Parrots and Proximity (Part Two)

In Parrots and Proximity (Part One), I examined the importance of proximity to parrots. (If you have not yet read that blog post, please do so before you read on.) Parrots react both positively and negatively to the proximity of people they encounter, to other parrots, and to objects.

You may be thinking: “Well, this is nothing new! We know that parrots react when we bring things close to them that they don’t like.” I ask you simply to read on. This is a close look at something we have failed to appreciate fully in the past.

Both humans and parrot species organize their societies through what might be termed “rules of proximity.” Parrots are flock animals; proximity to others ensures their very survival. Beyond that, however, parrots use different proxemic distances to form specific relationships.

Proximity is of primary importance to parrots and is in fact a primary reinforcer. (This is why the Constructional Approach is always effective in a relatively brief period of time when used correctly.) Given this, we must investigate more thoroughly the importance of proximity to parrots and how we can use this knowledge both to make them more comfortable in our world and to be more effective with them. We can use this knowledge to improve quality of life for all and to resolve behavior problems more easily. We can use it to improve our ability to communicate with our parrots and to develop better relationships with them. Let’s examine each of these areas.

Improving Quality of Life for All

Too Close for Comfort

I have long lobbied against putting a group of parrots into a “bird room,” for multiple reasons. For the purpose of this discussion, a room would deserve this designation if it imposed an artificial boundary between the parrots in their cages and the people in the most used living space. Placing a parrot’s cage in a room other than the living area assumes that the bird is not really capable of relationship and instead will simply be called upon for periods of mutual entertainment when out of the room.

As I stated in Part One, each species seems to have its own culture when it comes to the proximities they choose for roosting, interacting with friends and pair bonding activities. This is an area where a great deal of investigation is still needed.

Old World parrots (greys, cockatoos, Poicephalus, Eclectus, and others) have different body language and customs than do New World parrots (Amazons, Pionus, macaws, Quakers, etc.). In many bird rooms parrots belonging to multiple different species live in close proximity to maximize space. It is impossible to quantify the amount of stress that this may cause some parrots.

I have the same concern about adoption organizations and their need to maximize space. Directors that I have spoken with tell tales of waiting lists, too many parrots relinquished, too few foster homes, and too few adoptions to keep up with the demand. Too many parrots remain in organizational living for too long a period of time, so examining these issues is a must.

It’s inevitable in these facilities that parrot cages will need to be placed close together. However, we should explore options, such as visual barriers, that might help parrots adjust to those living conditions. For parrots that flock as a single species, they should all be placed in the same area. That one single move could conceivably improve the experience for Old World species in organizations. If going into foster homes, these parrots should also be placed in twos whenever possible.

In our homes, we can use this new awareness regarding parrots and their proxemic preferences to prevent stress by making sure that we don’t place cages too close together. I have found that this will vary among species, but at least four feet between cages would be optimal for most medium- to large-sized parrots. More may be necessary for larger birds. We can “ask” the parrots by bringing them closer together and watching their body language to identify their “preferences” about their nearness to other birds.

The Single Parrot

We must also examine the experience of the single parrot. I have changed my ideas over the years, and now believe that we should not keep single parrots if we have a choice. They have a difficult experience over the course of their very long lives, especially when kept in a room apart from the family area.

Mammals are not birds and birds do best with another bird in the home. Since parrots are flock animals, and staying in close proximity is necessary for survival, it’s a safe bet that a single parrot in the home might benefit from the presence of another.

This does not mean I think that everyone with a single parrot should go out and adopt a second! No one should ever adopt one parrot for another. Please – only adopt another parrot if you truly want another one! You are the one who will sign up for decades of cleaning and increased expense. And, there’s no guarantee that the parrots will get along. You might wind up with a second parrot and a behavior consultation fee.

An important note before we go on: NEVER get a “mate” for your single parrot, thinking this will solve some of your problems. It won’t. You will simply have twice the problems.

If you adopt another parrot, make sure that it is the same gender as the one(s) you already have. That won’t prevent the possibility of pair bonding, but the ramifications won’t be as disastrous if you have a species that forms very strong pair bonds, such as Amazons and cockatoos.

And, do NOT expect that the parrots will interact and become friends. The true benefit comes simply from having another set of feathers in the house. We must respect the fact that they derive pleasure from the presence of the other from a distance. When conditions create stress, such as the need to be boarded, the birds have each other as a familiar stabilizing presence.

Parrots from Single-Species Flocking Patterns

We may have an ethical issue when it comes to keeping parrots with single-species flocking habits in the wild. This is true of Congo African Greys, which are known to flock in unusually large groups of their own kind, even when breeding.

Most of you know that, while I have experience with a great many species, a lot of it is with greys. During my career, I have helped clients with one grey to adopt a second many times. In 95% of cases, this goes so well that it hurts your heart and the client wonders why you didn’t do it sooner. In the other 5% of cases, people have usually mismanaged the situation.

Greys (almost) always do well with other greys. The photo is of Boston and Phoenix. Boston (age 8) had always lived by himself until his owner adopted Phoenix from me. This photo was taken within two weeks of their first meeting. They formed a fast friendship almost immediately.

We need to examine our practice of keeping these species as single parrots. They may very well need the proximity of others of their kind to have the best life. New World parrots often do well with any of the other New World species, so having a conspecific may not be as critical for them.

Behavior Problems and Proximity

Screaming for Attention

Screaming is a behavior problem I am often asked to resolve. Once I began to take a closer look, I found that most often a parrot is screaming for proximity, rather than attention. For years, behavior consultants have assumed that parrots are screaming for attention. And, for the most part, the correct interventions of ignoring the screaming, rewarding desirable vocalizations, and changing antecedents do solve the problem.

However, that is a lot of work to go to if you are relying on those strategies alone because you may not really resolve the parrot’s main issue, which is frustration at being placed at too great a distance from the people. Often, if you simply place the parrot in the preferred human’s proximity on a playstand or cage that offers plenty to do, the parrot will be happy with that. It is simply not normal for a single parrot to spend the day alone when the owner is in another room. Further, pair-bonded parrots are exquisitely sensitive to distance from their person. We still need to teach the parrot to station but by placing the parrot in the person’s proximity, we set everyone up for success and stationing becomes much easier.

This will not be the case with pair-bonded parrots who have learned to spend large periods on the shoulder or lap. These often become “boomerang birds,” if you try to get them to station even two feet away. If you have one, you know what I mean. It is necessary in these cases to work with a consultant to gradually teach the parrot to be happy with some distance.

Fear and Aggression

Fearful and aggressive parrots also do best when placed in the living area, in a spot out of a high traffic pattern. They need the opportunity to observe the owners as they go about their daily activities. Parrots establish trust more easily if they can observe us as we ourselves behave throughout the day. The benefit holds true for all parrots, of course.

Fear and aggression both are best resolved by the use of the Constructional Approach (also known as the CAT Protocol). This approach rewards the bird for calmer behavior by removing an object that causes discomfort (sometimes it’s the person). Thought for years to be an approach that could break trust, it turns out that in this application negative reinforcement is the strategy of choice and gives the parrot the greatest relief in the quickest period of time, making it possible to use positive reinforcement to teach trust.

The Constructional Approach is also the most powerful intervention for resolving fear toward unfamiliar objects, such as new toys. To learn more about this approach, Barbara Heidenreich has an excellent video.

Parrots Who Don’t Get Along

When we have problems with parrots who don’t get along, we can use knowledge of proximity and behavior to resolve those issues and instill a measure of community. A wonderful client used this principle to resolve occasional aggression between her budgies and her two Green-cheeked Conures, two species not known to get along. By setting up two different “living areas” we gave them a bit of space from each other, which then allowed us to encourage more peaceful interactions by setting up a communal foraging spot for all the birds.

When a parrot enjoys a pleasurable experience in the presence of another, their opinion of “the other” becomes more favorable. This is how counter conditioning works. We work to change the opinion that a parrot has toward another bird by pairing high-value reinforcers (rewards) with the proximity of that other.

I will be delving into situations like this with multiple birds in my new webinar, Inclusive Living with Companion Parrots, next Thursday, November 16, at 11:00 am. This will be a two-hour deep dive (with plenty of opportunity to ask questions) into creating the best environments for all parrots and then how to use positive reinforcement to create the best social relationships. If you are unable to attend, no worries. I will be recording the webinar and will make this available to all registrants. Please come! This is original material that I have not presented before. Just go to the link above to register.

Reading Body Language

When I read suggestions from others on how to read body language, I sometimes get the impression that this is done for reasons of self-defense. Most often discussed are the indicators of impending aggression or a state of heightened arousal.

However, until now, no one has focused on the need to recognize the much more subtle indications that a parrot gives regarding proxemic wishes. If we are looking for the broader strokes, such as pinning pupils and fanned tails, we will miss many messages that our parrots offer us on a daily basis.

Parrots indicate interest by leaning forward. They indicate an aversive reaction by leaning away. We must learn to recognize and then respect these very first signs of discomfort or interest and then respond accordingly. It is not okay to put the toy into the cage if the parrot clearly indicates discomfort. Find another way.

This is difficult for people. Humans are animals who enjoy the use of force. Force includes subtle “persuasion.” If a bird tells us by leaning away that he wishes greater distance, we must give that to him immediately, rather than trying to get closer to somehow “desensitize” him to it (especially if you have not taken a course in applied behavior analysis so that you understand what desensitization really is). Social media is full of pseudo-science, even from those who should know better.

We constantly push past the subtle messages about proximity that our parrots give us. This is how we teach birds to bite. Think about the times when you helped to clear away the sheaths of new feathers on your parrot’s head. How many times has he pulled just slightly away, and you followed with your hand to do more despite that subtle sign? This is a very slight form of force. We must learn instead to exercise more self-control over our desire to touch our parrots so that we pay attention to such “requests” to stop that the parrot gives to us.

We all could do with a lesson in sensitivity. You can begin by taking a day to find out more information about your parrot’s wishes regarding his proximity to different items and experiences in his day. Don’t operate on previous assumptions. If he leans away from the harness, but then allows you to put it on anyway, that is not a win and you should retrain the harness in a force-free way.

Improved Relationships

Improved relationships rely on improved communication. Communication is a two-way experience. It requires both speaking and listening. You can’t “listen” to parrots who speak “body language” unless they are in your space.

Beyond that, we can use this knowledge of proximity and how parrots in flocks behave to capitalize on the fact that they thrive on parallel activities. Parrot flocks are, in fact, a study in parallel activities – they all preen at the same time, forage at the same time, vocalize at the same time, and roost at the same time. Parallel activities are the glue that keeps parrot flocks together.

What types of parallel activities can we offer our parrots? If we place parrot cages in our living area, this will occur naturally. Parrots are much more aware of us than we are of them and will sync their activities to ours. They will eat when we eat, snooze when we snooze, and get busy when we are busy. They vocalize loudly when we yell or play music.

You will find that there is nothing parrots love more than doing their stuff as you do your stuff. When I clean the house, I play music. As I clean, the parrots chew up enrichment or bathe, or mess around with each other.

We can encourage harmonious relationships between different parrots by structuring parallel activities in various ways. At least twice a day, I draw a cup of cold water and go around offering a drink to everyone. Parrots prefer cold water freshly drawn to that which has been standing around. The act of going around, offering drinks as each parrot relishes the water, solidifies their bonds with each other and with me.

Sharing food is another way to establish closer flock relationships. Unsalted, unflavored rice cakes are an excellent choice. Outshine fruit popsicles have a no-sugar option; many parrots are fascinated with frozen things (especially African Greys). Crackers made from nuts are another good choice. We don’t want to fill them up with such things. But taking a rice cake, breaking off a small piece for each parrot, and then enjoying the rest yourself is a small, but powerful, action.

Summary

Parrots and people are very similar in that they both organize their societies according to proxemic distances and both use parallel experiences (think about sports) to build relationships. Let’s recognize this by locating our parrots in our living space and then training them well so that they can continue to enjoy that right.

As I write this, my parrots are all out of their cages. I am working in my sunny kitchen while I listen to music. Chuckie is in his (open) cage, taking a bath in his water dish. Ruby is also in there with him, working to destroy a wood toy. Cyrano is perched on his AviStation and Marko is chilling on top of the (well-protected) refrigerator. It feels very companionable to me. Granted, this is the result of well-placed cages and playstands and a lot of training, but it’s SO worth it. If this seems impossible in your case, it is not. This is what I make possible for those who listen to me. Please register for my first webinar Inclusive Living with Companion Parrots, in my new series Progressive Parrot Keeping.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, a Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with their parrots, with any problem large or small. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, subscribe to my newsletter (a different publication, or purchase my webinars, go to http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com.

Parrots and Proximity

I have lived with parrots for a great deal longer than many of you reading this have been alive. My decades of involvement with them afford me a unique perspective. What has our history been with companion parrots? The following is my view.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, we have taken these parrot species into our homes without knowing anything about them. Once we began living with them, we proceeded to make up out of thin air a lot of “information” about them that has been published as fact. Below are a few examples.

“All parrots need 10 to 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night.” “All parrots must have clipped wings to keep them safe.” “All parrots need regular toenail trims.” “All parrots become more hormonal in the spring.” “We all must bathe our parrots regularly for best health.” All untrue. (While each of these statements might be true for individuals, they are not true for most parrots.)

It is our nature as human beings to concoct explanations for things we do not yet understand. However, we have now lived with our parrots for long enough that we have learned some things about them. True, what we have learned may not yet be mainstream. The social media machine is slow to change its message. That does not mean that the issues about which I write aren’t known to many already.

Have they been proven scientifically? No! However, as Dr. Susan Friedman once convinced me, during a personal conversation, enough anecdotal evidence can and should carry the same weight for consideration as that which has been proven by science. The latter can also be slow to catch up and is often dependent upon the ability to study a large group of individuals, as well as the funding to make it all possible. Two enormous hurdles when it comes to parrots.

I watch parrots all the time and have for decades. Over time I have noticed how important to them proximity is so I began to study this issue. What I have discovered may be critical in the future to a greater quality of life for all parrots, as well as having an impact on the way we provide for their care and resolve behavior problems. My hope is that you will read it not just for entertainment, but will take what I say into serious consideration, especially those of you who help others with behavior problems. I have been developing and using these ideas for several years now to make sure that they are solid. They have improved my ability to solve behavior problems with my clients and improved the quality of life of each bird, every time.

The Evils of Anthropomorphism

We, as parrot owners and behavior consultants, have had the evils of anthropomorphism drilled into us. For those of you who have escaped these warnings, the definition of anthropomorphism is “the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.” (1) This fear has gotten in the way of our ability to understand our parrots. I hope to convince you in this article that parrots and people have more in common than you might think and that we would do well to heed the implications of this and abandon any concerns we might harbor about “being anthropomorphic.”

Why? Because both humans and parrot species organize their societies through what might be termed “rules of proximity.” It is time to stop worrying about being anthropomorphic and allow the obvious to become clear. Parrots and people have much in common. Our inability to recognize this to date has resulted in poor quality of life for many parrots, both companion and breeding.

Birds and Proximity

I first became fascinated with the issue of how birds manage proximity when watching videos of starlings manifesting the behavior of murmuration. Please take a few seconds and watch the video at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY.

If you watched it, you understand that this behavior would be impossible without exquisite sensitivity to proximity and an individual laser focus for each bird. We know that birds are intelligent, including starlings which are the subject of the video. Our parrots are no different. If you have ever watched a fully-flighted budgie hurtle towards a window and then turn on a dime at the last minute you understand this. I have often watched my greys tuck their wings in at the last moment when going through a partially open doorway. I will not be surprised if, in the far future, it is discovered that birds have a sense that humans do not – a sense related solely to their proximity to other things.

Humans and the Study of Proxemics

As it turns out, humans too are concerned with proximity. Proxemics is “the study of how human beings communicate through their use of space.” This term was first used by E.T. Hall, an anthropologist. Proxemics is studied within the subject matter of communication skills and body language. Hall defined proxemics as, “The spatial dimension of non-verbal behavior.” (2)

I found this quote especially interesting: “Blyth, an expert in the field, while talking about proxemics states that, ‘Hall sets forth a theory about how people react to others at various distances from their own bodies, indicating thereby a sense of territoriality, similar to that shown by animals or birds and develops notation for this purpose.” (2)

Within the field of proxemics, humans have four recognized zones of proxemic behavior that not only allow for a greater understanding of an individual but also a culture. These are the zones that have been defined:

The intimate zone is 0 to 1.5 feet. This zone requires no explanation and is used mostly for non-verbal communication.

The personal zone or space is identified as 1.5 feet to 3 feet and is informally known as one’s “bubble.” This is known as the best distance for developing rapport and building relationships. The distance may vary by culture or individual personality.

The social zone is defined as 4 to 11 feet. This is meant for events like cocktail parties or business meetings where people might not know each other well. The public zone is 12-25 feet. This is the zone you might experience if you take a college course or attend a presentation by a live orchestra.

These suggested zones are by no means hard and fast. They are influenced by culture, the height of the person speaking, the size of the space, the time of day, and whether the person is more used to city versus rural living. However, these are now considered to be “hard-wired” in our culture; they are the default distances that most people use most of the time.

Parrots and Proxemic Zones

I believe that companion parrots also have proxemic zones that are hard-wired. They may not be identical to ours, but they are similar enough to cause anyone reading this to have some light bulbs going on by now. For parrots, proximity to others in the flock is a matter of survival. However, each parrot species seems to have its own “rules of proximity.” The fact that bird flocks are organized due to their “rules of proximity” is irrefutable.

The way companion parrots use proxemic distances will undoubtedly be influenced by the habituation of living in limited spaces and having to live in mixed-species flocks not of their choosing. Further, these zones will only be true for parrots who are fully-flighted with the opportunity to move about at free will when out of their cages. Parrots who have lived with clipped wings for years have learned that they have no power to control their proximity to anything. Those who are flighted quite freely make choices in this area.

The following is a discussion of what I have observed so far in my own flocks regarding the use of proximity. It appears that they too have an intimate zone or space. This explains why, when we keep a parrot on our shoulders or laps, or we engage in a lot of cuddling, they develop a pair bond with us, and the production of reproductive hormones soars. This is exacerbated by the practice of what I call intense proximity which is the fate of the parrot who has become habituated to spending long periods of time on the owner’s shoulder or lap.

Preferences for proximity seem to differ by species. Green-cheeked Conures enjoy hanging out in close proximity to each other when roosting. They use the “intimate zone” for social reasons, whereas African Greys would not. African Greys are a species that appear to incorporate quite naturally more distance between individuals. My own pair-bonded greys, Ruby and Chuckie, rarely choose to be close together. During the day, they stay between 2 and 10 feet from each other in my living area until it’s time to go to roost. They spend no more than 5 minutes a day in pair-bonding activities.

The internet is full of pictures of parrots on shoulders. Most clients whose birds have behavior problems have practiced physical closeness and have established a pair bond with their parrots. This then begs the question: Does the continual closeness of a parrot on a person pose any threat to a parrot’s physical and mental health because of the stress of imposed proximity? No two parrots, of any species, would ever spend as much time close together as some parrots spend on their owner’s shoulders. I have come to believe that feather-damaging behavior, self-mutilation, and cloacal prolapse are directly tied to excess hormone production caused by inappropriate closeness and touching that occurs over a long period of years.

In addition to the intimate zone, parrots use other proxemic zones. They are similar to those that we use. Depending upon the species, they have a personal zone that ranges from 2- 6 feet. This is the zone they prefer when with a human they trust and interact with freely.

They also display a “social zone.” This would be approximately between 6-12 feet, or the furthest distance within the room. This zone would include those people in the house the parrot does not prefer or actively aggresses against.

The last zone we might consider describing for companion parrots is the public zone. This would apply to strange people coming into the home or any experiences that the parrot has when leaving the home.

Parrots also concern themselves with their proximity to objects and activities. This is why the strategies of desensitization and counter conditioning, as well as The Constructional Approach, are so often necessary in working with them.

Scientific Information on Parrot Proxemics

The implications of this knowledge are huge and far-reaching for our parrots’ quality of life. Research that reveals information on how parrots use proximity is scarce, but let’s look at what I was able to find so far during a brief search:

In one study, closer proximity to the door of a bird room resulted in increased frequency of “feather damaging behavior” while the development of stereotypies “was negatively correlated with the number of neighbors.” (3)

One study examined the spatial relationships of nesting Lilac-crowned Amazon parrots. The conclusion: “The behavioral spacing requirements of nesting parrots may limit breeding densities and restrict management strategies to increase numbers of nesting pairs within protected areas.” (4) While the reduced density of nests may be due to resource availability, it is possible that a behavioral need for a particular proximity is another factor.

In the “Manual of Parrot Behavior,” Cheryl Meehan and Joy Mench offer us a discussion of the factors in our homes that impact the welfare of our own birds. Mentioned is the fact that isolation from conspecifics may result in several behavior problems and that increased closeness then resolved. (5) It would not be hard to find other examples.

In terms of anecdotal evidence, I have three cases so far in which I can show that feather-damaging behavior increases in direct proportion to the amount of time the parrot spends on the owner’s body.

Understanding the value of proximity to parrots raises a host of important questions, both ethical and practical. It also, however, allows us to get busy right away improving their quality of life. It is time to recognize that proximity is a primary reinforcer for parrots. After all, we know that a lone parrot is more likely to succumb to a predator. Parrots live in flocks for reasons of safety. We must learn to recognize and respect how parrots indicate their preferences for proximity. We must use this information with greater intention when interacting with them and when creating their environments. Look at the excellent example above, that one amazing client created for her mixed-species flock of small birds.

Putting this Knowledge into Practice

In Part Two of this article, I will explore how we can best use this new understanding of the importance of proximity to parrots. As I have used this new perspective, I have become convinced that it is a valuable tool. It will change the way we read body language. We will examine some questions related to training, environment, social interactions, and how methods used for solving certain behavior problems might incorporate this knowledge:

Do bird rooms where cages are placed close together compromise the quality of life for parrots?
Is it easier to establish a relationship with a parrot if we locate their cage in the living area?
If we have mixed-species flocks of both Old and New World parrots, how does this inform cage placement?
Do parrots who flock in single-species flocks need a conspecific in the home for best quality of life?
Can this understanding be used to solve some behavior problems more easily?
Does this knowledge change the way we read body language more easily?
Can this information be used to best introduce a new parrot into the house?

These are just a few of the questions I will examine in Part Two of this article. I hope that this discussion has been at least a bit eye-opening and that you will stay with me on this journey as we explore how we can use this new perspective to create environments that foster the best quality relationships with our parrots.

Resources

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism (Accessed 05/06/23)
O.Minu Agnus M.A., M.Phil., M.B.A., Ph.D. Proxemics: The Study of Space. IRWLE VOL. 8 No. I January 2012 “Thousand of experiences teach us, that space communicates” E.T.Hall (1990 p 161). https://worldlitonline.net/proxemics-the-o.pdf. (Accessed 05/11/23)
Genetic, environmental, and neighbor effects on the severity of stereotypies and feather picking in Orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica): An epidemiological study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 96, Issues 1–2, 2006, Pages 153-168, ISSN 0168-1591 (Accesses 6/15/23)
RT Journal Article, Salinas-Melgoza, Alejandro, Salinas-Melgoza, Vicente A1 Renton, Katherine. Factors Influencing Nest Spacing of a Secondary Cavity-Nesting Parrot: Habitat Heterogeneity and Proximity of Conspecifics. YR 2009. DO 10.1525/cond.2009.090017, VO 111, IS 2, SP 305, OP 313, SN 1938-5129, RD 5/6/2023. https://doi.org/10.1525/cond.2009.090017 (Accessed 7/1/23)
Manual of Parrot Behavior. Cheryl Meehan and Joy Mench. “Captive Parrot Welfare,” pages 301-315.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, a Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with their parrots. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, subscribe to my newsletter (a different publication from this blog, or purchase my webinars, please visit http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com.

Introducing Dr. Amy Zhao of The Budgie Academy

As many of you know, a bit over a year ago I landed in Indiana. Before that relocation, I put out a plea for assistance in the form of a GoFundMe campaign. A lot of you helped me. At the time in gratitude, I promised that I would resume posting on my blog as soon as I had settled. I have not done so quite yet because I took a detour along the way. (I continue to be endlessly grateful to all of you who helped me and I can reassure you that new blog posts are coming soon.)

Having grown increasingly distressed by the poor quality of information available on the internet and decreasingly confident in my ability as one person to counteract it, I decided to begin mentoring others to become parrot behavior consultants. Whereas the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants does offer certification for parrot behavior consultants, they do not offer the education that will allow one to become certified.

I now have a group of 20 mentees, each brilliant in their own right. Some have zoo training backgrounds or have worked professionally as dog trainers. A sprinkling are free flight specialists. A few focus on smaller species. One or two work on the rescue side of things. A few already have their own behavior consulting businesses. Members are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada. As a group, we are a force for the dispensation of correct information and the provision of effective assistance for parrot owners everywhere.

It is my great good luck that Dr. Amy Zhao is one of my mentees. Dr. Zhao is an animal scientist living in Boston with her three budgies and two cockatiels. She earned her B. S. in Animal Science from Cornell University in 2014 and continued to earn her PhD in Animal Science specializing in animal physiology and molecular and cell biology from Cornell University in 2019. During her time at Cornell, she has worked with and taken classes in management and husbandry for many animal species including sheep, cattle, horses, birds of prey, and of course, parrots.

She also spent eight years as a teaching assistant for courses including Domestic Animal Biology, Animal Nutrition, Domestic Animal Behavior, and Comparative Animal Anatomy and Physiology. Dr. Zhao has 15 years of teaching experience in biology, physiology, nutrition, behavior, and more for students ranging from elementary to the graduate level.

She continues to expand her expertise through additional continuing education in nutrition, physiology, applied behavior analysis, and parrot behavior consulting. Today she uses her experience and knowledge to help guide other budgie owners on their journey to care for their pet budgies.

I am introducing Dr. Zhao to you now because she will be giving a webinar on October 14 for the Phoenix Landing organization and I wouldn’t want you to miss it! Her presentation titled What the Budgerigar Can Teach Us About Parrot Care will be held at 1:00 p.m. EDT. She has new information to present about budgie care, especially their dietary needs and specific requirements for managing budgie populations, all science-based. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is only for budgie owners! To register, please go to the Phoenix Landing Events page.

Dr. Zhao and I have also begun working together to determine more closely the impact that different foods have on the increased production of reproductive hormones in companion parrots. The conversation began when I said to her: “I know for a fact that budgies and cockatiels do best when eating Roudybush pellets, Lafeber Nutriberries, and Avicakes but I don’t know why!” She took on the challenge and what we have discovered will significantly impact our current ideas about parrot nutrition and pellet formulation in the future. Stay tuned!

Please welcome Dr. Zhao to our parrot community as a resource that can be trusted by attending on October 14 and sharing this post wherever you can.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, an IAABC Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with their parrots. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, subscribe to my newsletter (a different publication from this blog, or purchase my webinars, please visit http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com.

Easiest Behavior Fixes Ever!

It seems sometimes that the bulk of our days is spent trying to change the behavior of other species – spouses, co-workers, children, pets, and even pests.

We struggle to get our kids to do their homework, rather than stare at screens. We want the dog to sit rather than jump up on a guest. We search for non-toxic snail control. We stress out over parrots who scream, display aggression, or pull feathers, trying one tactic and then another to get them to stop. At the same time, we can’t get them to eat vegetables, play with toys, or accept a bath.

Consequences and Punishment

When it comes to problem behavior, our first impulse is usually to try to find a consequence to make it stop. Further, that consequence often takes the shape of punishment.

We take away screen time if the homework doesn’t get done. We lock the dog into his crate when he jumps up. When the parrot screams, we spray him with water or cover his cage. If the bird bites, we put him into his cage for a “time out.”

Why are we so focused on the use of consequences to change behavior? Perhaps because it feels so familiar.

We are all familiar with the painful consequences of failure to plan or of our own miscalculations. We learn to use a hammer correctly when we bang our fingers often enough. We fix that step after we trip. We avoid jalapenos after a sleepless night of indigestion.

For many of us, consequences in the form of punishment from others are also very familiar. If we run a red light, we pay the price of a ticket. If kids misbehave in school, they get a visit with the principal. If we break a law, we go to jail. For those of us who have taken a spin around the sun more than a few times, we can remember being spanked by our parents for wrongdoing – an accepted practice back when we were young.

We live in a society in which consequences, especially the consequence of punishment, is the first “go to” method for changing behavior. Is it any wonder then that we focus on consequences when we need to change a parrot’s behavior?

Of course not! It feels familiar and punishment, delivered skillfully, will serve to decrease the problem behavior in the future. Moreover, it often feels good to the punisher, since it can relieve frustration and anger.

However, many problems derive from the use of punishment. Results of positive punishment may include a desire to escape, with a display of either fear or aggression. Another unforeseen result is apathy, in that other behaviors may be suppressed as well. Results of negative punishment include stress and frustration.

In general, taking action to punish a behavior often results in broken trust and increased problems of another sort. (Chance, 1999) We do not want to be in the position of punishing our parrots as our primary tactic for changing behavior.

Applied Behavior Analysis

There is, thankfully, a much better way to successfully solve many behavior issues. By changing antecedents, we can both make problem behaviors less likely and cause desired behaviors to occur more often.

I have brought you through the backdoor into the house of applied behavior analysis. Applied behavior analysis (the science of behavior) gives us a systematic, scientifically-proven method for changing behavior.

Please note that most of the behavior suggestions found on Facebook and other social media sites are not science-based. Most offering advice have a bad case of not knowing what they don’t know. Anyone “researching” behavior problems must question the credentials of anyone offering advice.

In contrast, the approach provided by applied behavior analysis can be trusted to work if practiced correctly.

We need focus on only three things when we need to change a specific behavior. In addition to the behavior itself, we examine the antecedents and the consequences. We are all familiar with the consequences of course. They are the events that occur immediately after a behavior that influence the rate at which that behavior will be offered in the future. (Luescher, 2006) Punishment is a consequence that reduces a particular behavior in the future.

A far better strategy whenever possible is to deftly arrange antecedents in order to support the likelihood of a desired outcome.

Antecedent-based Interventions

According to Friedman, Martin and Brinker, “Antecedents are the stimuli, events, and conditions that immediately precede a behavior.” Antecedents set the stage for the behavior to occur; the behavior will not occur without the presence of the antecedent.

Changing antecedents in order to change behavior is a more ethical, often simpler and easier way to change behavior. So easy in fact that, when I suggest such a change, clients will look at me with a bit of skepticism. I can see them thinking that things really can’t be that easy.

Antecedent changes can be used in order to make it easy for our birds to perform the behaviors we do want and to make it hard or impossible to perform the behaviors that we don’t want to see.

Let’s review some examples of using antecedent changes both to decrease problem behaviors and to set birds up for success when performing new or unfamiliar behaviors.

Decreasing Problem Behaviors

Aggression and “Nippiness”

Antecedent changes are the “name of the game” when it comes to solving problems of aggression.

Example One: Some types of misbehavior occur when a bird is on the shoulder. Perhaps a bird, who has been sitting on your shoulder for three years without problem, suddenly begins to bite when up there. Perhaps he nips your earlobes or pulls your glasses off or rips an earring out.

Antecedent Change: In this case, the recommended antecedent change is simple – just don’t allow the bird onto your shoulder. Instead, you can teach him to station on a perch near you by offering reinforcers frequently. This will actually increase his quality of life more than sitting on your shoulder does. It both encourages independent behavior and offers him control over access to reinforcers.

Example Two: Your bird lunges at you when you are changing out food dishes.

Antecedent Change: Teach him to station up on a perch in the cage located furthest from the food dishes. When you show up with the food dishes, have with you a good-sized favorite treat that will take him a minute to eat. By moving your hand on the outside of the cage, lure him up to the designated perch and then give him the treat through the cage bars. Quickly switch out the dishes. Continue to do this every time you feed him. He will begin to scramble up to the preferred perch as soon as he sees you arrive with his food.

Example Three: Your flighted bird attacks your hands when you hold a book or tablet.

Antecedent Change: Either put him into his cage or outdoor aviary while you read or read in another room.

Example Four: Your bird bites when you ask him to step up.

Antecedent Change: You begin to reinforce stepping up by first showing and then immediately delivering a preferred food treat. At the same time, you read your bird’s body language and honor that by making use of a start button.

Screaming or Other Problem Noise

Example One: Your parrot enjoys perching where he can look out the window, but screams frequently when he sees neighborhood action taking place outside.

Antecedent Change: Purchase some sheer curtains and keep those closed when the noise will be inconvenient. You can still have the light without the noise.

Example Two: Your parrot is too loud when you have company. You might have learned to live with this, but it may upset your visitors and make it hard to enjoy yourselves.

Antecedent Change: If you have a sleep cage, turn it into a “siesta cage.” Add a hanging perch above and a playstand beside, then place toys and foraging projects there. This way, your parrot can be relocated before your visitors arrive.

Example Three: Your parrot screams when you get on the phone.

Antecedent Change: Go into another room or outside to talk, if the call cannot be predicted. You might also try using the speaker phone function, since it is often holding the phone to your ear that acts as the stimulus for the noise.

Example Four: Your parrot screams when you and your spouse have a conversation in another room. This often results when a pair bond exists between the parrot and one of the partners. Additional measures will be necessary to resolve this social dynamic.

Antecedent Change: A simple antecedent change for the short term is to have the parrot present for the conversation. In this case, isolation is a problem.

Increasing Desirable Behaviors

Improving the Diet of Small Birds

It’s common for small parrots like budgerigars, cockatiels and lovebirds to eat a seed mix as the dietary staple. After all, that’s what the breeder or pet store sent you home with, along with that too-small cage, the cuttlebone, and the plastic toy with a bell inside.

If you have a bird like this and have learned about the dangers of such a diet, you may have struggled to get your bird converted to pellets and other foods.

Antecedent Change: Offer new foods in dishes that are right near to the bird’s favorite perches. They are more likely to accept these new foods sooner when they are right under that beak. This means that eating the new foods is easier, in terms of energy use.

Teaching Larger Parrots to Eat Vegetables

Many parrots who have been eating a seed mix typically resist the consumption of both vegetables and pellets. In part, this is due to their neophobic nature. The other problem is their tendency to be naturally drawn to high-fat, carbohydrate-rich foods.

Antecedent Change: Measure out the amount of seed that your parrot eats in a day. This is important. You can’t decrease it if you don’t know what quantity you are offering to begin with. Before feeding, mix the seed into an equal measure of finely chopped vegetables or Chop Mix. Gradually begin to incrementally decrease the amount of seed offered daily as your parrot begins to eat the vegetable mix. By the time that you have stopped offering the seed mix at all, your parrot will have begun to eat both the pellets (if offering those also) and the vegetables.

Antecedent Change #2: Offer the pellets or vegetables in a different location, such as on top of the cage or on a play stand. This will often encourage consumption and I have no idea why. When I was working full time, my parrots ignored pellets in their cages. When I put them on play stands, they began eating them eagerly.

Playing with Toys

I hear many owners complain that their parrot doesn’t play with toys. There are certainly parrots who do not interact with any enrichment. These birds can be taught to interact with toys and foraging opportunities, but this requires consistent and focused training.

Still other birds might interact with toys, but do not do so because it is too difficult or inconvenient. For example, many wooden toys sold for certain species are actually too difficult for them to chew. Either the wood itself is too hard or the pieces are too big. Toy manufacturers have caught onto the fact that you won’t be happy if your parrot destroys in 15 minutes a toy that cost you $15.00. The problem with this is that the sorts of things that interest parrots are those that they can destroy quickly.

Antecedent Change: Make toys at home, using designs from my pamphlet Parrot Enrichment Made Easy. This includes suggestions for making quick, easy-to-chew wooden toys, in addition to those made of paper, cardboard, and fabric.

Antecedent Change #2: In addition, make sure that toys and foraging options are placed very near perches on which your bird chooses to spend time. I have seen toys attached to the inside back of the cage with no perch in sight. I have seen toys placed near perches that are so close to the back of the cage that the parrot can’t comfortably turn around on the perch and can only sit on it facing backwards. Pretend you are your parrot and ask yourself if you can easily interact with the enrichment you have in the cage. Make sure that your parrot can perch easily in a spot where he can easily reach his enrichment items and won’t bang his tail if he turns around.

Encouraging a Bath

Another common complaint concerns the larger parrot who won’t accept a bath. This bird might bathe in the water dish occasionally, but doesn’t get wet enough.

Antecedent Change: Many owners have noticed that their parrot displays bathing behavior, usually in the water dish, when the vacuum cleaner is running. In addition to marveling at this strange phenomenon, you might also choose this as a time to offer a few spritzes from a spray bottle, especially if the parrot isn’t scared by the sight of the bottle. And if he is, perhaps you can conceal the bottle with a kitchen towel or piece of cardboard so that just the nozzle is visible.

Fun with Antecedents

I’ve provided examples of very simple antecedent changes for very simple problems so that you could get the idea. The whole process can be, and usually is, more complicated, and this is where the fun comes in.

In most cases, there are several possible antecedent changes that might work. So, when you identify that you have a problem, sit down with a piece of paper and brainstorm as many as you possibly can, even if a few seem unlikely or even silly.(You may also need to teach other, new behaviors using positive reinforcement, but you can at least get a head start on a solution in this way.)

Remember not to get caught up in trying to figure out what the parrot is feeling or thinking. Instead, just focus on the behavior itself. Then, implement for a week or so the one that you think is most likely to work. Measure the results by observing closely what happens. If that tactic seems to not be working, go on to the next most likely.

I’ll give you an example from my own case files. I know a particular parrot who pulls pin feathers during the night. These are observed on the floor of the cage or the cage cover in the morning. This is a perfectly well-adjusted, flighted parrot on a good diet with an excellent environment that encourages movement and provides lots of enrichment.

Possible antecedent changes include the following: (1) Encouraging more food consumption before bed; (2) Encouraging more exercise before bed; (3) Partially, rather than completely, covering her cage; (4) Giving her some enrichment in her cage to chew on during the night; and (5) Allowing her to stay up a bit later.

This case remains a work in progress. Since the feather damage is occurring only at night, it may well be related to a disease process. However, since veterinary treatment has been completed, it still makes sense to examine antecedents.

A Last Word

Antecedent changes provide us with science-based, ethical, and effective tactics for behavior change. Many simple problems can be resolved through these alone. Using antecedent changes, we can set our birds up for success by encouraging behaviors we would like to see.

All behavior principles that are scientifically proven, like the use of positive reinforcement and antecedent changes, work for humans too. They work across all species lines.

Perhaps we reach so readily for punishment when dealing with parrots is because we as a society use punishment almost exclusively to deal with our children and others.

It’s been a long time since my own kids were young. I was lucky enough back then to discover the book “How to Discipline with Love: From Crib to College” by Dr. Fitzhugh Dodson, which was published in 1992. As Fitzhugh points out, parents all across America are teaching their children to behave badly.

They ignore them when they are behaving well, usually desperately trying to get something else done, and instead provide attention (reinforcement) when they behave badly – throwing a tantrum in the grocery store, fighting with siblings, or refusing to go to bed.

He provides clear instructions for how we can turn that dynamic around. As we all struggle now with staying in place, physical or emotional isolation, and the anxieties related to contracting COVID-19, there is no better time than the present to begin practicing both antecedent changes and the use of positive reinforcement with our parrots, our children, and other family members. “They” say that things won’t be the same once this is all over. This is one change I would like to see that would benefit us all.

Resources:

Chance, Paul. Learning and Behavior. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1999

Friedman, S. G. (2009). “Behavior fundamentals: Filling the behavior-change toolbox.” Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior, 3(1), 36–40. http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/journals/Behavior%20Fundamentals%20JACAB.pdf

Friedman, S.G. (2008) “10 Things Your Parrot Wants You to Know About Behavior.” Psittacine Magazine, May 2008. Pgs 14-16. http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/10%20Things%20Your%20Parrots%20Want%20You%20to%20Know.pdf

Friedman, S. G. (2001) “The ABCs of Behavior.” Original Flying Machine, Issue 9: Nov-Dec, 2001. http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/ABCs%20of%20Behavior%202004.pdf

Luescher, Andrew. The Manual of Parrot Behavior. Ames: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Chapter 14: Friedman, S.G., Martin, Steve, Brinker, Bobbie. “Behavior Analysis and Parrot Learning.” Pg. 147-163.

McGuire, L. (2015) “The Parrot That Screams.” Psittacine Magazine. Pgs 10-11. http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/offshoots/Parrot%20that%20Screams%20-%20WPT%20PS%20Summer%202015.pdf

Encouraging Natural Behaviors in Captive Parrots

My last blog post concerned risk factors for feather damaging behavior, specifically lack of both liberty and control. The bigger consideration, of course, within this conversation about why parrots would damage the very things they need for survival, is quality of life.

In that last blog, I included a quote from Lauren A. Leotti and her co-authors: “In the absence of other stressors, however, the removal of choice, in and of itself, can be very stressful. It has been found that the restriction of behaviors, particularly behaviors that are highly valued by a species, contributes to behavioral and physiological manifestations of stress. It seems that the aversive effects of captivity may depend upon the extent to which behavioral choices have been reduced relative to what could be performed in the natural environment.” (Leotti, 2010)

Simply put, if captive parrots are unable to perform natural behaviors, the effects of captivity are going to result in serious behavioral and physical problems, which is exactly what we are seeing. Problems with biting, screaming, fear, and feather damaging behavior are all around us, as are growing numbers of parrots dying from atherosclerosis.

A New Paradigm

I’ve given this issue – the allowance of natural behaviors – a great deal more thought since I published that last blog post. While I did include in that post some strategies for supporting natural behaviors, this will be a deeper dive into that topic. I may repeat myself just a little, but we can’t hear this stuff too many times, right?

I suggest this model, the encouragement of natural behaviors, as the new paradigm for the way in which we care for our parrots from this point onward. In the past, our parrot-keeping efforts have been shaped by other concepts and models. Let’s take a moment to examine those in order to understand what may still be shaping our thinking as we attempt to move forward

Older Models for Parrot-Keeping

Dominance and Control

One of the most historically destructive models for the parrot-human bond has concerned that of dominance. In 1992, the following appeared in a popular magazine in an article about cage dominance: “To have a well-behaved parrot, owners must establish themselves as the dominant partner in the pair or flock bond…. As the bird establishes dominance over its cage, it becomes dominant everywhere.” (Blanchard, 1992)

In 1996, this message about the need for the human to be dominant was in the process of being softened and was now called Nurturing Dominance. “By establishing a relationship of nurturing dominance by teaching and consistently using the four basic commands, you can successfully demote your parrot from its perceived position as head of the flock.” (The four commands were: “Up,” “Down,” “No,” and “Okay.”) (Wilson, 1996)

In 1999, these “principles” of dominance and control were formalized in book form, with yet another name change to Nurturing Guidance. An entire page was given over to the concept of height dominance.

As it was explained: “People who have not established Nurturing Guidance will have trouble with height dominance, but they will most likely also have trouble with cage aggression, excessive screaming, biting, and other behavioral problems. I find that when people are having behavioral problems with their parrots, establishing non-threatening height dominance is the only way owners need to work with their birds.”

In other words, you won’t have behavior problems if you keep the bird down low and establish your own dominance. (If you need a really great counter argument to the myth of height dominance, read trainer Steve Martin’s article Understanding Parrot Behavior, Naturally.)

It is a sure sign that a behavioral “principle” has no validity if you need to keep morphing the concept and the name to make it more palatable to your readers. Moreover, if there is a dominant member in a relationship then, by definition, there must be a submissive member. Is that really the best we can do for the birds we love – to make them submissive so that they will behave?

In reality, there is a natural science of behavior that has been studied for over a century and has produced a set of fundamental principles, now known as applied behavior analysis (ABA). ABA can both explain why behavior occurs and provide ethical methods for behavior change when this is desired.

Unfortunately, those concepts of dominance and control are like the film on the bottom of our parrot’s water dishes, pernicious, insidious, always in the process of establishing themselves yet again. In the past two weeks, I have talked to new clients who expressed concerns about their parrot being up too high. It is scary how persistent this concept remains in the minds of parrot owners.

Clipping Wings Keeps Parrots Safe

Wing clipping has been practiced with almost religious fervor for decades in this country. This concept has been so well embraced that it was not even questioned for years, despite the fact that we were depriving a living animal of moving around normally. In large part, this practice has been established and maintained as the right thing to do by those doing the clipping – veterinarians and groomers.

Unfortunately, in all cases I have found, those writing about the dangers of flight have never lived with a flighted parrot in their lives. While well-intentioned, they do not understand flight and the manner in which flight skills develop, nor what can be done to ensure safety for flighted parrots.

Further, in my experience as a veterinary technician, no owner ever came in and requested a wing trim so that her bird would be safe. Instead, these requests were made because the bird was getting “uppity” now that it could fly. “Uppity” translates into being uncompliant and/or beginning to bite

Thus, in reality, wing clipping has been used in large part as just another way to maintain control of our parrots – limit their ability to move around and keep them down low. In other words, take away their feelings of safety so that they are less likely to resist our “commands.”

Other Models

A myriad of other well-established concepts exist, of course. These persist because of their authority borrowed from the reality that “everyone does it.”

These practices include keeping parrots in cages for most of every day, keeping parrots indoors at all times, cuddling parrots, cramming cages into a small room to contain the mess and noise, purchasing dome-topped cages, feeding seed diets…and the list goes on. We can always find someone else who does exactly what we do in order to validate our own choices.

A New Paradigm

We have before us a new decade. Let’s allow it to inspire us to shed the old skin of outmoded and destructive ideas and adopt a new paradigm for parrot-keeping. Should we do so, I would propose that we include as the most important criteria:

The provision for every parrot of as many natural behaviors as possible in each living situation.
To embrace the science of behavior, specifically the strategies of (1) arranging the environment for success, (2) antecedent change, and (3) positive reinforcement, to live harmoniously and cooperatively with our birds.

For the remainder of this blog post, I will be focusing on the provision of natural behaviors for our parrots, for there is much still to explore in this area. I have already written several posts on the second criteria of behavior change strategies, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future.

For now, I will leave you with the thoughts of trainer Steve Martin: “When you give an animal a voice through its body language, and place that voice in higher regard than your own, you are on the right path to successful training.”

Natural Behaviors to Encourage

Natural behaviors for wild parrots have been described as flying, foraging, bathing, roosting, socializing, vocalizing and breeding. However, there are others we might explore from the perspective of the companion parrot’s status in our homes. Some of the latter may attain a greater level of importance, given the often narrow scope of decision-making granted to them.

Two things: (1) First, this is an initial attempt only to explore this topic and my hope is that we can all brainstorm together from this point onward, and (2) I could write a separate blog post about each of the sections below, but in the interests of reasonable length, I have elected an introduction of each idea in most cases. Where I have important details to offer, I have done so.

A word about rights before I continue: If parrots enjoy certain activities in the wild, then would we not be correct in describing these same things as birthrights?

Bathing Options

Showering is important as a form of exercise and enrichment; it also serves to encourage normal preening. Opportunities most commonly involve taking the parrot into the shower or misting with a spray bottle. Other options should be explored in the interests of introducing variety.

Some parrots love to leaf bathe. Try offering a bunch of Swiss chard or fresh branches soaking wet and tied to the side of the cage or placed in a shallow dish. Both small and large parrots enjoy this activity once they are used to it.

Some parrots prefer bathing outdoors in an aviary, either in the spray from a hose or when it’s raining. Perhaps a water feature could be installed in the aviary?

We also have some exciting new products available – the unique creations by John Langkamp.

John creates bathing stations in all sizes that allow birds to bathe at liberty – when they feel like it. He also produces platform perches in a myriad of designs, play stands from the simplest table-top perch to two story sands, and “balconies” for cages that have no play tops. All of his products support the parrot’s engagement in natural behaviors.

Drinking Water

Parrots relish in fresh water. Mine eagerly drink from a freshly filled water dish, even though a moment before it still contained unsullied water. It has always struck me as wrong to limit a parrot’s access to water to drops coming out of a bottle. Wouldn’t you find it frustrating to have to lick droplets one at a time in order to drink?

Aside from the ethical problem of restricting a parrot’s access to water to this degree, water bottles can be risky. When water stops flowing, it becomes stagnant. Stagnant water is a breeding ground for certain bacteria species, such as Pseudomonas. (WHO, 2003)

When you wash out a parrot’s water dish, you will notice a film on the bottom. This is called the biofilm and is a coating in which water-borne bacteria grow.(Univ. of Ill, 2018) To adequately clean the water dish, you need a scrub pad.

With a water bottle, the water remains in the bottle for a longer period, thus enabling this biofilm to develop often for days. Refilling the bottle with fresh water does nothing to clean off the biofilm. Other risks involve bottle malfunction, which has resulted in the loss of parrots from dehydration.

My suggestion is to ditch the water bottles and let your parrot have a dish of water. Cleaning it twice a day should be sufficient, even for the messiest of parrots. If it gets poop in it, move it to another place in the cage up higher.

Foraging

This has become the new buzz-word in the world of parrot enrichment, for good reason. However, we can expand our thinking even further. Parrots who naturally forage on the ground should be provided with opportunities of this nature. Grass mats for birds like budgerigars, cockatiels, and kakarikis are often eagerly accepted after just a few days.

Another great option is to place papers over the grates in the bottom of cages. There are several advantages. The birds get to go down onto the papers to forage for what they have dropped. I don’t have to scrub the cage grates. Changing papers is easy because all I have to do is to pick up the top later of paper; no need to pull out that heavy tray except for once a week. Many imagine that this will just result in poop-covered feet. It’s not appropriate for all parrots, but try it! You’ll be surprised.

Foraging for natural plant materials can be provided in aviaries. Raised beds can offer millet, sunflowers and other edible flowers, greens and other vegetables to encourage a more natural foraging experience.

Fresh Air and Sunshine

There is no other single thing you can do to provide enrichment that will reap as many benefits as setting up an outdoor aviary. The benefits are now widely recognized. Parrots are exposed to those necessary UVB rays. They wear themselves out and come back into the house calm and relaxed at the end of the day. They have access to different enrichment and bathing opportunities.

If you need some ideas, ask to be a member of the Home Aviary Design group on Facebook. It’s a private group, but is generous in accepting new members. The group has good participation and provides information about everything from design, to wire type, to rodent control and more.

Height and Alternate Perches

Parrots feel safer when perching up high. This is a birthright and a great way to provide enrichment. They also need to move around. “In this respect, most parrots are neither sedentary nor migratory but mobile within a geographical area that provides for all of the bird’s needs, but not necessarily all at once in one locality.” (Parr, 1998)

This observation of wild parrots can inform our own choices when creating an environment. Both flighted and clipped parrots can be provided with (and taught to use) free standing play gyms, hanging perches and other adornments to the environment that support more natural movements.

Lorenzo, the Double Yellow-headed Amazon in the photo was just adopted into a new home; he eagerly took to the trapeze they had prepared for him before his arrival.

Liberty Flying

I have published six blog posts on indoor flight for companion parrots. I am a passionate advocate for the allowance of flight, while also recognizing that some older parrots will not be good candidates for this experience.

It is not ethical to remove an animal’s ability to move around at will. As behavior consultant Jim McKendry once said, “If a dog gets out of the yard and bites the postman, we don’t cut off his legs. Instead we build a better fence.”

We must work towards the day when anyone breeding parrots must provide for a full fledging experience and then send that baby home without a wing clip. From that point onward, the new owner must learn how to live safely and cooperatively with a flighted parrot. We must also educate our veterinarians regarding a better way of thinking.

Imagine, just for a moment what your relationship might be like with a parrot who trusted you this much:

Video Courtesy of Lee Stone

Others’ Feathers

You should never get a second parrot because of the assumption that it will make the first happier. But, if you want to get a second parrot, my heart will be happy at the news. Having always lived with multiple parrots, I see how each bird gains just from having other feathered creatures in the home.

This is true even if the two parrots never interact physically. No other companion animal moves the way a bird moves. No other animal vocalizes like a bird does. No other animal reacts like a bird does. Just having another set of feathers in the house is enriching on multiple levels for a companion parrot.

The Unobstructed View

What effect might it have for a parrot to live his entire life within four walls? Perhaps none. On the other hand, I’m acutely aware of my own reaction when I get outdoors. It’s not just the feel of the breeze or sunshine, or the smell of nearby plants, but the fact that I am not confined. Finally, there is no barrier between me and the natural world.

How might we erase those walls, other than to get the parrot outdoors into an aviary? A Wingdow perch is of great appeal to many birds.

Wood, Branches and Bark

We don’t really know fully how parrots interact with the natural plant materials in their environment when that activity occurs outside of foraging for food. We do have some clues, however.

Donald Brightsmith and other researchers who have taken samples from the crops of wild macaws still in the nest have identified a percentage of bark chunks in the crop. Chris Shank and I have observed her free-flighted cockatoo parents foraging outside the aviary for bark and then returning to feed it to their young.

My own parrots love to strip the bark off of fresh branches. We don’t understand the purpose of these behaviors. However, I suggest that providing fresh branches for perches and chewing enrichment may well be necessary for quality of life.

There has been much written about the dangers of bacteria and fungus on plants taken from the outdoors. However, these come under the heading of “imagined” dangers.

Advice for “disinfection” stems from washing with vinegar to baking them in the oven. I believe, based upon anecdotal evidence, that these measures are unnecessary. If you are worried about “germs,” give the branches a good blast with your hose to dislodge anything suspect.

Two such “vases” with pine 2 x 4s on either side as chewable perches.

A great way to bring fresh branches into the home for your parrots’ enjoyment is to first create a “vase” for them. Purchase PVC pipe that is 4 to 6 inches in diameter, then cut a length about four feet long. You can paint this green for aesthetic appeal. Put this into a large Christmas tree stand and tighten in place. When ready, shove the branches down into the top of the pipe and replace as needed.

If you choose actively growing branches with the bark intact, there is little danger. Simply stay away from branches where the wood looks old and the bark is falling off of it, for fungus could be growing under the bark in those cases. Just allow common sense to prevail.

If unsure of the safety of certain trees, you can refer to this website. If you are unable to identify a tree species, you can take a sample into a garden center for identification.

The Keys to Change

It is human nature for most of us to reject an idea when we first hear of it, especially if it means more cost, inconvenience, or work…as most of those above will.

However, do you remember my point in that last blog about how our own behavior harm us? If we fail to appreciate that many of our practices for keeping companion parrots either do not meet their needs, may harm them, or even meet the definition of unethical, yet we insist on maintaining our own positive self-image, discord results – internal and external.

Let’s begin by deciding to be a bit more open-minded to the ideas above. Remember that you don’t have to help anyone else see the light. You just have to help yourself to see the light.

You can choose to stay away from opinionated discussions on social media and instead do your own research to find information from reputable sources. Then, if you get to the point of being convinced that you can make some improvements, just brainstorm to see what might be possible. Things don’t have to be black and white. You can start small.

Resources:

Blanchard, Sally. “The Importance of Cage Dominance.” The Pet Bird Report. Sept/Oct 1992: 4-7.

Blanchard, Sally. The Companion Parrot Handbook. Alameda: PBIC, Inc., 1999.

Juniper, Tony and Parr, Mike. Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1998.

Leotti, Lauren A., Iyengar, Sheena S., Ochsner, Kevin N. (2010) “Born to Choose: The Origine and Value of the Need for Control.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 14.10: 457-463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.08.001

Luescher, A. ,ed. Manual of Parrot Behavior. Ames: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2018. “Model to show how bacteria grow in plumbing systems.” Science News. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180329190849.htm

Wilson, Liz. “Nurturing Dominance: What It Is and How and Why It Works.” The Pet Bird Report. October 1996: 32-35.

World Health Organization (WHO). 2003. Heterotrophic Plate Counts and Drinking-water Safety. Edited by J. Bartram, J. Cotruvo, M. Exner, C. Fricker, A. Glasmacher. Published by IWA Publishing, London, UK. ISBN: 1 84339 025 6. https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/water-quality/guidelines/HPC4.pdf?ua=1

Star Continues Her Education

By guest blogger and free flight expert Chris Shank

I get a rush watching my cockatoos fly. They burst from their aviaries and pop up in the air like deflating balloons zipping every which way as they shoot into the sky. It’s easy to spot Star, Flash and Bebe’s recently fledged Bare-eyed Cockatoo youngster, among the flyers. She flips, swerves, and surges with glee, adding pizzaz to the flock as she ascends upward. It’s contagious as the others soon follow suit with extra liveliness in their own flight maneuvers. It’s glorious to watch!

Important Lessons

But enough gaiety. It’s time to get serious. Star needs to learn the code of manners and skills that will please her harrumphing human companions. Here’s a partial list a well-rounded companion cockatoo needs to accomplish:

Understand people are good things
Target
Hands and fingers are not targets for a busy beak
Step up on cue
Recall on cue
Station on perch

The first lesson in the curriculum is the most important and Star accomplished it early on. From fledge, she has watched her parents eagerly take pine nuts, sunflower seeds and other goodies from any person who offers them. As she became more comfortable with the world outside her nest box and as she started to eat on her own, she overcame her natural wariness and now eagerly joins her parents on the perch waiting for goodies.

An Enthusiastic Learner

Star is an enthusiastic, motivated learner. She’s excited when lessons begin. In fact, she is so eager she needs to learn some self-control. In the video below, she’s so excited she can’t stay on the perch.

Star takes me by surprise.

Star Learns to Target

Learning to touch a target stick assists with that. It helps her focus on the task at hand. Touching a target and being reinforced for doing so gives her a reason to stay put instead of flitting off on a whim or being distracted with other activities.

Targeting teaches her that actions she chooses to do when asked have consequences—good consequences. If she touches a target presented to her, bingo, she gets a treat! This is an easy behavior for a young, curious, clever cockatoo to accomplish.

Star’s first target.

Learning Good Manners

Good manners warrant taking treats politely from our hands. Star’s curiosity about novel objects is natural and helps her learn about her world. At her young age, human hands are objects that are both a little scary and intriguing. In order to figure out what this fleshy thing is, she bites, nibbles, and pokes at my hand with wariness and inquisitiveness.

Star needs to understand that humans are fragile creatures and don’t appreciate their hands being explored by parrots’ beaks—ouch! She was conflicted when I first presented my open hand full of seeds to her. She wanted to explore it with beak nibbles, and at the same time bite it to make it go away.

After some negotiating, with treats as reinforcers, we came to a compromise. I hold the sunflower seed in the tips of my fingers far enough away that she has to reach for it. This gives her less ability to bite and more motivation to take the treat gently. It worked.

Learning to Recall

Recalling on cue was pretty easy for Star to achieve as she had watched her parents do it many times. The first time I asked her to fly to my hand she landed with uncertainty bouncing a few times as she did. Having treats available convinced her quickly that flying to my hand is a good thing.

Star’s first recall.

Star Learns to Step Up

Stepping up for a parrot can sometimes be more frightening and challenging than asking him to fly to the hand. One reason is possibly having one’s hand right in front of the parrot can be intimidating for him. Of course, depending on the individual, there can be a multitude of reasons for a parrot’s hesitancy to step up.

In Star’s case, it was a new sensation having my open “step-up” hand so close to her body. Luring her with tasty delights induced her to put one foot on my hand which activated the treat dispenser. It wasn’t long before she readily stepped up when asked.

Star steps up.

Learning to Station

Training a parrot to station, essentially staying on a perch, play stand, cage top, or any preferred area, is important for a number of reasons. In the home, stations can help a bird stay away from possibly unsafe areas. Another reason, of course, is keeping parts of the home safe from the parrot! A station, such as a perch, can be used for a specific activity such as training. And it is for that last reason I wanted Star to learn to station.

Star was introduced early to stationing on a perch by her parents. When in the aviary, the parents fly to the perch where training takes place. Star didn’t immediately fly to the perch with them if I was in the aviary. It did take time. At the start, I put treats in the feed bowl attached to the perch as Star watched and then I left the aviary. It wasn’t long before Star flew to the perch to eat the treats when I was in her presence.

Station training

Our training progressed to where Star would stay on the perch as I put food in the bowl. That’s when we were off and running with our training sessions. The perch is such a magnet for Star and her family that they readily assemble on it for class while flying outside their enclosure.

Station training with cued recall.

The training I have done with Star is helping her mature into a confident, self-assured, and friendly cockatoo. When out free flying with her family she will sometimes peel away from her parents, seek me out, and attempt to land on me. I don’t kid myself that she does this out of the love she has for me. Let’s be honest, she seeks me out because she recognizes me as a resource of good things to eat.

With positive reinforcement training comes trust. Star knows I will indulge her with any manner of tasty tidbits and that’s fine with me. Star may not grow to “love” me, but she is certainly learning to trust me. That trust will increase and flourish creating between us a supportive and favorable relationship that will endure into the future. That’s all in the world I could ask for.

Star recalls by herself.

I describe my training sessions with Star not to point out that I am a great trainer of parent-raised cockatoos. I am not and I have oodles of training blooper videos to prove it.

Instead, I recount them to emphasize that anyone with positive reinforcement training experience, even a little, can assist parent-reared parrots in becoming successful companion birds with strong, reliable, and enthusiastic connections to their people; and, most crucially, do so without sacrificing the welfare and identity of young parrots and their parents. With her parents upbringing and care, Star will forever identify as a cockatoo with all the native and unaffected qualities nature intended.

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.

The Introduction of a New Parrot

My best Christmas gift this year is Chuckie. Chuckie is the sixth African Grey to join my flock for good, although a few others have come and gone. He is approximately 11 years old and has been cared for well by a friend of mine.

She didn’t used to be a friend. She was a client who brought Chuckie in annually to the vet clinic at which I worked. I was always her technician and we grew fond of each other over the years.

At one point, she began asking me if I would adopt Chuckie when she died. I said “No.” She continued to make the request each year when I saw her, and I finally agreed to foster Chuckie while I tried to find him a home. At some point, she must have caught me in a weak moment, and I did agree finally to adopt him myself. That was several years ago.

This December, age, health and other concerns forced a move for her to be closer to family and it wasn’t possible to take Chuckie. The decision was an agonizing one, as it so often is when anyone surrenders a beloved parrot. But, there really was not a choice when it came right down to it. And, now Chuckie is mine.

This change is a big adjustment for Chuckie. He is used to living with his best friend in their home – just the two of them. Now he lives with me, whom he knows just a little, and five goofball African Greys and assorted other parrots.

Now he must not only navigate a new friendship with me, but learn to live alongside other birds as well – something he has never done. A parrot who has always lived with humans can find this to be a considerable challenge. Chuckie speaks English very well, but doesn’t know anything about speaking African Grey.

Behavior is a Study of One

Many people ask about the best way to introduce a parrot into your home, expecting a set of simple instructions. Years ago, the oft-repeated advice was to leave a new parrot in his cage for three days to allow him to “acclimate” to your home before you allowed him out to interact. That might be appropriate for some parrots, for others it could be punishing.

Behavior is a study of one. I don’t know who first said that. I am repeating it here because this is one of the most important things you will ever learn. Generalizations, such as the advice to leave a new bird in the cage for three days, will never serve you well.

Every parrot brings with him a different learning history, in addition to differences dictated by genetics. Further, his behavior in your home will differ from the behavior he displayed in his previous home, especially if that was a rescue organization.

Even small environment changes can have a significant impact upon a parrot’s behavior. When it comes to changing homes, a total environment change, the impact on a bird can be huge in the short term. Therefore, the behavior you may have observed in his last living situation may not be the behavior that you see once you get him home.

Before You Bring Him Home

Prior to bringing a new adult parrot home, it’s important to collect as much information as possible about his past. Does he choose to fly? What are his favorite treats? What diet has he been eating? What are his favorite toys? Does he show fear of anything? Ask as many questions as you can that are pertinent to your home and family.

When it comes to information about diet and environment, you can use this to make your new parrot feel as comfortable as possible. You can use his favorite foods for motivation and teaching. You can provide his favorite toys to ensure some level of continuity. You will certainly offer the diet he is used to eating.

Try to keep as many things the same in this regard during your early weeks with him. You can always improve his diet and get him a better cage once he’s more comfortable.

When it comes to information told to you about his behavior, you will not be able to rely upon this to be true. It offers you a starting point only, and the information that you collect by observing the parrot yourself will be much more important.

For one thing, when people relinquish a parrot, they often lie. We are all human, and if you want to get rid of an animal, you are not going to highlight their problem behaviors when speaking to a potential adopter.

Additionally, the previous owner may not know how to interpret body language and, therefore, may not really know or understand the parrot with whom they have lived. In these cases, the information they provide may not be helpful. So, when you finally get your new bird home, you may be in for some surprises.

Have in Mind Some Future Goals

As I anticipate the addition of any parrot into my home, I always have in the back of my mind a set of goals. These goals represent all of the activities that I believe are vital to good emotional, mental, and physical health:

Eating a varied, nutritionally complete diet
Time spent foraging
Chewing wood and other materials
Bathing
Learning new things
Acceptance of a variety of alternate perching sites
Enjoying an outdoor aviary
Compliance with my requests for handling
The development of better flight skills (if possible post clip)
Peaceful co-existence with the other birds
A minimum of noise
A lack of aggression

The Early Days of Introduction

When a new parrot joins our home, we must suspend whatever arbitrary agenda we might have previously entertained and instead support the parrot’s process for integration into the family. A parrot’s innately social nature will move him to incorporate himself into whatever social structure exists. All we have to do is to provide support and guidance.

How do we do that? We observe body language and respond appropriately. Parrots are great communicators. All we have to do is to be good listeners and to take our cues from the new parrot.

Generating Specific Goals

When a new parrot arrives in my house, my approach is two-fold: (1) I begin to slowly introduce activities consistent with my overarching goals, and (2) I begin to build a trusting social relationship.

Since I know that I can’t necessarily rely upon the information I have gathered about my parrot’s previous behavior, I proceed slowly when I begin to introduce each of these things. I then watch his reaction, which provides me with better data about what types of teaching will be necessary as we go forward.

For example, I will present him with the diet I feed all of my birds and see what he does. If he eats it, I continue to offer it and observe. If he only picks at it, I will supplement with other foods his owner might have provided. If he has been on a seed mix, I will continue to provide that and use the method I have developed to convert him from eating seed mix to pellets and fresh foods.

If I provide a basic foraging toy and he ignores it, I assume that I will need to teach him to forage. I will provide an easily destroyed wood toy. If he ignores it, I know that I may have to use positive reinforcement to capture and shape the behavior of chewing on wood. If I spritz him with water and he runs away, I know that I will need to teach him to bathe.

When it comes to Chuckie, I am very lucky. He already eats a great diet and loves to bathe. He chews on wood when it is provided. He’s a wonderful talker but makes no sounds I don’t like and he hasn’t shown the least inclination to bite. He already enjoys one playstand, having explored this on his own by climbing over onto it from his cage. Luckily, Chuckie is partially flighted as he recovers from a wing clip.

Chuckie in foreground stretching comfortably

He is already exploring away from his cage on his own and has even made it out to the living room. Since he can move around on his own, I see no reason to try to force this issue by carrying him out there. He’ll make the trip when he’s ready.

He is also already making friends. Bongo Marie and Navidad are now hanging out near his cage, where Chuckie still prefers to stay most of the time. They have become steady companions. It will be fun to see what materializes in the future. Greys do enjoy those other grey birds.

Chuckie does not, however, step up from inside his cage and only part of the time from on top. He also still prefers to remain in or on his cage a lot more than I would like. And, he’s relatively new to an aviary environment, having been out there just once previously when he boarded with me. And, I don’t think he yet understands the concept of hidden food.

So, my list of things to work on for him include:

Better compliance when it comes to stepping up
Learning new cued behaviors (targeting to start)
Learning to forage
Learning to enjoy the aviary

Building Trust

When it comes to establishing a social/handling relationship, I prefer to let the parrot take the lead in the early stages as I make observations. If I don’t know the parrot well, I simply put the carrier with the door open inside the cage when I first get him home. I recommend this approach. It allows him to come out on his own when he’s ready. The door to the cage can be open as well.

At this point, you can begin your data collection in regards to his “social temperament.” Hopefully, you have a list of his favorite foods and objects that you can use as reinforcers. A new parrot will look for ways to be successful (gain access to the things he wants) in this new environment.

If the parrot remains in the carrier for longer than 10 minutes, you have an indication that he may be fearful, at least for now. That will tell you that you may need to proceed slowly. This is the benefit of allowing him to make the moves early on.

When he does emerge from the carrier, watch what he does. Does he stay in the cage at the back? Or goes he come out on top and begin exploring. These are critical observations to make. It will be the best evidence you have about whether his behavior lies on the side of bolder or shyer. This information can then inform your other training for your future goals.

During his first week, you will be able to make a list of things that you need to work on and adjustments that you may need to make to the environment.

Does he startle when the dog or cat walks by? Or, does he show too much fondness for your husband? Does he sound an alarm every time someone walks by the window? In order to make him comfortable, or to avoid long-term problems, you can begin to make adjustments to the environment that will help.

Handling Your New Parrot

Once he shows some interest in interacting, you can respond by making some social overtures. I begin by offering a treat from my fingers, at times when I see no signs of heightened arousal. Once I see that he takes treats easily, then I ask him to walk a step or two toward me to take a treat.

Once he will walk several steps toward me, I will see if he will walk toward and then step onto my hand for a reinforcer. If he does that easily, I will ask him to step up using my typical cue.

If course, you may be able to skip some or even all of these steps. On the other hand, you might need to work through them all. If so, working through them might take two days or two months.

The Gifts of the Older Parrot

Incorporating a new, older bird into my home is one of my favorite joys. I encourage you to consider it also. (Eight of my eleven parrots were older when they came to me.)

I will never criticize anyone for purchasing a well-reared baby parrot. They can be hard to resist and rearing a young parrot well is a learning process also. We must have tolerance for each other’s choices.

However, adopting an older parrot brings rewards that might not be apparent at first glance. We tend to focus upon what we are doing for them. Yet what they do for us is far more valuable in the scheme of things.

They come with baggage, as do we all. If we work well with them, the level of wisdom, patience, and focus required for this elevates us. It is nothing less than a spiritual pursuit. And, therein is the gift.

Do you remember Siljan and Dorris? I have now worked with Siljan for a year as her consultant and coach and a strong friendship has developed. She wrote this to me right before Christmas:

“The meaning of life never comes for free. You have to work for it and it is only yourself who’s able to find it. I was looking for the meaning of life everywhere, but with age I finally figured out how to create it myself. I often lose this meaning of life thing I’ve created, but the traces and pieces are still in me, so I often find the way back.”

Siljan describes well the struggle we all face during our lifetimes. I’m lucky that parrots and my love for them has allowed me to create a meaning for my life.

I will continue to dedicate my efforts to you and your parrots in 2020. Happy New Year to You All!

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, an IAABC Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with their parrots and offer behavior consultations to that end. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, subscribe to my newsletter (a different publication from this blog, or purchase my webinars, please visit http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com. Until next time!

Imperceptible Human Speak: Is This Your Problem?

I have been fascinated for some time now regarding the extent to which our parrots can read and understand us by observing our body language and facial expressions. I believe that most of us are vastly unaware of the scope of impact that our involuntary body language has on our birds. We have plenty of both scientific and anecdotal evidence on this topic with other animals, but I’ve never seen it extrapolated to our lives with our parrots.

Clever Hans

Many of you are familiar with the Clever Hans Phenomenon. For those of you who are not, Hans was a horse who, in the early 1900’s, lived in Berlin with his owner and developed worldwide fame. His owner, Wilhelm von Osten, was a mathematics teacher who began to train Hans to perform mathematical calculations.

After four years of training, Wilhelm von Osten began to give demonstrations. Hans was asked to count, read the clock, identify playing cards, and perform arithmetic. He indicated the correct answer to the problems posed by pawing with his hooves. He was able to give the correct response even when the questioner was not his owner.

Wilhelm Von Osten and Hans (public domain)

At the time, the majority of experts became convinced themselves of Hans’ ability. Eventually however, a biologist and psychologist by the name of Oscar Pfungst was able to prove that Hans had no such ability.

It was found that Hans was unable to deliver the correct answer if the questioner didn’t know the correct answer or if Hans could not see the face of the examiner. As it turned out, Hans was a keen observer of the microscopic facial signals that the person posing the questions was not aware of giving. Reading these, he would give the correct answer when he read a signal that indicated he had or was about to give the correct answer.

The Thieving Monkeys

In a recent newsletter, I mentioned having listened to an NPR Hidden Brain podcast, during which psychologist Laurie Santos was interviewed. She discussed her research with non-human primates, both on the Caribbean Island of Cayo Santiago and in a lab that she built for the purpose at Yale University. This episode was dated October 21 and was titled “What Monkeys Can Teach Us About Being Human.”

Her goal in studying non-human primates was to learn more about human behavior. As Santos explains it, the best way to discover information about humans is to do research on non-human animals in order to discover what we have in common and what we don’t.

During one experiment, the researchers had to abandon their efforts after having found that the free-ranging monkeys on the island had stolen all of the fruit that was being used for reinforcement. This caused some consternation because it’s not like these researchers were unaware of their surroundings or “tuned out” in any way.

This then prompted a new line of research aimed at discovering whether the monkeys were actually stealing rationally. They were! When faced with the prospect of stealing from a person who was looking at the fruit and a person who could not see the fruit, they chose to steal from the latter. They were rationally calculating their chances of success.

And Thieving Parrots

This is not news to those of us who have turn around to find that the pen that was there the moment before has now disappeared. We find after a moment of inattention that the “E” letter is now missing from our laptop keyboard. We return after the briefest of moments to discover that every piece of fruit in the bowl now has a bite taken out of it.

We are always astonished at what our birds can accomplish when our backs are turned for what seems like just a quick moment. What I hope to illustrate with these examples is just how carefully our perceptive parrots watch us. They learn far more from us that we might ever imagine.

Picky Parrots

Many years ago, another behavior consultant related a story. He had a client who claimed that her parrot would eat only organic vegetables. The consultant didn’t believe this and got her to agree to a more controlled “study.”

Her husband prepared two identical bowls of vegetables, one with organic vegetables and the other with vegetables grown through standard commercial means. She then delivered the bowls to her parrot, who ate both without preference. It’s possible that she had been cuing her parrot with her body language to eat the organic vegetables only.

While I hear reports of “picky” parrots from many people, I have never had any problem converting a parrot, new to my home, to a better diet. Partly this is due to an effective technique, but I also believe that it is due to the fact that I simply expect them to eat it. It never occurs to me that they won’t.

Parrots Respond to the Imperceptible

People rarely seek professional help for parrot behavior problems as a first resort. Instead, they talk to friends, to the people at the bird store, and to people on social media. It is only when they have exhausted all of the suggestions, in addition to their own ideas about what might work, that they call me. By this time, they are usually in a state of despair, if not desperation. In short, they are upset.

During our first contact, I am able to reassure them that all is fixable and then go on to explain how that will be accomplished. I can almost feel their relief, despite the technology that separates us.

The odd thing is that, when we have our next contact, a good many of them report that their parrot has displayed greatly improved behavior since our first conversation. This has happened so many times now that I do not think this is a fluke. I believe that the owner’s new state of relief translated itself through microscopic signs to the parrot, who in turn was able to relax a bit more.

This report may sound fanciful and vague to many. It sounds that way to me also when I reread what I have written. However, this has been my experience for decades.

Animals and Humans – Two Different Orientations to Communication

In our communication with non-human animals, we almost exclusively employ spoken words (coupled with touch – an approach that has proven disastrous in many cases.) I suppose the focus on speech is natural, given that we are verbal animals and our relationships with other humans most often depend upon the use of words.

However, if you watch the parrots and other animals in our care, they are often taking cues from the way we signal with our bodies or the expressions on our faces. This focus on watching body language makes sense for them, given that their relationships rely upon the use of unspoken cues and expressions.

When we teach a parrot to perform a behavior, we can’t simply use words. We must rely instead upon some type of physical signal, at least in the beginning. It is my contention that animals and birds seek to first gain information by watching our body language and second from listening to our words.

Tics and Scents

In the book Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals, Gretel Ehrlich writes “Animals hold us to what is present: to who we are at the time, not who we’ve been or how our bank accounts describe us. What is obvious to an animal is not the embellishment that fattens our emotional resumes, but what’s bedrock and current in us: aggression, fear, insecurity, happiness, or equanimity. Because they have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we’re transparent to them and thus exposed – we’re finally ourselves.”

Our parrots always know what is “bedrock and current” in us. If your commitment to your parrot is wavering, he will likely know that. If you or someone in your home doesn’t like the bird, he will know that too. If you are afraid of your parrot, he will understand that. If you feel anxiety every time you look at your parrot who chews his feathers, that too will be conveyed.

Historically, as a parrot owning population, we have behaved generally without recognition, regard, or respect for the body language that our parrots employ to communicate with us. Even less attention has been given to what we might communicate ourselves with our bodies. No acknowledgment has been directed toward our imperceptible facial expressions.

Thoughts Create Feelings that Create Expressions

And, in fact, such acknowledgement would be of no use. We can’t control expressions that originate from the fleeting feelings that we experience. However, it is our thoughts that create our emotions. Our emotions then fuel our microscopic tics and scents.

So, this isn’t a typical blog post offering you a list of action steps. Instead, this is a New Year reminder that our own mental and emotional states impact every creature in our homes.

Every new year, I have the same resolution – to get right and be right with myself. If my life is out of balance, to get it back into balance. If a situation is causing me distress, to either leave it or resolve it. If I don’t like an aspect of myself, to find my way to the resources that will work for me to improve the situation. If my habits don’t support my long-term goals, to instill the ones that will.

I wish you all the happiest of holidays!

References:

Hogan, Linda, Metzger, Deena, and Peterson, Brenda, ed. Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Croup, 1998.

Samhita, L., & Gross, H. J. (2013). The “Clever Hans Phenomenon” revisited. Communicative & integrative biology, 6(6), e27122. doi:10.4161/cib.27122

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3921203

Vedantam, Shankar, Cohen, Rhaina, Boyle, Tara and Schmidt, Jennifer. “What Monkeys Can Teach Us About Being Human.” National Public Radio (NPR). Psychologist Laurie Santos’ research with primates. October 21, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770430417/what-monkeys-can-teach-us-about-being-human

a.k.a. “Hormonal Behavior”

What you will read below has not been proven scientifically, so I have few resources of that nature to offer you to substantiate what I am about to say. However, my own anecdotal experience, as well as that of other respected professionals and the experiences of my clients, have convinced me of the veracity of the information in this post.

Those of us who live with adult companion parrots are familiar with behavior changes that occur at certain times of the year or in response to certain activities in which the parrot participates. We have collectively labeled these changes as “hormonal” behavior.

What is “Hormonal” Behavior?

The behaviors that typically result from this turned on reproductive desire include intense bonding with one person in the family, cavity-seeking behavior, paper shredding on the bottom of the cage, loud demanding vocalizations, and fierce territoriality (resource guarding). Parrot owners often initially consider it cute when their parrot wants to be with them constantly and becomes obsessed with getting into dark drawers or closets, but over time these behaviors become problematic.

While these behaviors may happen only seasonally in the beginning, they can progress in some individuals until they occur year round. In many cases, they lead to problems such as feather damaging behavior, self-mutilation, regurgitation of food, masturbation, chronic egg-laying, egg binding and cloacal prolapse. It is not unusual for these behaviors to surface when the parrot is well into adulthood, often coming as a surprise to the owner who has come to take for granted more stable conduct.

What Is Not Hormonal Behavior?

I want to make one thing clear before we go on. There is a lot of misbehavior that gets blamed on “hormones” that actually is the result of a lack of behavioral guidance and training.

For example, screaming for extended periods and biting are not “hormonal” behaviors. While a parrot may reach a more heightened state of arousal during periods of increased hormone production, which may predispose him to aggressive or excessively loud behavior, this does not automatically evolve into a behavior problem simply because of the presence of reproductive hormones. These problem behaviors instead reflect a lack of appropriate training and need to be targeted as such to effect a resolution, in addition perhaps to making the changes suggested below.

Our Lack of Preparation

Our decades of experience living with dogs and cats has done little to prepare us for the realities of living with parrots. We typically neuter dogs and cats. Further, having relatively short life spans, they do not change their behavior much once adulthood is reached.

We have yet to discover a safe way to neuter parrots en mass. Further, many parrots change their behavior with each year. I would be a rich consultant if I had a dollar for every client who has said to me, “Well…he never did that before!” The bird you have in your home today is likely not the bird you had in your home a year or two ago.

I believe that we don’t quite yet grasp the ramifications of this for parrots in our homes and our responsibilities for guiding our parrots’ behavior so that these problems can be prevented.

Here is what we fail to understand: The scarily intelligent and reproductively driven adult parrot will be a genius at teaching us to provide for him the conditions that will support increased production of reproductive hormones.

We also fail to grasp how the conditions we provide in captivity differ from those in the wild. Since most of our parrot species are not yet domesticated, we must take this fact into consideration.

According to Dr. Fern Van Sant, there are two key issues that have lacked consideration. First, parrots in the wild are normally “turned off” or reproductively inactive when out of breeding season. Second, the “surroundings of abundance” which we provide in captivity often have the effect of keeping companion parrots reproductively active throughout the year. “As pets, the conditions of abundant food, bonded owners, comfortable cages and considerable physical contact seem to initiate breeding behaviors that become long term drives. Without the naturally occurring environmental pressure of dwindling food supplies, changing conditions, and competition for resources that limit breeding behavior in wild populations, breeding behaviors and hormonal drives persist unchecked.” (Van Sant, 2006)

A Serious Problem

This is a very serious problem. It is exceedingly difficult to control this phenomenon, once the parrot enters this physiological and behavioral tunnel. The complex of behaviors driven by reproductive hormones is at the heart of the vast majority of parrot behavior problems. It frequently leads to the parrot losing his home. For the parrot, it likely results in a constant state of frustration and chronic stress.

Getting your parrot out of this “hormonal tunnel” will require consistent effort over months and years. However, if you make the changes indicated herein, you will see slow and steady improvement.

These are the primary triggers that I believe sponsor this increased production of reproductive hormones:

Diet
Existence of a pair bond
Close physical contact and inappropriately affectionate interactions with the human
Ability to engage in cavity seeking and “nesting” behavior
A controlled environment lacking challenge

Trigger #1: Diet

I have a question on my behavior consulting intake form: What are your bird’s favorite foods?

The answers I receive are always the same: seed mixes, tree nuts, peanuts, white rice, mashed potatoes, pasta, grapes, bananas, dried fruit, crackers, bread, pancakes, pastries, peanut butter filled pretzels, French fries, chips and other human snack foods. These foods have a great deal in common. High in fats and/or simple carbohydrates, they provide more energy to the body. Energy is needed for breeding. Our parrots can show a strong preference for these types of foods, thereby “teaching” us to offer them.

Thus, the types and quantity of the foods you feed your parrots are the first triggers for the increased production of reproductive hormones. Foods that contain higher levels of fat and simple carbohydrates appear to trigger increased production of reproductive hormones. As Dr. Scott Ford explains in his article Balancing Your Parrot’s Lifestyle, “An overabundance of food, foods high in fat and calories, and too many food choices can all ‘turn on’ your bird’s reproductive desire.” (Ford, S. 2009)

Dietary Action Steps

The best diet for limiting hormone production is one that incorporates appropriate amounts of formulated foods, fresh vegetables, limited whole grains and limited fruit. The foods listed above as parrot favorites should not be fed at all – ever.

The only exception that exists to this rule is that of using seeds and nuts as reinforcers for training. A best practice: Never give a parrot a treat (preferred food) for no reason.

We must also be on the look-out for excessive food consumption. While I believe a good quality pellet is a wise addition to the parrot’s staple diet, some birds will overeat even pellets. Look for your manufacturer’s recommendation about the correct amount to feed as a starting point.

Know what your bird is actually eating. Remember the relative size of the creature you are feeding; your parrot probably only weighs one or two pounds at the most.

Trigger #2: The Pair Bond

Although some variation exists among species, parrots in the wild display a tendency toward social monogamy – the primary breeding unit consists of one female and one male.

Therefore, companion parrots have a tendency to bond with one person or bird or animal within the home. Unfortunately, a pair bond between the parrot and one owner is the standard in most companion parrot homes.

The presence of this pair bond stimulates cavity-seeking behavior and increased aggression, which results from resource guarding around the preferred human. In other words, if another person or animal comes near the preferred human and parrot when they are together, biting of one or the other is likely to result. This type of aggression often worsens as the years pass.

A pair bond appears to be stimulated and maintained primarily through time spent physically close. Two parrots will often form a pair bond if kept in the same cage. Pair bonds between the owner and her parrot result from cuddling, allowing the parrot under the covers or down the shirt, petting down the back and under the wings, in addition to time spent perching on the shoulder, lap, knee or chest.

How do you know if your parrot has formed a pair bond with you? You may observe masturbation in any location and regurgitation when near you. The bird may scream non-stop when you leave the room. He refuses to perch independently and constantly seeks out shoulder time or other close contact. Egg laying may also result.

It is always best to prevent the formation of a pair bond in a companion parrot:

If you have two parrots who get along, keep them in two separate cages, while still allowing them to enjoy a communal play area. (This is a best practice for many reasons.)
If you have recently adopted a parrot, use great care in how you interact. Keep him off of your shoulder and reward him for perching independently. Keep your hands off of him, except for occasional head scratches (if he enjoys those).

If your bird has already formed a pair bond with you, this can be evolved over time:

Gradually reduce the amount of time the bird spends perched on your body by providing several appropriate perches and teach stationing so that he can still perch near you (but not on you).
As you decrease your time spent physically close, focus on training instead – teach targeting and other fun behaviors, as well as those needed for husbandry. Over time, he will come to look to you for guidance, rather than physical affection.
Walk away if he regurgitates for you or displays in other ways sexually – be friendly but clear that these behaviors are unwelcome.
Keep your hands off the bird! No cuddling or petting down the back. (Brief head scratches occasionally are the only appropriate physical contact. )

Trigger #3: Cavity Seeking

Many adult parrots, especially if they have a pair bond, begin to display cavity-seeking behavior. They will attempt to access closets, drawers, bookcases – any spot in the home that is at least partially enclosed.

Spots with less light around the home become more fascinating. African Greys may show a preference for hanging out in the bathroom for long periods. Your parrot may want to play inside of large cardboard boxes or brown grocery bags. Many parrots begin to roam the floor to access spots under furniture, in corners, and other spaces that are small and enclosed. Small cockatoos and others will dig in the couch cushions.

A parrot will tell you if he’s relating to a particular spot as a potential “nesting site” by the way he interacts with it. He will want to spend extended periods there and may strongly resist coming away from that particular place.

Again, the best solution is prevention. Keep parrots out of drawers and closets. Keep them off the floor by teaching them to station and work on this on a daily basis. Do not allow parrots to hang out in bathrooms in your absence. Do not provide cardboard boxes that your parrot can get inside of. The same advice goes for brown grocery bags. If your parrot displays an intense desire to access a particular spot in the house, prevent access.

Trigger #4: The Controlled Environment that Lacks Challenge

I have never seen any other professional address this as a potential trigger. However, I do believe that a home that lacks “benevolent” challenges will foster more production of reproductive hormones than one in which challenge exists. I do have some anecdotal evidence in the form of one story, as well as ongoing success with clients, to support this.

I once, as a veterinary technician, assisted with the rehabilitation of a budgerigar who chronically laid eggs. We tried Lupron injections. We removed the bird’s favorite toy. We did some training. All without success.

Finally, we made two changes that stopped the egg laying. We put a new object into the bird’s cage every day and began the practice of moving the cage into a different room of the house every day. These were pretty extreme measures, but chronic egg laying was a life threatening problem for this particular patient. And it worked! She went on to live a long, healthy life.

What type of challenges am I recommending? Learning opportunities that take the bird slightly out of his comfort zone:

The regular introduction of new toys, perches, and activities. (If he is afraid of new things, acceptance can be taught.)
Rides in the car (once you have trained the behaviors of going into the carrier and remaining calm while this is moved).
Visits to friends’ homes
Regular time spent in an outdoor aviary (not a small cage – the experience is vastly different)
Training – teaching new behaviors

Other Interventions: Day Length and Medications

Altering Day Length

There are some species who display increased signs of hormone production as the day length increases. Typically, these are New World parrots – those who originated in the Americas.

This observation has led to the blanket, frequently offered advice to artificially alter the day length the parrot experiences by providing 10-12 hours of darkness each night. However, the effectiveness of this measure is largely misunderstood.

First, it only works with New World parrots – Amazons, macaws, Pionus, etc. Old World parrots (African greys, cockatoos, etc) typically go to nest first as the day length decreases. Thus, providing these species with an increased period of darkness can make matters worse.

Second, this advice often strips the owner of an opportunity to interact socially with the bird at least once a day, which deprives both of training opportunities, which might be more beneficial.

Third, most who try this approach don’t understand that the darkness must be absolute. Simply covering the cage at night doesn’t work, if any light can creep under the cover at any time. Usually the bird must be placed in a separate room that is outfitted with black-out shades so that light can be 100% controlled.

Lupron Injections and Deslorelin Implants

These medications can be helpful, but they too have limitations on their effectiveness. They will help “around the edges,” but will not be appreciably effective unless you also implement the dietary, social and environmental measures in this post. Please consult your avian veterinarian as to whether one of these might be appropriate for an individual parrot. As a technician, I prefer to see their use reserved for extreme cases in which egg binding is a present danger.

A Plan for Prevention

If you are just starting out with a parrot, please take the following advice to heart. It will prevent much heartache for you and will go a long way toward ensuring the highest quality of life for you and your parrot.

Encourage your parrot to look to you for guidance, rather than physical affection.
Encourage independence.
Foster equal social bonds with all family members.
Provide plenty of enrichment, frequently.
Provide an outdoor aviary.
Feed an optimal diet.
Train new behaviors.
Reinforce stationing.

Thoughts for Your Consideration

Sometimes we can love our parrots a bit too much – often to the point of inhabiting the shifting sands of good sense. Many have asked me if perhaps the parrot doesn’t need a mate and close physical contact, even if breeding is not possible. Often to them, the plan I suggest (as it appears in this post) seems to be one of social deprivation.

Historically, there has been great debate regarding whether animals are more influenced by “nature” or “nurture” – by their biology or their learning experiences. Certainly reflexes, fixed action patterns, and inherited traits influence behavior in our parrots. In layperson’s terms, these are often lumped into one category and referred to as “instinctive behavior.”

Science has proven however, (1) that these are largely modifiable through learning, (2) that learning is necessary for their development, and (3) that learning plays a much larger role in the behavior we see than does genetics. For example, a young parrot may have the urge to fly, but it is only through the practice of flying that skills develop to competency.

So it is with pair bonding and cavity seeking. Sexual urges may exist in our parrots, but these will not become full-blown drivers of behavior unless practiced. Through practice they are reinforced and become ever stronger and more influential on the bird’s behavior.

Companion parrots live happier and healthier lives if never allowed to practice these behaviors. None of my own parrots has formed a pair bond with me and I believe that this is due to my relatively “hands off” approach with them. I interact with them frequently when training, reinforcing desirable behaviors when I see them, giving occasional head scratches, and providing care. Otherwise, we live a pretty parallel existence. They are not allowed on my shoulder. I don’t pet them. I don’t cuddle with them. We are all happier as a result.

References:

Brue, Randal. Avian Medicine: Principles and Application. “Nutrition.” Pages 23-46. Lake Worth: Wingers Publishing. 1997

Chance, P. Learning and Behavior, 4th Edition. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. 1999

Ford, Scott, DVM, Dipl ABVP. (Date uncertain). Balancing Your Parrot’s Lifestyle. http://www.avian-vet.com/sites/site-2271/documents/asvsa-client%20handouts-balancing%20parrot%20lifestyle.pdf. [Accessed 3 Sept. 2009]

Hoppes, Sharman. DVM, Dipl ABVP. (2018) Reproductive Diseases of Pet Birds. Merck Veterinary Manual. [online] Available at: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/pet-birds/reproductive-diseases-of-pet-birds. [Accessed 25 June 2018]

Nijboer, J. (2018) Nutrition in Psittacines. In: Merck Veterinary Manual. [online] Available at: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/management-and-nutrition/nutrition-exotic-and-zoo-animals/nutrition-in-psittacines. [Accessed 25 June 2018]

Orosz, s. DVM, DABVP, DECAMS. (2006) Avian Nutrition Demystified. In: North American Veterinary Conference Proceedings, Volume 20. [online] Orlando: IVIS. Available at: http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/navc/2006/SAE/565.pdf?LA=1. [Accessed 23 June 2018]

Ritzman, T. DVM, DABVP. (2008) Practical Avian Nutrition (Proceedings). CVC In San Diego. Lenexa: UBM Animal Care. Available at: http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/practical-avian-nutrition-proceedings. [Accessed: 25 June 2018]

Van Sant, F. DVM. (2011) Hormones: The Downside of the Good Life.[Blog] Phoenix Landing Blog. Available at: https://blog.phoenixlanding.org/2011/04/30/544. [Accessed 25 June 2018]

Van Sant, F. DVM. 2018. Hormonal Behavior in Pet Birds – Introduction. [Newsletter] For the Birds DVM. Available at: https://www.forthebirdsdvm.com/pages/hormonal-behavior-in-pet-birds-pt-1. [Accessed 25 June 2018]

Van Sant, F. 2019. “Hormonal Behavior in Pet Birds, Part One. For the Birds Blog. https://www.forthebirdsdvm.com/pages/hormonal-behavior-in-pet-birds-pt-1. Accessed 8/17/19.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, an IAABC Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with parrots by offering behavior consultations and publishing information you can trust. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, or subscribe to my newsletter please visit http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com. Until next time!

Essential Guide to Communicating with Parrots

A veterinarian for whom I once worked used to frequently repeat: “Communication is a difficult thing.” There are no truer words. I have often observed two people who thought they were communicating well with each other, only to see that they did not understand each other at all. It’s a fascinating circumstance to watch.

If communicating with other humans is difficult, how do we imagine that we can communicate effectively with another species, especially one that is not even a mammal?

The effectiveness and quality of our communication with our own parrots is a subject worthy of ongoing exploration. Evidence of this is the often heard statement, “He bit me with NO warning!”

If you scroll through any parrot-related Facebook feed, you would be led to believe that behavior problems like screaming and biting are just a normal part of living with parrots. This is not true.

Behavior Problems = Communication Problems

The majority of behavior problems in parrots are, in reality, communication problems. This is especially true for screaming, biting and fear-based behaviors.

We cannot have good relationships with people or parrots without effective communication. Historically, we have primarily communicated with our birds through the provision of physical affection, talking conversationally, and attempts to punish undesirable behavior. These efforts at relationship building miss the mark completely.

Why? Physical affection communicates to parrots the wrong message – that we offer the possibility to them of a pair bond. This in itself leads to several different behavior problems. It also teaches dependence, rather than independence.

Talking to them doesn’t result in any particular adverse consequences, but what does it really accomplish? How valuable is it to a parrot when we talk? It might be mildly entertaining to have us yakking away at them, but are we really getting any important message across?

Lastly, “punishment” is ineffective in the manner in which it is most often used. For example, covering a screaming bird’s cage is typically something they don’t mind at all. We might intend for it to communicate to the bird that its noise is an undesirable behavior, but the message doesn’t get across. Further, effective punishment will create distrust and fear. That’s not where we want to be in our relationships with our bird.

How Do We Listen to a Parrot?

Good communication with any species requires both talking and listening. But, how do we listen to a parrot?

The answer? We must read body language. Body language is the only way that parrots have to communicate their feelings to us.

The next important question is, “How do we talk to another species so that understanding is ensured? The answer to that is “We use positive reinforcement!” We need to be clear communicators when interacting with our parrots so that they understand which behaviors will help them to be successful in our homes – which behaviors will earn them what they really want.

Thus, success with our parrots depends upon two things: (1) listening to what they have to tell us by reading body language, and (2) communicating to them through the use of positive reinforcement.

Reading Body Language

When it comes to reading body language, it helps to understand the differences that may be present depending upon the part of the world in which the parrot originated. For many years, parrots have been informally relegated to two different groups – New World parrots and Old World parrots.

Old World parrots derived from Africa, Asia and Europe. Examples of these species would be cockatoos, African Greys, cockatiels, ring-necked parakeets, Eclectus, Poicephalus, and lovebirds. The body language of these species often tends to be more subtle in nature.

Conversely, New World parrots that come from the Americas, tend to have more overt or dramatic body language. Examples include Amazon parrots, conures, caiques, parrotlets, Pionus parrots, monk parakeets and macaws. Both parrots in the photos are indicating interest, but it is more obvious in the macaw.

Keep in mind that is only a generalization. The body language that any individual displays will depend more upon his previous learning history (his socialization) than upon his species. However, this information can be helpful.

It teaches us, for example, that we must anticipate that an Amazon is not going to communicate in the same way that an African grey communicates. An Amazon who intends aggression will typically let you know in a more pronounced manner with pinning eyes, flared tail and raised feathers on the back of his head. The African grey who feels the same may only raise the feathers on his shoulders slightly and look at you with a bit more intensity.

This information also suggests that living without problems with our parrots will hinge upon building our own skills of observation, since each species with whom we interact will likely have a different style of communication. Therefore, we learn to take nothing for granted. Each new individual will need the same careful “get-to-know-you” observations that we used with the last.

Parrots and Emotions

The presence of emotions in animals and birds has long been the subject of much discussion. (I have listed a few reliable references below.) And, as often happens in a new area of exploration for truth, the pendulum of opinion has swung from one extreme to the other.

For some years now, the attribution of emotions to animals was often met with the accusation that the speaker was being anthropomorphic, assigning human characteristics to the animals under discussion. However, researchers are now taking this subject more seriously. Frans De Waal has given us the books Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? and Mama’s Last Hug, for example. Both discuss the emotions of animals in a very convincing manner.

Finally, “hard science”has met “soft science” and now many are admitting that animals have emotions, possibly the same emotions that we experience as humans. Anyone who has lived with parrots knows this from experience. They are by nature incredibly social, sentient, and expressive.

The list of emotions now attributed to animals is surprisingly long. I found a more distilled list that includes: happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and surprise. However, labels often fail us and these are labels. What does happiness look like in a parrot? What does sadness look like?

I think it makes sense instead to begin our exploration of how parrots express their emotions by first observing their body language in a variety of contexts and then doing our best to gather enough anecdotal evidence that we can correctly evaluate it and interpret it, thereby achieving some general agreement and creating a reference.

When I did this myself, I came to the conclusion that the parrots I have known had communicated to me, by using body language, the following: well-being or happiness, interest, disinterest, alarm or surprise, fear or aversion, heightened arousal, anger or “go away,” and sexual interest or romantic love.

Obviously, there are likely to be other emotional states that I have not listed. However, parrots have few facial muscles for exhibiting expressions, unlike our mammal friends. Therefore, reading their messages may be a bit more challenging. They use primarily three forms of body language to communicate. When we make observations, we have three main areas to examine: their eyes, feather position, and body position.

Interpreting the Eyes

Parrots will communicate in very subtle ways with their eyes and it can take experience to learn to read them. The most obvious change in a parrot’s eyes is called “pinning.” When a parrot pins his eyes, he alternately contacts and expands his pupils. This may last for just a brief few seconds, or can go on for a full minute or two.

Eye shape is a much more subtle change. A parrot’s eyes may appear round at some times and more almond-shaped at others. In my experience, there can also be a change in the expression behind the eyes, which can range from a very soft and relaxed appearance to a hard stare.

Interpreting Feather Position

Observing feather position contributes to the information base we accumulate when we read body language. A parrot may hold his contour feathers over his body in a tight, slicked-down manner or in a more relaxed, inflated way with a little air trapped behind them.

Movement of specific feather groups often tells a more obvious story. Some parrots will fan their tail feathers outward, raise their crests, or raise certain areas of feathers over their bodies.

Interpreting Body Position

Body position gives us even more overt details. Parrots may lean toward or away from us, stand up tall, hide, or stand with one foot held upward against the body. All of these changes tell a story.

Raised feathers, low crouch, hard eyes = Stay away!

Thus, when we read avian body language, we must look at each of these three areas, ask ourselves what we are seeing, and then assimilate this information so that we can interpret what that parrot may be trying to tell us.

Signs of Well-being or Happiness

Signs that a parrot is experiencing a state of happiness or well-being might include the following:

Stretching
- Shoulder raise (both wings being raised in unison and then lowered)
- Unilateral (the parrot stretches out both wing and leg on the same side at the same time.)
Tail wags
Feathers relaxed
Eyes soft and almond-shaped
Beak grinding
Rough out (whole body shake out)
Head bobbing
Preening (not excessive)
Cheek feathers covering beak (cockatoos)

Expressions of Interest

Leaning or moving toward us or an item without signs of “anger” – see below
Eager look to the face and eyes
Contour feathers relaxed
Crest up (cockatoos or cockatiels)

Signs of Disinterest

Turning or physically moving away
Flying away
Preening as you attempt to engage socially
Eating treats very slowly when trying to train

Signs of Surprise or Alarm

Raised crest
Rounded eyes
Raised wings
Looking skyward
Standing up very tall
Feathers slicked down
Sharp calls

Signs of Fear or Aversion

Round eyes
Beak slightly open
Standing up very straight
Contour feathers held tightly against the body
Growling
Creating distance rapidly
- Leaning away
- Moving away

Signs of Heightened Arousal

Eye pinning
Raised crest
Whole body bobbing
Foot tapping against a perch (cockatoos)
Tail fanning
Facial blushing

Signs of Anger (“Go Away!”)

Eye pinning
“Hard” eyes
Tail fanning
Hissing (cockatoos)
Growling (greys)
Lunging / biting
Swaying from side to side
Raised feathers on certain areas
Crouching with beak open

Signs of Sexual Interest or Romantic Love

Beak clacking (cockatoos)
Tongue wagging (cockatoos)
Regurgitation
Masturbation
Wing drooping
Head bobbing
Soliciting allopreening
Seeks close physical contact

Putting It All Together

As stated previously, we won’t be successful in accurately reading avian body language unless we take all signs into consideration. Once we do, however, we can then take our cues from the parrot and respond appropriately.

If an Amazon parrot is fanning his tail, pinning his eyes, has his feathers raised on the back of his head and is leaning toward us with beak open, we are going to walk away and figure out another way to approach him that will not result in the aggression that is so obviously intended.

If we observe that our macaw is blushing, pinning his rounded eyes, swaying from side to side and slightly fanning his tail, we are going to conclude that this moment might not be the best time to ask him to step up. He is obviously in a heightened state of arousal and could bite just out of excitement.

If the Senegal we just adopted looks at us with rounded eyes, and stands up tall with feathers held tightly down, rapidly trying to scramble away from our approach, we are going to stop in our tracks realizing that perhaps this bird has more of a history of fear than we were lead to believe.

And, if our cockatoo clacks her beak at us as we remove her from the cage, begins to regurgitate, and then tries her best to scramble to a shoulder for a cuddle session, we are going to also stop in our tracks and realize that she has the wrong idea. We are not sexual partners. She belongs on a perch near you, but not on you.

Our Own Body Language

We must also exercise control over our own body language and use this to mirror that which the parrot offers. Since parrots communicate through body language, they are especially sensitive to ours.

Barbara Heidenreich said once, “If an animal is aware of us, we must be aware of the animal.” That is the cardinal rule, or should be, whenever you are in any animal’s presence. Many accidents and injuries could be avoided by following this simple advice. In general, the following rules will help to ensure your success when meeting new birds and in a variety of other situations:

Move slowly.
Keep gestures to a minimum.
Use a low voice.
Mirror the bird’s behavior – respond appropriately.
Practice awareness.

Communicating with Parrots

All living creatures are hard-wired to behave upon the environment in such a way that they can gain access to the things that they want. When we live with a parrot, one of the most valuable pieces of information we can have is to know what things he values most and to then use them to reward the behaviors that we would like him to perform more often: talking rather than screaming, stepping up rather than moving away, going back into the cage rather than biting.

The mistake that most caregivers make is to assume that the parrot wants approval. They typically reward behavior by talking, with an enthusiastic “Good bird!” Frankly, I have seen no evidence that parrots care what we think. They don’t care if we approve of the behavior they just offered.

What they want is currency – hard cash. What is hard cash to a parrot? Usually, it is going to be some high-value food – typically high-fat nuts or seeds. It could be head scratches. It could be a bottle cap. It is up to each of us to investigate and discover what constitutes hard cash for each of our parrots. This is likely to be different for each one.

One we know what a parrot wants, success is just around the corner if we follow the following rules:

Living as a Trainer

Realize that every social interaction is a learning moment for the parrot.
Use positive reinforcement for all cued behaviors so that the parrot has control – he understands what he can do to acquire the things that he wants.
Get into the habit of asking yourself, “What am I reinforcing right now?”

Remember:

Every interaction with a parrot must be a dialogue.
- When training
- When handling
- When offering a treat.
Practice respect.
- Allow them control.
- Give them a choice.

I would like to see a new era dawn, when it comes to relationships between companion parrots and their caregivers. In order for those relationships to be problem-free and full of joy we need to understand each other. This means that we have to listen to them and behave in a trust-building manner by altering our own behavior based upon the messages that they communicate.

We then must offer them choices about how to behave and ensure that the behavior we want gets rewarded with a rate of exchange that ensures that this will continue to be offered in the future.

References

Bekoff, M. (2000) Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures: Current interdisciplinary research provides compelling evidence that many animals experience such emotions as joy, fear, love, despair, and grief—we are not alone. BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 10, October 2000, Pages 861–870, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0861:AEEPN]2.0.CO;2

Safina, C. (2015.) Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. Henry Holt & Company, LLC. New York, NY.

Paul,E. and Mendl, M. 2018. Animal emotion: Descriptive and prescriptive definitions and their implications for a comparative perspective.Applied Animal Behaviour Science,Volume 205,Pages 202-209,ISSN 0168-1591, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2018.01.008.

Weary, D., Droege, P., and Braithwaite, V. 2017. Chapter Two – Behavioral Evidence of Felt Emotions: Approaches, Inferences, and Refinements. Editor(s): Marc Naguib, Jeffrey Podos, Leigh W. Simmons, Louise Barrett, Susan D. Healy, Marlene Zuk. Advances in the Study of Behavior, Academic Press,Volume 49,Pages 27-48,ISSN 0065-3454,ISBN 9780128121214,https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.asb.2017.02.002.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, an IAABC Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with parrots by offering behavior consultations and publishing information you can trust. To access free resources, schedule a consultation, or subscribe to my newsletter (which is a different publication from this blog), please visit me at http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com. Until next time!