fascinating in and of itself, regardless of where it’s done.

Latest News About Ellie

Ellie continues to settle into life at Cockatoo Downs. She seems to have grown fond of having the flyers visit her while she is in her aviary on the deck. She shows excitement and watches intently as the small flock gathers around her aviary.

Ellie Foraging

The flyers and Ellie eagerly take treats from me as we all hang out together. When they fly away, she calls after them, which I take as a healthy sign that she is becoming a bit more cockatoo- oriented, rather than just people-focused.

Just for Fun at Cockatoo Downs!

Alex Collins is a young man who attended our Exotic Bird Rescue workshop we held a few weeks ago. When I saw Alex work with a couple of the cockatoos at the workshop, I was impressed by his skill and demeanor around the birds. I invited him back for some one-on-one training time with me and the cockatoos.

Alex is calm and focused around the birds and pays attention to their body language. When there is a misread, he doesn’t get flustered and is ready to try again. Alex spent some time working Flash and Bebe in the aviary while Star watched from her perch. Bebe was all about Alex, but Flash, not so much. But with Alex’s calm persistence, Flash came around and was soon targeting and taking treats from him. It was a good day.

Chris Shank’s love of parrots and knowledge of animal training began several decades ago. Her professional experiences include a degree from the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College in California, an internship at Busch Gardens’ parrot show, work as a dolphin trainer at Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara and later in Hassloch, Germany.

Her love for cockatoos came after a relocation to the Philippines. Once back in the United States, she established her aviary Cockatoo Downs, where she has regularly offered training and education to parrot owners for many years now. She is an internationally-recognized expert in free flight.