Posts – Pet Birds by Lafeber Co.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Birds Do Not Like To Be Tricked!

September 1, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

portrait of African grey closeup on head with dark maroon background — Photo by Kevin Tribelhorn/Unsplash

A journal article, published this August (Schnell et al., 2021), showed that a species of European jay demonstrates clear distress when their expectations of finding a treat are violated. The experimenters showed the birds that a very desirable food was being hidden under one of two cups, and then, without the birds knowing, the experimenters swapped it for something the birds didn’t like nearly as much. Not all birds reacted strongly, but those that did check under other cups, or squawked and flew away, and usually ignored the less-desired food they had found.

Parrots Dislike Trickery Too!

I wasn’t at all surprised by their results, having observed the same behavior in my parrots (Pepperberg et al., 1997) decades ago! We performed the study as part of an experiment on object permanence—the notion that an object does not cease to exist (is ‘permanent’) even if it is out of sight. The very first studies of this type were performed by a Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, who was interested in studying the development of various types of intelligence in children. He started testing babies when they were only a few months old and kept presenting more and more complicated types of tasks as the children got older (Piaget, 1936/1952).

The easiest task just checked to see if the baby could track the object as it was moved around; then the tasks got harder: The object was partially hidden under something like a blanket, then fully hidden; next came tracking when two possible hiding places existed, then three, and so forth. Other researchers (e.g., Uzgaris & Hunt, 1975) looked at even more complicated tasks—actions like hiding the treat in the experimenter’s hand and then moving the hand among several cups before hiding the treat under one cup and showing an empty hand.

When we did the study in question, Alex had already passed all the Uzgiris and Hunt tasks (Pepperberg & Kozak, 1986); here we wanted to track Griffin from a very early age to see if his development paralleled that of children (it did, but he progressed more quickly)—plus, our concern was that our parrots might be smart enough to track something of interest, but not necessarily remember what it was that they were tracking.

One way to check this possibility was to do the ‘treat substitution’ trick. Other researchers (e.g., Tinklepaugh, 1928, 1932) had examined how nonhuman primates reacted to being tricked with “reat substitution,” so we thought that would be an interesting task for our birds. And they reacted similarly—Griffin turned over the cup under which he thought he would find a nut, didn’t find the expected cashew, then turned over all the other cups and, when that didn’t work, ran over to the experimenters!

Alex reacted similarly, but also stared at the experimenters with slitted eyes—an aggressive stance—and added some emphatic banging of his beak on the table, which for him was a signal of displeasure and frustration. At the time we did these experiments, we couldn’t videotape each trial with a tiny camera or a mobile phone as we do now (the experiment was actually done in 1996!), so we don’t have a cinematic record—just our notes (thus no pretty pictures this month).

Of course, this behavior makes a lot of sense when one thinks about the lives of nonhumans that are usually preyed upon in the wild—they form expectations of where food should be over time, and if it is not there, they will have wasted a lot of precious foraging time and effort and possibly exposed themselves to predators for naught. And, of course, if they take the time to break open a particular type of nutshell, they definitely expect to find that type of nut! In general, novelty in the wild is more likely to indicate some form of danger (e.g., an unexpected shadow could be a hawk looking for a meal) rather than something fun, which is why most parrots are somewhat neophobic (i.e., shy away from new objects or situations, and dislike surprises).

Thus, although these findings in parrots and jays may not have violated our expectations, as scientists we are always interested in testing our hypotheses. And we are always excited when we find data to show that those hypotheses were correct!

References

Pepperberg, I.M. & Kozak, F.A. (1986). Object permanence in the African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Anim. Learn. Behav. 14:322‑330.

Pepperberg, I.M., Willner, M.R., & Gravitz, L.B. (1997). Development of Piagetian object permanence in a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). J. Comp. Psychol. 111:63–75.

Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children (M. Cook, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press. (Original work published 1936)

Schnell, A.K., Maria Loconsole, M., Garcia-Pelegrin, E., Clive Wilkins, C., & Nicola S. Clayton, N.S. (2021). Jays are sensitive to cognitive illusions. R. Soc. Open Sci. 8: 202358. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202358

Tinklepaugh, O. T. (1928). An experimental study of representative factors in monkeys. J. Comp. Psychol. 8:197-236.

Tinklepaugh, O. T. (1932). Multiple delayed reaction with chimpanzees and monkeys. J. Comp. Psychol. 13:207-243.

Uzgiris, I. C., & Hunt, J. (1975). Assessment in infancy: Ordinal scales of psychological development. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: African Lovebirds

August 25, 2021 by Ann Brooks

A flock of wild lovebirds in Africa. Photo by Sascha Düker

Little parrots are important too, so we’re headed back to Africa to see how lovebirds are doing in their native habitat. These colorful little birds are aptly named for their strong, lifelong pair bonding. There are nine species in the lovebird genus, eight are native to continental Africa, and one to Madagascar. They live in small flocks and eat fruit, vegetables, grasses, and seeds. While fairly common in captivity, we have limited knowledge of their behavior and ecology in the wild.

Assessing Lovebird Populations

Between human expansion and natural disasters, some lovebird species are losing their corridors of movement. This greatly diminishes important opportunities for the diversity and overall health of the species. Dr. Tiwonge Gawa, Lovebird Research Officer for the World Parrot Trust (WPT), led the first wide-range study of several lovebird species in South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi. This research may be critical to their survival, because the survey revealed that population distribution is much smaller than expected. This, paired with their known ability to hybridize freely in captivity, may have severe consequences for certain individual species.

Lilian lovebirds were found to be most at risk since they depend on the large “cathedral” Mopane trees for roosting and nesting. These trees take years to grow but are being rapidly harvested for logging and charcoal production. A new WPT project is underway to deploy artificial nest boxes to see if these lovebirds might adapt to an alternative in the most affected areas. Lilian lovebirds are hard to breed in captivity, so it is especially important that we protect the species in the wild. This will be the first time that artificial nest boxes have been tried for wild lovebirds, an exciting new project!

Another critical project underway addresses the loss of entire flocks in Malawi where locals poison waterholes for bushmeat near the Liwonde National Park. WPT is working with the most affected communities to support education and long-lasting meaningful change to this destructive and deadly practice.

Sascha Düker checks on a nest box. Photo by Dr. Tiwonge Gawa

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to the World Parrot Trust and the efforts led by Dr. Gawa and Mr. Sascha Düeker, WPT Lovebird Conservation Coordinator. This donation will help build and deploy first-time nest boxes for the Lilian lovebirds and support further educational efforts to prevent waterhole poisoning near the Liwonde National Park. You can also help! To make a tax-deductible donation, go to the donation section of the World Parrot Trust website. Earmark your donation specifically for African lovebird conservation and research.

The Kakapo Parrot Gets A Lego Likeness!

August 18, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Everyone knows what a Lego block is. They’re almost essential learning toy pieces that many of us have grown up with (and continue to grow up with). As the base of older users aged, the need for the acquisition of base pieces and specialty pieces have helped fuel the growth of Lego stores throughout the world. These stores provide Lego accessories and pieces of all kinds in order to effectively build the most complex designs. In addition, Lego has put together build kits that contain hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Lego blocks and pieces to build a specific design.

To help foster more designs, Lego provides a portal to help genius builders bring their designs to Lego’s corporate teams for the possibility of widescale marketing. The way that it works is by requiring 10,000 “supporters” of the build in order for Lego to actively take the design to the next level. However, even if a design gets to the coveted 10,000 supporters who love the idea and wish to acquire a package, acceptance is not always what happens. This is the case with a designer who built a spectacular Lego version of a Kākāpō parrot (Strigops habroptila).

Unique Kakapo Parrot Is A Unique Lego

The designer is a passionate lover of the threatened Kākāpō parrot and wanted to create awareness by his build. It took 473 Lego parts to assemble this beautiful bird replication. Submitted in 2018, the design achieved the coveted 10,000 supporters but was turned down by Lego in the review stage. But fast forward to today, there is a similar product being readied featuring the Kākāpō parrot. The design is a new one and was effectively crowd-funded in the rush to sell 10,000 build kits. As of this writing, the Kākāpō Parrot kit has achieved its needed funding with 3,000 kits already pre-sold. The kit is being marketed by the Bricklink Designer Program for their 2021 Invitational. Several of their designs have already sold out, making the remaining kits highly anticipated.

Order A Kakapo Parrot Now

The Kākāpō Parrot Lego kit is being pre-sold until August 31 in the hopes of achieving sales of 10,000. After August 31, the kit will be considered sold out and will then become unavailable. The kit will feature 1,062 total parts with 183 unique parts created for the set. The parrot build will contain 17 different colors and should easily provide hours, even days, of assembly enjoyment. The kit will be provided with detailed digital building instructions via a Lego Building Instruction app. The app allows you to digitally view your build with zoom and rotate features. It can help you track your progress as you work through the build. Once the parrot is constructed, it will have rotatable and extendable wings and posable tail feathers. The kit will also provide a baby Kākāpō Parrot mini-build to go along with the main. The top part of the head of the parrot can be removed to apply brick headwear. A top hat and a party hat are provided for this purpose, but you can improvise your own using genuine Lego bricks.

The manufacture of the Kākāpō Parrot build kit will begin in September of 2021 with delivery of the original 3,000 kits expected in January of 2022. Kits ordered between August 3 and August 31 will be delivered by June 2022. If you’re interested, you can get started here by creating an account with Lego. If you order, you will only be charged when the item is shipped to you.

You can see the original Lego idea with photos, comments, notations, all the support for it, along with other pieces of information here.

Good luck! And if you acquire one, happy building!

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider—The Lighter Side Of Treating A Pet That Can Talk Back!

August 12, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider—The Lighter Side of Treating a Pet That Can Talk Back!

Date: Friday, September 17, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Dr. Lamb September 17 Webinar

Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Dr. Stephanie Lamb, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), will present another episode of our popular new series, Avian Vet Insider. In this episode, Dr. Lamb looks at the lighter side of clinic life. While she takes each case seriously, her sometimes talkative patients can bring some comic relief. Parrot behavior can be puzzling, and what can be alarming to the owner may not be the serious illness or condition the owner was afraid of. We cover some very serious topics in these webinars, but this time let’s look at the lighter side of things, during this insider’s view of the daily happenings at your Avian Vet’s Clinic.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

August 12, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, September 24, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian), will answer your questions about pet bird health, nutrition, care, and behavior problems. Is your bird’s problem health-related or behavioral? Are you offering the right foods to your pet bird? Ask the Vet!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Wild Cockatoos Teach Each Other The Art Of Bin Scavenging

August 11, 2021 by Matt Rowe

sulphur-crested cockatoo on tree branch — Anyone who’s shared their life with a cockatoo knows how smart they are! Photo by pen_ash/Pixabay

You know your bird is smart. You’ve seen it in action so many times. Often with that, you can watch their well-thought-out mischief occurring. This is especially true when a bird wants something that is not readily available to them. And as we have learned in the past (or you’ve seen with your own eyes), birds have worked extraordinarily hard to learn the varying methods of acquisition.

In 2018 in the Australian city of Sydney, scientist Richard Major of the Australian Museum saw a sulfur-crested cockatoo opening a garbage bin with a five-step process that involved feet and beak. With this process, the bird was able to gain access to any discarded foods that may have been inside the bin. The scientist was able to video the bird and took it to peers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. The finding was interesting enough to warrant an in-depth study to determine if genetics is the engine of this behavior, or if it is a learned process.

Led by Barbara Klump, and Lucy Aplin (Max Planck Institute), assisted by John Martin (Taronga Conservation Society) and the previously mentioned Richard Major, the study was intended to uncover the cause of the new scavenging ability amply exhibited by these cockatoos in Sydney. As it is, animals typically do not learn from each other but rather operate due to genetic instinct. With these cockatoos, it was discovered that they not only learned the difficult art of opening a bin but passed the trick on to others of their kind. The ability proliferated until the city was filled with birds that understood the skillset needed to scavenge for food inside closed bins.

Hard To Stop A Clever ‘Too!

Back in 2018, a circulating poll revealed that birds in just three suburbs were displaying the ability to open a bin. Just two years later, that number had increased to include 41 more suburbs of Sydney where cockatoos could nimbly pop open a bin’s difficult-to-handle lid. The problem for the scientists was to determine if this was indeed a ‘pass along’ skill or if birds were just responding to a trait that had been untapped. As it probably happened, it was a single observant bird watching a human open a lid. After enough times, the bird worked hard to perfect the technique, with success as the payoff.

Soon enough, birds observed their pals opening a lid and learned the skill as well. Eventually, a city full of cockatoos mastered the ability. One caught the eye and interest of previously mentioned Richard Major. The exotic bird had grabbed the lid with their feet, lifted it, and grabbed it more securely with its beak. It would then walk along the rim of the container enduring the weight of the lid working against gravity to eventually be able to fling the lid back allowing access to the “treasures” inside the bin.

Social learning is a skill learned by humans and some animals — but not many animals can pick up this art of continuance. The scientists published their findings of this rare and amazing learned behavior of the sulfur-crested cockatoos in the Science journal in July.

What shall be next?!

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: Glossy Black Cockatoos Of Kangaroo Island

August 4, 2021 by Ann Brooks

glossy black cockatoo walking on grass — Glossy black cockatoo. Photo by lynxxx11/Pixabay

Parrots are under threat around the world for many reasons. Some are directly caused by humans through poaching or habitat destruction. Natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires can also pose serious threats; some might even argue that humans have had a hand in those also.

In our last post, we highlighted the tragic fires that affected the hyacinth macaws of Brazil’s Pantanal. This month, we go to the other side of the world to talk about the beautiful glossy black cockatoos, who are once again at risk because of the horrid 2019-2020 bushfires that ripped through Australia’s Kangaroo Island.

Extinct on mainland Australia, this unique glossy black cockatoo subspecies (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) exists only on Kangaroo Island. Because they live in a constrained environment, they have become very specialized eaters, feeding almost exclusively on the seeds of the drooping sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillate) and building nests in very old Eucalyptus evergreen trees.

Glossy black cockatoos are also very slow to reproduce, sometimes laying only one egg per year. Given possible predation from possums, honeybees, and other predatory cockatoos, raising a chick for 90 days to fledging is already very challenging!

Recovery Efforts Offer Hope

The Nature Foundation began its important recovery effort in 1995, when there were less than 160 individual glossies remaining on Kangaroo Island. These cockatoos were later classified as endangered under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. However, the recovery program was considered highly successful – with a steady increase in population, nest protection measures, and an expanded range for feeding and nesting. Then came the fires.

Unfortunately, over 50% or their sheoak feeding habitat may have been destroyed, and at least 35% of their known nests, mostly along the north coast. Without the prior conservation efforts to expand the glossies range and resources, their future may have been in serious jeopardy once again. But there is good news, 454 glossies were counted after the fires, showing more resilience than expected! However, it is essential to continue increasing the range and resources of this rare and special cockatoo. Without our help, they could be only one more fire away from another major loss.

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to the Nature Foundation to help propagate the sheoaks, increase nesting options, and protect nests from predation. You can also help! To make a tax-deductible donation go to https://www.naturefoundation.org.au/how-to-help/donate/glossy-black-cockatoo-recovery-program and choose the Glossy Black Cockatoo Recovery option.

Old Man: A Scarlet Macaw Turns 74

August 2, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Aging is an ongoing event that follows every living creature. Humans can live up to an age of 120 or slightly more, although not many have enjoyed that boast. Many creatures often live a lifespan that is significantly less than a human. One kind of creature that can live to a great age are some exotic birds. In fact, macaws can live up to 50 years of age in the wild and have been known to exist far longer in captivity in and caring good homes. A macaw can conceivably live close to 100 years of age.

In 2016, a Major Mitchell’s cockatoo named Cookie passed away at the age of 83. She had lived in Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo since she was a year old. Poncho, a green-winged macaw is in her 90s. She has starred in a few Hollywood films, including 102 Dalmations and Ace Ventura. And there’s Charlie, a blue-and-gold macaw unofficially pegged at over 115 years of age. Charlie was once the pet bird of Winston Churchill. Yes, with proper diet and care, a macaw – and other birds with the propensity for long life – can live a significantly long time.

Old Man

And then there’s Old Man. Old Man is a scarlet macaw, who recently celebrated his birthday at an astounding 74 years of age. Old Man is housed at the Barn Hill Preserve. Barn Hill Preserve is headquartered in Louisiana but maintains a mobile facility in Delaware. Owner Josh Mueller began the Louisiana location back in 2015. Old Man came to the Preserve in 2016, when his then owner could no longer care for him. The submitted papers that accompanied his transfer registered Old Man as having hatched in 1947.

His celebration was held at the Louisiana site with attendance by local seniors to help Old Man mark the new milestone in his life. Cakes (one for Old Man, and one for the attendees), and a birthday card for Old Man were part of the party.

Scarlets: Ageless Beauties

Scarlet macaws are large birds, as the pictures of Old Man can attest to. The scarlet macaw is native to the jungles of Central and South America. Currently, the large bird, which can get to 32 inches in length and weigh upward of 2 pounds, is listed by the watch organization, IUCN, as not threatened. We are pleased with the fact that Scarlet Macaws are still a common bird in their native region. We’re equally pleased – and quite proud – of the longevity of Old Man, who at 74, is a lucky bird to be loved as he is by the community and the caregivers at Barn Hill Preserve. Go for 100, Old Man!

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Dealing With Picky Eaters

July 27, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

African grey — Athena enjoying chard. Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg

I’ve written a bit before about our Grey’s diets, and the ways in which we try to introduce new foods. What I haven’t really discussed is just how picky at least my birds can be when it comes to food choices! I’m sure that this behavior derives from eating patterns in the wild—the need to make sure that they do not ingest something that is the least bit spoiled and could cause illness, for example. However, I think we tend to lose sight of that evolutionary rationale when we must deal with that level of fussiness during food preparation time—then the outcomes are sometimes frustrating but can also be extremely amusing.

Parrots’ Opinions on “Fresh” Produce

African grey parrots — Griffin thinking about joining Athena in eating chard. Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg

I’ve mentioned before that Athena loves fresh, organic chard. I’m not sure how much she eats, but she bites off many pieces, plays with the leaves and stems, and obviously clearly enjoys having it around (see Figure 1; in Figure 2, Griffin is intrigued by her behavior and is thinking about trying some). Thus, I was really excited to see organic chard when my local farmers’ market opened one recent Sunday, and I promptly purchased a bunch. After taking it home, I carefully cut off the ends, put it in a jar of freshwater, and put the whole thing in my refrigerator, because I would not be in lab until Wednesday.

Each intervening morning, I repeated the process of trimming the ends and changing the water, and to my eye, the chard looked great. Imagine my dismay when Athena took one glance at it, gave it a single desultory bite, and then completely ignored it (Figure 3). After a moment or two, she actually tossed it from her cage. I guess what looked “fresh” to me definitely didn’t make the grade for her.

Griffin also has some idiosyncrasies. For example, he adores Earth’s Best^©baby foods, particularly the one made with lentils…but only if it is at least room-temperature or slightly heated. Giving it to him right out of the refrigerator ensures that he’ll turn up his beak every time. Giving it to him warm means he’ll “glug” it as though he were a chick slurping down baby formula. Go figure….

We also have to buy two different types of crackers as treats, one for each bird. Griffin likes the Norwegian-style ones that are almost all seeds and grains, whereas Athena likes ones in which flax seeds are baked into the dough. And, as I’ve been told that onion is toxic to parrots, we have to make sure to avoid any crackers with that ingredient as well.

Accommodating Individual Meal Preferences

One of my favorite Griffin stories actually involves his food choices. He prefers most fruits compared to most vegetables, so he tends to eat his breakfast in the following order: grapes, banana, apple (known to him as “banerry”), then whatever veggies are at the bottom. Interestingly, that is also the order in terms of ease of food preparation, and one brand-new student made the mistake of working in that order and thus filling his bowl in that order—that is, with the grapes well below things like broccoli. I happened to walk into lab just a few moments after she had presented him with his meal; his response was to toss everything out and onto the floor in search of those precious grapes. Her response, “Griffin! How dare you waste all that food! Think of all the starving parrots in Africa!”, left me speechless with laughter, having grown up with parents who had basically said the same thing to me when I was a young, vegetable-aversive child.

Alex also had a few preferences. Bananas had to be just the “correct” level of ripeness, and he definitely had a preference when it came to the type of grape he was given. One time the grocery store was completely sold out of anything but some green grapes, so we bought those, thinking “a grape is a grape.”’ Right? Well, he kept asking for “grape,” and then tossing the offending fruit back at us. Finally, after a few tries, he said at the top of his lungs, “Wanna grape…URP-UL!”, which was his way of saying “purple.” Duh…

Now, we humans have our own likes and dislikes, and we do not think such behavior is odd or even funny. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised when our feathered friends act in similar ways!

Webinar: The Grey Way: Time To Travel: Bird Sitter, Boarding Or Hitting The Road? With Lisa Bono, CPBC

July 15, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: The Grey Way: Time to Travel: Bird Sitter, Boarding or Hitting the Road? with Lisa Bono, CPBC

Date: Friday, August 13, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a FREE, live interactive webinar! Lisa Bono, CPBC, owner and operator of The Platinum Parrot and a certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, presents Episode 4 of The Grey Way, a Lafeber Pet Birds Webinar Series focusing on Congo & Timneh African grey parrots as pets. In this episode, Lisa discusses your options when planning a trip. How to choose a qualified bird sitter or boarding facility? Is taking your Grey with you an option? Preparing your Grey for a road trip or air travel? There are many factors to consider, and Lisa’s webinar will help you make an informed decision.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

July 15, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, August 20, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Rescue, Rehabilitation And Release: Wildlife Rehabilitation Of The Parrots Of Southern California

July 15, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Release: Wildlife Rehabilitation of the Parrots of Southern California

Date: Friday, August 27, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Brooke Durham, will talk about SoCal Parrot, a licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility near San Diego, California. This unique facility is the only psittacine wildlife rehabilitation organization in the world that works solely with wild urban parrots. Brooke will discuss the species they work with, as well as research and conservation efforts the organization is involved with. The work they do goes beyond parrot rescue and rehabilitation. Learn all about the important work this organization does by tuning in to this unique webinar!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Photographer Focuses On The Beauty Of Feathers

July 14, 2021 by Matt Rowe

It can be said that our world is interpreted through the art that we create. How we understand ourselves, how we perceive events and locations, and how we love other things are all represented in a million ways via our art. The traditional brushstroke of colors in paintings often is the norm for display as is a variety of photography. There are even birds that create art envisioned by humans that see things that many cannot. In that, the human allows the bird to do what it will and then creates permanence for the work.

Art encompasses so many corners that it is one of few things that still finds shadows of originality in its making. A strange but beautiful display of art comes from James Henderson, a photographer who takes the oft-ignored unattached bird feather and creates stunning photographic imagery with them.

A Feathered Inspiration

The journey begins with a walk that led to the casual discovery of a large unattached brown pelican feather. Being a photographer used to seeing things that many do not immediately register, Henderson picked up the feather and took it home. There, he placed it on his desk. Upon closer inspection, he saw photographic possibilities with the feather that had him thinking about texture, color, and style. After a few sessions with the feather, Henderson found the art in it and began work in bringing that art to the fore.

Feathered Focus

Using macro lens on a digital camera and specific lighting for his photos of the feather, Henderson was able to capture exquisite details that soon led to a finished piece. After the sessions with the brown pelican feather, the photographer saw feathers everywhere. As he picked them up, he would sometimes ask questions of individuals to get their conceptual thoughts of the feather. What he discovered was that many people had unique stories and thoughts, some of them ethereally engaging and beautiful. These concepts were used to add an unseen element to the feather that would enhance the visual from the photographer’s perspective.

As Henderson views and contemplates a feather he wishes to use, he begins to see perfection in the imperfect. He focuses on the feather not as a whole, but rather on parts of the feather that are generally ignored. As an example, he may look at a feather and find that a part of it will have a wondrous display of color and/or pattern. It will be something that once focused upon, stands out and become a “featherscape.” Another example is a hummingbird feather. Viewed at one angle it can show a dark color. But turn it slightly, and a splash of colors explode from the sunlight that the feather reflects. This is the kind of unique “featherscape” that Henderson looks for.

Seeing What Was Unseen

Once a feather is chosen for whatever beauty it yields within it, the feather is stabilized and photographed against a black background. Using depth against a black background to cause it to “fall away” from the focus of the photo, the feather image captured takes on more amazing elements of display that causes one to stare in awe at the typically unseen part of any bird’s feather.

Henderson is a professional photographer who has captured beautiful photos of bamboo, spacecraft, old schoolhouses, unique infrared images, and of course, feathers as seen in his Featherscape art photo project. He is also an accomplished filmmaker who had a film on Hulu – Troxler’s Truckers: Memories of Vietnam. We marvel at the portrait-style feather displays of Featherscape.

Birdability Strives To Make Birding Accessible To All

July 6, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Even though birds are background to our everyday lives, they do factor in much more significantly than we think they do. These days, we are more attuned to the reality of birds — their noise, their beauty, and their existence. Some birds are plentiful. Some birds have a numbered reality. Science has worked exhaustively to create new and innovative ways to help threatened birds adapt to new habitats.

With the birds within our everyday view, we are constantly treated to a swarm of daily bird appearances, some unique to the regions we find ourselves in. In our lives, these birds become our soundtrack, our peripheral sightings, and our deliberate and intense delight of direct viewing. Occasionally, a dedicated birder emerges that takes the concept of bird-viewing a step further than anticipated and creates a life-changing perspective that impacts the lives of others. This is the story of Virginia Rose.

A Newfound Passion

While a teenager, Virginia fell from an Arabian horse and broke her back. Since that accident, Virginia has been in a wheelchair. Many find a life in a wheelchair an incapacitating event that effectively removes them from a life of normality. And yet, many discover that life isn’t really over because of it. Virginia went on to become an English teacher, a vocation that she found to be a rich experience. After retirement, she became influenced by the avid birding of her younger sister. She opted to incorporate that hobby into her new lifestyle to help her become more fulfilled. As a result of her newfound interest, she became transformed and started to work to transform the lives of others in wheelchairs.

Virginia would spend hours each day exploring birds, their sounds, their appearance, and their individuality. She took classes on birds, joined her local Audubon chapter, and explored with the best of them. But she recognized that she was the only one in a wheelchair enjoying the hobby of birding. Before long, Virginia turned her thoughts to the disabled and especially those who would love to engage in the hobby of birdwatching but were unable. Soon she tracked traversible pathways for those bird lovers in wheelchairs and created a guide of accessibility for Travis Audubon that rated trails for those in wheelchairs. Her involvement in this project came to better fruition when a map company wanted to create an accessibility map for not only wheelchair-bound people but also blind and hard-of-hearing bird lovers who were just as excited to get involved in the hobby of bird watching.

Making Birding More Accessible

As time passed, Virginia started Birdability, an organization that centered itself on “accessibility challenges.” This new organization worked to make birding an easy hobby for all those otherwise disabled, who might find the hobby difficult. Birdability works to remove barriers to the hobby by creating opportunities expressly designed for a wide range of disabilities that encompass physical, intellectual, developmental, and emotional issues. As Birdability grew, the organization became essential to the disabled.

Virginia has been featured in a variety of news outlets and broadcasts. She continues to busy herself during retirement by expanding the role of Birdability to make it the best available option for those who might otherwise be unable to enjoy the hobby of birding.

Birdability operates a website designed to help further facilitate the hobby of birding. It leads to a detailed Birdability map, a useful and entertaining blog, webinars, panel discussions, safety procedures, and scheduled birding festivals. Birdability even works to combat racism as a barrier to bird watching. As with any supportive venture, Birdability relies heavily on volunteerism and donations. You can get involved in whatever way you wish by visiting the website. As the site encourages on its front page, birding is for everybody!

Keas: Why These Alpine Parrots Took The Mountains

June 30, 2021 by Matt Rowe

kea mountain parrot standing on stone — Photo by Makalu/Pixabay

Much has been written about the need to help threatened bird species overcome the disruption of their patterns. Some birds have lived near extinction while others have gone extinct in the wild. Birds have instinctively grown accustomed to a set of “rules” that help them to exist and to mate effectively. When habitats and conditions become disrupted, they generally begin to procreate less leading to their eventual reduction of number. As many factors contribute to the reduction of birds, including illegal trade, the introduction of predatory creatures, and habitat decimation, it is largely up to caring humans to help birds overcome their surroundings and survive — if that is possible. But surprisingly, the Kea parrot may have re-adapted in the past, and if so, it may be able to do so again.

Kea Parrots Look For A Place To Chill

A recent study by five researchers for the University of Otago (New Zealand), Stockholm University (Sweden), along with the Centre for Palaeogenetics (Sweden) and the Swedish Museum of Natural History have suggested that the Kea — “The world’s only alpine parrot” — may have moved itself to the cooler alpine regions to avoid human interaction. In times past, the Kea was thought to be a nuisance in that they were alleged to actively attack and kill farmers’ sheep. Because of this unwanted and supposed behavior, the Kea species were sentenced to reduction by farmers and communities seeking to preserve their farms. Over time, this practice was eliminated by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. With a discovered mass eradication of birds leaving only a small population to exist, necessary steps of protection were implemented. Currently, there is thought to be around 3000-7000 Kea parrots left in the wild.

kea parrot walking on cement or asphalt — Photo by Barni1/Pixabay

The study was undertaken in a concern for approaching climate warming and how it could impact the alpine-adapted Kea in time. The availability of cold regions in this area is limited and provides little in the way of what might be acceptable relocation. To understand how the Kea might be impacted by a warmer climate, the study attempted to evaluate the birds’ past adaptation to a cooler habitat, and what evolutionary traits took them there. The thought is that the Kea simply adapted to the alpine region to avoid a human population bent on destroying them. And if that is so, perhaps a possible warming trend might be one that the Kea could evolutionarily overcome.

In the study, the Kea, and their sister species, the forest-dwelling kākā, were found to be genetically similar. In short, there were not any discovered genomic differences that would identify why the Kea prefer the alpine to survive and the Kākā parrots do not. Instead, the Kea was found to have adapted to the cooler regions in much the same way the Kākā display similar adaptive responses to their lower-lying forest areas. If the alpine regions become warmer, it is possible the Kea might return to the forest.

The Kea is an intelligent creature. Large, mostly green in color, and with the ability to create sounds, it is a beautiful bird. A Kea parrot cannot be owned as their IUCN conservation and protection status doesn’t allow for it. In 2017, a Kea Database was created to record Kea observations allowing for monitoring and evaluation of habits. In this way, better information could be further gleaned to help the declining Kea to gain better reproductive traction. It is known that the mortality rate is significantly high among first-year Kea young. The Kea adult can age to around 20 years.

We sincerely hope that more productive information can be discovered to help the Kea regain their place in the world, alpine-located or not.

Up Close: Hawk Family Builds Nest On Photographer’s Balcony

June 23, 2021 by Matt Rowe

As the famed Lou Reed song goes, “…New York City is the place where…”, it’s easy to recognize that a metropolis the size of NYC can be home to just about anything. And surely, given the city’s lifespan of approximately 368 years, it has seen more than a fair share of interesting sights and happenings. New York City itself boasts a wide array of statistics, from hosting over 8 million residents inside 300 square miles of urban landmass to a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over 800 billion dollars annually; and from a city of 800 languages spoken by an obvious urban diversity of nationalities to massive displays of art, hobbies, and interests. It can go without saying that NYC is home to the artistic. Sometimes, the art produced can be shaped by the things that happen inside this massive city of possibilities.

Room With A Unique View

Michael Palma Mir is a life-long resident of New York City, specifically Hamilton Heights, Harlem. He is a professional photographer that has documented Upper Manhattan since the ’80s in his photography. In addition, Palma Mir is heavily involved in the support and activism of his community.

Recently, an adult red-tailed hawk decided that the fire escape of Palma Mir’s apartment would be an ideal location to set up a nest. A male hawk built the nest with sticks and other materials and was soon joined by the female. When Palma Mir became aware of the two birds in close proximately to his window, he began to chronicle their lives as they produced two eggs for the nest. The two adult birds were named – Billy (after Palma Mir’s father), and Lilly (after his mother). After a period of 49 days, an egg hatched, then the other. The two hatchlings were named Alba (dawn in Spanish because she was hatched in the morning), and Eli (heights in Spanish, named for The Heights).

Palma Mir has taken regular photographs of the hawk family and chronicled them with detail and engaging commentary on his Instagram and Facebook pages. Not long after their hatching, Eli – a notably weaker chick – died, leaving Alba as the only bird to be tended to by the parents. Mir installed two surveillance cameras, one from the top of the window, the other below. They are Wi-Fi-enabled and allow him to watch the birds even from his phone. With this ease, there is no interference to the birds at all. In fact, they are unaware of his “presence,” thus giving them complete privacy. In short, they are autonomous in every way, including acquiring food.

Palma Mir has expressed to me his feelings on the appearance of the hawks in his part of New York City. With his corner of Manhattan hit hard by the ravaging Covid-19, he views the arrival of the hawks and the subsequent hatchings of the two young birds as “a ray of hope toward our long road to recovery.” He further states, “The story is really about them, the majestic hawks who decided to build a future right here, and how their struggle, like ours, has captured our awe and imagination about what can be, about what will be, for sure, a brighter future”.

Life is a gift. Generally, you do not get to watch life unfold in extreme detail as Palma Mir has been able to. Birds are interesting creatures. Their manufacture of essentials to cultivate life is a fascinating adventure to be able to follow. Their dedicated care of their young is a story to tell if you’re lucky enough to watch it progress. Palma Mir is one of the lucky ones with unmatched access to the preparation of the extension of life, in this case, the growth of Alba. The collected photographs of the birds are extraordinary and focused. You can follow the story as it unfolds on Palma Mir’s Facebook page and his Instagram page.

We extend profound thanks to Palma Mir, not only for hosting and chronicling a segment of natural life of the hawks, but also for his willingness to provide us with an expanded – and spiritual – viewpoint of their moments on his fire escape just outside his window.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: When Label Acquisition Hits A Snag

June 16, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

Our model-rival (M/R) technique is almost always successful in training our parrots to acquire novel labels for objects, actions, attributes, and concepts. (Of course, whether they will subsequently use the labels is a matter of choice: Alex did so constantly, whereas Athena will talk only when absolutely necessary—e.g., when she knows Griffin will get all the green beans unless she pipes up!) When success is elusive, however, some theories and experiments with children often explain the reasons. An interesting example was when Griffin, unlike Alex, couldn’t seem to learn to use his color labels to describe objects. The issue was something called mutual exclusivity.

Mutual Exclusivity in Children

The term describes the behavior of children who, in the process of learning language, may persist in exclusively using the first label that they learn for a given object, and thus have difficulty acquiring additional labels for this item (Liittschwager & Markman, 1991, 1994). They function under the assumption that every object has a label—and only one. Having learned, for example, to refer to their pet as a doggie, such children will often refuse to use any other label for that creature; that is, they will actually insist, “NOT animal, doggie” (see Merriman, 1991). Specifically, they have problems understanding how categories can overlap. Although this may seem like a serious issue, at that stage in acquisition, it actually helps them learn new labels. Thus, given two objects, one whose label is known (e.g., block) and another whose label is not (e.g., tongs), a child using mutual exclusivity will, after hearing the novel label tongs, exclude it from the familiar, already labeled item and assign this new label to the new, unlabeled item (e.g., Tomasello & Akhtar, 1995).

This process is also sometimes called fast mapping (see Carey, 1978), although it often takes the child a while to use the new label appropriately. Eventually, as children develop additional language skills this process is extended to other types of label acquisition (see Markman, 1994); for example, if children are given two balls—that they easily label ball—one red and one an odd greenish-yellow color, and are told to pick up the chartreuse thing, they quickly figure out that the new weird label is a color.

A Parrot’s Grasp of Mutual Exclusivity

photo from Dr. Irene Pepperberg — Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg

These findings made us think about the slightly different ways in which African greys Alex and Griffin were taught their object and color labels, and how mutual exclusivity could explain the differences in their subsequent behavior. First, let’s look at Alex. We started with objects that had no real color—for example, white strips of paper, pieces of wood like tongue depressors, silvery keys. He learned to identify them respectively, as “paper,” “wood,” and “key.” A clothespin was labeled “peg wood.” After he could accurately label these objects, as well as “hide” (pieces of rawhide chew toys), we introduced the color “green,” using it not as an alternative label, but as an additional label—so we modeled “green wood” and “green key.”

If the object had no color, he was to respond “wood” or “key,” but if it were colored, he had to produce both labels, “green wood” or “green key.” We used two different objects so that he would recognize that the attribute and label could be used with multiple items. It took some time for him to learn to produce the new sounds (although he had the “eee” from “key”), but he then quickly learned to add the label when asked about the newly tinted items and even transferred the label fairly quickly to “hide”: Although he initially called it “hide,” he attained an accuracy of 60% correct (“green hide”) after only 5 min with the M/R procedure. That is, out of seven presentations immediately following training, he correctly labeled the object “green hide” four times and incorrectly labeled it “hide” three times (Pepperberg, 1981). His accuracy improved rapidly, and he subsequently learned other color names, also as additional labels, without any problem. He did not engage in mutual exclusivity.

Griffin, however, was taught very differently (Pepperberg & Wilcox, 2000). Griffin’s experiences with objects were designed to resemble more closely those of small children. Instead of the uncolored items Alex first encountered, Griffin’s objects—wool pompons, bits of paper, toy cars (called truck), and so forth—varied in color and size; only corks were uncolored. Thus, he had a more complicated task than Alex had been given. For example, during initial training, he had to recognize that truck was the common term to describe variously colored and shaped toy cars.

His color training also differed from Alex’s. He was first trained on color labels (rose, green, yellow, orange, blue) by two humans using a computer display (colored circles on a white background) as part of a separate study on how the inability to interact with physical objects might affect label acquisition. And, unlike Alex, he was not required to produce both color and object labels for a colored item; rather, he had to respond with a single label to “What color?” versus “What toy/matter?” The goal was to see whether these differences affected his pattern of learning and eventual success. Once he had acquired several color and object labels, we then queried him about the colors of objects he could already label (“wool” pompons) and items he was simultaneously learning to label (a plastic “cup”). Might he use labels differently in the two cases? And if he did, would he exhibit mutual exclusivity. That is, refuse to use the color label for the object he already knew as “wool” but not for the one he could not quite yet label as “cup”?

And that is exactly what he initially did (Pepperberg & Wilcox, 2000). Although he eventually did learn to use color labels (and later shape labels) appropriately for objects for which he had initially learned material or toy labels, he took many sessions and considerable extra training to do so. The reverse was true for objects for which he first learned color labels, although, again, he eventually learned their object labels as well. What is also of interest is that children who are taught multiple labels are a bit more like the way in which Alex was taught, where multiple labels are introduced in a complementary manner (“This is a kitty; a kitty is a kind of animal” do not exhibit mutual exclusivity (see Gottfried & Tonks, 1996).

Many reasons have been proposed for why any organism might engage in mutual exclusivity (see references in Pepperberg & Wilcox, 2000). The interesting point is that both parrots and humans, separated by over 300 million years of evolution, can exhibit very similar learning strategies!

References

Carey, S. (1978). The child as word learner. In Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality; ed. M. Halle, J. Bresnan, and A. Miller, pp. 264-293. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Gottfried, G. M., & Tonks, J. M. (1996). Specifying the relation between novel and known: Input affects the acquisition of novel color terms. Child Development, 67, 850-866.

Liittschwager, J. C., & Markman, E. M. (1991, April). Mutual exclusivity as a default assumption in second label learning. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

Liittschwager, J. C., & Markman, E. M. (1994). Sixteen- and 24-montholds’ use of mutual exclusivity as a default assumption in second-label learning. Developmental Psychology, 30, 955-968.

Markman, E. M. (1994). Constraints on word meaning in early language acquisition. Lingua, 92, 199-227.

Merriman, W. E. (1991). The mutual exclusivity bias in children’s word learning: A reply to Woodward and Markman. Developmental Review, 11, 164-191.

Pepperberg, I. M. (1981). Functional vocalizations by an African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Zeitschrifl fiir Tierpsychologie, 55, 139-160.

Pepperberg, I. M., & Wilcox, S. E. (2000). Evidence for a form of mutual exclusivity during label acquisition by Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)? Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 219-231.

Tomasello, M., & Akhtar, N. (1995). Two-year-olds use pragmatic cues to differentiate reference to objects and actions. Cognitive Development, 10, 201-224

Webinar: Avian Bornavirus: Common Signs And Treatments

June 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Avian Bornavirus: Common Signs and Treatments

Date: Friday, July 30, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for this very important FREE, live webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Susan Orosz Ph.D., DVM, DABVP (Avian), DECZM (Avian), will provide an update on Avian Bornavirus(ABV) and how it can affect our various parrot species. She will discuss this complex neurologic disease, including symptoms and some therapies that can help. She will explain why some researchers are using the term Avian Ganglioneuritis for this disease, and how it may be linked to some Feather Destructive Behavior. Editor’s Notes: Because this virus can be “dormant” in a pet bird for decades, with no illness, this is a must-view for all bird owners! We will not be fielding live questions during this webinar, but Dr. Orosz will spend time discussing common questions that come up over birds and their care relating to this condition. However, you may submit questions by email before the webinar, or using Q&A during the webinar, and while they may not be addressed individually, there may be a future webinar based on what bird owners are asking about this disease.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

June 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, July 23, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider: The Routine Pet Bird Exam

June 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider: The Routine Pet Bird Exam

Date: Friday, July 16, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Dr. Stephanie Lamb, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), will present the second episode of our new recurring series, Avian Vet Insider, which debuted in June. In this episode, Dr, Lamb will discuss what to expect for your bird’s routine exam. What will your vet look for? Which tests are usually run? Should your bird be tested for any diseases? Can tests vary by species? What if this is a new bird? Learn the answers to these questions and more during this insider’s view of the daily happenings at your Avian Vet’s Clinic.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Teen Turns Love Of Birds Into A Game

June 9, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Back in the early ’70s, Atari released a simplistic but effective video game named Pong. Just two vertical bars on both sides of the screen and a floating ball moving its sprites from across 720 pixels of screen space. The ball was manipulated by a player (or two) in a competitive bid to earn the greatest number of points. Since that time, video gaming has become a billion-dollar industry that has spanned from the simple pong setup to the intricacies of the 4k screen that can create incredibly realistic gameplay. With the advent of smartphones and accompanying apps to keep them interesting, games have made the jump to lower resolutions but higher stakes small screens. Enter Adam Dhalla.

Birds Got Game

Adam Dhalla is a high school sophomore from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. In 2012, Adam Dhalla spotted a wild Snowy Owl and was intrigued enough to become a naturalist. Since then, Adam has become an avid and passionate wildlife photographer. His photos are stunning captures of many types of birds in the wild. But if that were all he did, he would be one of many hobbyists simply doing what he loves to do. And while his photos are excellent for enjoyable viewing, he has taken his love of birding to a newer level.

In April, Adam Dhalla released a phone game app called Find The Birds. Created in collaboration with Thought Generation, the video game explores the expanding art of birding — or bird watching — using real habitats and conservation issues to power the engine of the game. This educational experience uses details from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to provide accurate and info-rich cards within the game. Traveling within the Saguaro National Park with an animated avatar, the birder wanders and discovers birds. As birds are uncovered, information about the bird including an audio portion of the bird’s ‘language’ is presented to learning and developing young birders. This is what the hope is, that this mobile game — targeted towards 5–15-year-old players — can be a starting gate entry for a young generation.

The plan by both Adam Dhalla and Thought Generation is to continually add in new habitats where more new birds are introduced to the young and interested mind. To help with the development of Find The Birds, a GoFundMe account has been established to help fund the future progress of the game. Currently, this immersive game is free to download for both Android and Apple phones at their respective app stores.

At 12 years of age, young Adam Dhalla was the recipient of 2018 American Birding Association (ABA) Young Birder Of The Year award. Presented as an interactive contest, Adam Dhalla participated with flourish impressing the judges with his photos, journal entries, and assorted modules created for the contest. Today, Adam Dhalla has progressed immeasurably with his beautiful photography (viewable here at his Instagram account), and his continuing development of Find The Birds mobile game. You can better acquaint yourself with Adam at his website and help support the game progression. You can also watch a short video of the game.

Keep it up, Adam! A world of new birders depends on you.

Juliet The Wild Blue And Gold Macaw Looks For Love In Rio Zoo’s Aviary

June 2, 2021 by Matt Rowe

blue and gold macaw flying in blue sky — Although this isn’t Juliet, the image shows a blue-and-gold macaw in flight. Photo by christels/Pixabay

There once was a time when the skies of Rio de Janeiro were filled with the colorful and noisy flight of blue-and-gold macaws. And while their population is indeed decreasing (according to the IUCN assignation for the species), they are listed by the watch organization as Least Concern for their conservation status. But the blue-and-gold macaw has disappeared in the Rio de Janeiro region where it has been quite some time since one has been seen in the wild there—until a wild blue-and-gold macaw found the zoo in Rio de Janeiro where others of her kind live. For the last 20 years, a lone macaw named Juliet (by the zoo) has visited the zoo’s macaw population every morning before flying off for the evening. The caregivers at the zoo aren’t sure of the sex of Juliet because it’s impossible to determine by a glance. But they have simply assumed it’s a female and let Juliet do as it will.

Looking For Romeo?

It’s not exactly clear as to why Juliet visits the zoo every morning, but the likely reality is that “she” is lonely and is looking for companionship. Upon arrival in the morning, Juliet navigates the skies to the enclosure that houses other blue-and-gold macaws. Once there, she engages in behavior that indicates that she is interested in a little more than just company. Juliet does this through the enclosure’s fencing. The authorities at the zoo think that loneliness has compelled Juliet to seek a companion in the only place that she may think they exist. She might also be exclusively interested in one of the caged birds.

While many large birds have long lifespans, the lifespan of a blue-and-gold macaw is listed as approximately 30-35 years. Given that Juliet has been visiting the park enclosure for 20 years, it’s realized that Juliet is well advanced in age.

The blue-and-gold macaw is a beautiful bird. It can reach large sizes by weight and length. The bird has been measured as being near 3 feet in length at its mature stage. Once can weigh in at around 2-3 pounds. They get their name by the bright yellow body feather and the bright blue feathers that make up their wing region.

Reintroducing Macaws In Rio

The Rio de Janeiro-based zoo that Juliet visits is known as BioParque Do Rio. It currently has a plan in place to reintroduce blue-and-gold macaws back into the wild of the region. BioParque has aligned with another institution, Refauna, which is an organization that seeks to repopulate protected forestry with displaced creatures in order to reestablish a dwindling eco-system. With their joint venture, the hope is that they can produce 20 macaw chicks. BioParque and Refauna will work to train the chicks to rely only on food sources found in the forest. They will also train the chicks to develop a natural awareness of predators and other dangerous things that could threaten their existence. The intent is to release the trained macaws into the Tijuca Forest National Park in the hopes that the magnificent bird will thrive once again. The plan for reintroduction is at the end of 2022.

We sincerely hope the best for Juliet. We hope that she will find companionship and produce heirs for the skies of Rio.

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: The Pantanal Of Brazil

May 26, 2021 by Ann Brooks

This month we travel to the Pantanal of Brazil, the world’s largest tropical wetland. It is a magical place, an epic ecosystem. Most years, the grasslands flood from torrential rains, and then the water slowly subsides leaving behind a lush landscape that attracts the highest concentration of wildlife on the continent. Everything in the Pantanal moves in sync with the water, from floods to deep droughts.

Native to the Pantanal biome are the equally magical hyacinth macaws. In the 1980s, it is estimated that 10,000 hyacinths had been captured by traffickers. As a young biologist in 1989, Neiva Guedes was enchanted and inspired when she saw 30 hyacinth macaws sitting in an old tree, and sadly learned that their numbers were rapidly declining. At that time, the population was estimated around 1,500. Since then, Neiva has dedicated her life to the conservation of the species, possibly even bringing it back from the brink of extinction. The current hyacinth macaw population is estimated at a hopeful 6,500.

However, this macaw has very unique needs which can leave it vulnerable. For example, 95% of hyacinth nests are found in the manduvi tree. However, many manduvi trees are felled to support Pantanal livestock farming. The hyacinths are also dependent for food on two specific palms – the acuri and the bocaiúva. So, like many conservation challenges, they face an increasing loss of habitat for both nesting and food production.

Instituto Arara Azul (Hyacinth Macaw Institute)

In 2003, Neiva Guedes founded the Instituto Arara Azul. Its mission is to “promote conservation and biodiversity, seeking rational usage of natural resources and better quality-of-life.” As we must understand, one species cannot survive alone. The Institute is now a sustainable organization composed of scientists and volunteers, dedicated to science, research, and environmental protection. It has many critical projects on its agenda, which I plan to write about in future posts. Phoenix Landing has sponsored several ecotours to Brazil, so I have had the honor of meeting Neiva and her extraordinary team and seeing their good works first-hand. I look forward to sharing more about their other crucial conservation projects later.

Fire In The Pantanal!

Thanks to the São Francisco do Perigara ranch in the Pantanal, and a cluster of bocaiúva palms reserved by the farm’s owner more than 50 years ago, the hyacinths found a major refuge. It has been home to about 20% of the overall hyacinth population. Since 2010, Neiva’s team has been allowed to add numerous artificial nests, in addition to the forest and manduvi trees already protected on the ranch. The macaw population slowly increased, and by 2014, they were actually taken off the endangered species list, thanks in some measure to this special ranch and the Hyacinth Macaw Institute. That’s the good news.

Staff readies artificial nest boxes for macaws in Brazil Pantanal region. Photo courtesy of the Instituto Arara Azul

Now – the bad news. In 2019 and 2020, due to extreme drought and lack of firefighting resources, 92% of the Perigara region of the Pantanal was hit with unprecedented and devastating fires. The highest natural concentration of hyacinth macaws occurs in this region! Unfortunately, the fires also coincided with the hyacinth breeding season. At least 35% of the monitored nests were affected by this disaster. This is expected to affect their population for years to come, and could even put them back on the endangered list.

So, the most important current need for the Pantanal hyacinth macaws is recovering from the horrors of these fires. Neiva’s team has been busy adding more artificial nests, restoring the natural nests, supplementing food and water, and creating fire breaks. They really need our help to protect the remaining hyacinth population in this region.

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to the Instituto Arara Azul to assist with the resources needed to recover from the fires and to bring the hyacinth macaws back to prosperity in key locations in the Pantanal. You can also help, please! To make a tax-deductible donation go to the Parrots International website to support the Hyacinth Macaw Project.

To learn more about the Pantanal hyacinth macaw conservation efforts, see the Youtube videos about the work of Instituto Arara Azul over 30 years and fire fighting in the Pantanal.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: What Goes Into Research Design

May 19, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

The purportedly simple task called “match-to-sample” seems straightforward and forms the basis of many more advanced types of studies. In the picture to the right, the subject first sees a red and a green circle (a). After a short delay, that screen disappears, and another with only one circle appears (b). After another short delay, that screen is replaced by the original stimulus. If the subject taps the matching color (c), it gets a reward. Sounds simple, right?

Well, not very. Before anything even begins, the experimenter must make sure that the subject—say, you or your parrot—can distinguish the two colors. Some nonhumans (and humans!) are somewhat color-blind, others—like parrots—see in the ultraviolet. Thus, for the parrots, the “red” and “green” might not actually look like what you and I see as red and green, but the two colors will look different enough for the purposes of the experiment. That isn’t true for all subjects, so some knowledge of the subjects’ visual system must be obtained initially.

Experimenters also have to make sure that the subject doesn’t like one color more than the other so that the subject doesn’t come into the experiment with some kind of preference, which would skew the results. Ditto for a side preference—if for some reason (say, you are left-handed), and you like to tap the left circle more, that would also skew the results.

Everyone Likes Rewards

African grey parrot on a perch — Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg

Subjects will also probably have to be taught to tap something for a reward: If I sat you in front of a computer screen with those two circles on it, and gave you no direction—no mouse, no keyboard, just the screen—would you know what to do? At first, I’d have to wait however long it took until you chose to a tap on a circle before I could give you a reward; then, in order not to skew the results, I’d have to reward you for learning to tap both colors and make sure that you are tapping both equally (again, to avoid any preferences)—but of course that teaches you to tap both, which is not what I want you to do eventually. But let’s assume that you are now tapping both colors equally and we start the experiment: After seeing both circles, your screen blanks and the single circle appears, which then disappears and the original screen returns…what should you do? As it turns out, it takes most subjects at least a few trials to figure out what is being tested—to tap the correct “match” and to unlearn the need to tap both circles equally.

Note that even if subjects guess correctly on the first trial and get a reward, it doesn’t mean that the subjects will act the same way on the second trial—they might want to try to find out what happens if they make several different choices. Now, in my lab, we would skip most of these steps by simply demonstrating what we want our birds to learn—by having a bird sit on a perch while two trainers sit in front of the screens that appear and disappear, showing what should be tapped—but we still have to worry about color and side preferences. And that is just for the basic step in many tasks! You can begin to see what is involved.

For some tasks, like studies on object permanence, where we are testing whether subjects understand that something still exists even if they can no longer see it, we hide things in one of several places and then ask them to find it—and thus have to make sure that they can’t tell where the object is through inadvertent cues. One such cue is scent. Even though we think that parrots’ sense of smell is about as good as ours (i.e., not very good), we can’t be sure, so we have to control for possible scent cues. This issue would be especially important for subjects like dogs, that are really good at scent detection.

african grey parrot — Griffin doing the bigger/smaller task with the keys in Dr. Pepperberg’s lab. Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg

We also have to make sure that we touch all the different possible sites after we hide the object and before we let the birds make a choice, to ensure that they aren’t just going to—or avoiding—the last place we touched, as another cue. And we have to make sure that we aren’t cuing them by gazing at the correct spot. Parrots don’t track our eye movements at a close distance, so that’s not usually a problem, but they can track our head movements, so we have to be careful to stare downwards or straight ahead when they make their choices. Of course, other species might be able to track eye movements. Again, you start to see some of the possible subtle issues…and even how the species that is being tested affects the issues.

For some tasks, we have to find two different treats—whether food or toys—that the birds like equally well—something that is not always easy to do. Occasionally that is just impossible, so we show the birds that they can ask for some favorite treat if they’ll play along and choose or identify something that isn’t particularly attractive or fun for them. It often takes a long time for them to agree to work under that condition.

Then there are issues such as “expectation cuing”—something that can occur when the subjects experience many trials on the same topic in a row, so they “expect” that the answers will involve a particular type of response, like a number or color label, and therefore ignore all the other possible answers, which significantly simplifies the task. That is why we do lots of different types of tests all at the same time.

I’ve tried to provide just a sampling of just some of the types of issues that are involved when one is trying to determine the various abilities of nonhumans. Many others exist, but even from this short essay, I hope you can see that the task of designing an experiment is never simple!

Webinar: Heart To Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A With Chris Davis

May 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A with Chris Davis

Date: Friday, June 4, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a free interactive webinar: Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A with Chris Davis. This live event marks the return of the popular monthly Bird Talk Magazine feature, as a webinar. Chris will share a behavior case or problem and then field viewer’s behavior-related questions. Chris is a pioneer in avian behavior who has helped many bird stewards open the lines of communication and grow their bond with their feathered friends.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider: Most Common Cases Your Avian Vet Treats

May 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider: Most Common Cases Your Avian Vet Treats

Date: Friday, June 11, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Dr. Stephanie Lamb, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), will present the first episode of a new recurring series, Avian Vet Insider. In this installment, Dr. Lamb will describe the most common reasons that pet bird owners bring their bird to an Avian Vet. She will discuss each case, which may include warning signs or indications, diagnoses, prognosis, and treatments or therapies. Join us for this fascinating and informative insider’s view of the daily happenings at your Avian Vet’s Clinic.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

May 14, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, June 18, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

CANCELLED – Webinar: The Grey Way—Time To Travel: Bird Sitter, Boarding Or Hitting The Road?

May 14, 2021 by lafebercares

CANCELLED – Webinar: The Grey Way: Time to Travel: Bird Sitter, Boarding or Hitting the Road? with Lisa Bono, CPBC

Date: ~~Friday, June 25, 2021~~ This Webinar will be re-scheduled

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

This webinar has been cancelled/postponed due to a medical crisis with one of Lisa’s Greys.

Join us for a free, live interactive webinar! Lisa Bono, CPBC, owner and operator of The Platinum Parrot and a certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, presents Episode 4 of The Grey Way, a Lafeber Pet Birds Webinar Series focusing on Congo & Timneh African grey parrots as pets. In this episode, Lisa discusses the options when planning a trip. How to choose a qualified bird sitter or boarding facility? Is taking your Grey with you an option? Preparing your Grey for a road trip or air travel? There are many factors to consider, and Lisa’s webinar will help you make an informed decision.

“Penelope The Powerful Parrot” Aims To Help Families Cope With The COVID-19 Pandemic

May 12, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Since the beginning of understanding, humankind has written — in many ways — about the complexities of life within their sphere. Whether those were etchings and paintings on cave walls, interpreted poems and stories that speak of hardships, movies with messages, books with concerns, and even music of blues, rock, jazz, or folk, life, and its hardships were being written about. In all those options, there are some excellent stories that tell a tale in order to convey a message of hope to the reader. Often, the installment of hope within a person is best achieved if instilled when a mind is young. A young mind can more easily germinate the seed of a positive message and grow it for practical and invaluable use when things are stressful and in need of hope.

Powerful Positive Book

“Penelope The Powerful Parrot” is a story written by Brett Peppe, a licensed professional counselor (LPC), who holds a Master’s degree. He is also licensed as a clinical alcohol and drug counselor (LCADC), as well as a board certified telemental health provider (BC-TMH). With those credentials, Peppe has clinical insight into the things that can be detrimental to a healthy perspective. In his book, “Penelope The Powerful Parrot,” the writer hopes to make a strong and lasting positive impact on readers — and listeners — that can help children and their families deal with the traumas of COVID-19 in their lives. The book is designed to teach the audience to adopt influential skills in order to feel better about themselves and to give power to families to openly discuss the results of the pandemic. With death, isolation, and fear as terrible components of the virus, this important book is written to help children feel “heard and seen by a caring, trusted adult by practicing coping strategies.”

“Penelope The Powerful Parrot” tells the story of a parrot that is disrupted by the arrival of a predator snake. This dangerous event is coupled with the familiar “pandemic” term in order to merge the threats into a singularly identifiable and modifiable issue that can be used to blend discussion points. As the pandemic worsens, Penelope finds herself isolated and becoming increasingly saddened by her inability to gather with her usual friends.

As the story unfolds, Penelope discovers and unearths various methods of coping with the issues that were caused by the arrival of “the threat.” She discovers the power these methods provide her with by dealing with her feelings and becoming stronger as a result. The goal of “Penelope The Powerful Parrot” as a therapeutic tool is to unveil power to families to bring the damaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to interactive therapy. With death, isolation, and fear brought to the forefront by the virus, family lives are disrupted. “Penelope The Powerful Parrot” is a lifeline for them. There are three songs in the book that are used interactively with children to give them a sense of power for themselves.

For the story, the author found a strong connection to the Eastern Rosella, a parrot native to Australia. Peppe found the Rosella’s various colorful feathers to be a natural lead-in to talking about different feelings and loss, a range of emotions that can be felt throughout this pandemic period. Peppe also discovered that the bacterium that covers the beautiful feathers, protecting them from damage, could be further used as a healthy discussion point.

Parrot Character To Help Kids Cope

The story is presented not only as a book that can be purchased but also as an interactive read-along video with song and movement. The book was released in November of 2020. The read-along experience with song and movement of “Penelope The Powerful Parrot” is currently being ZOOM-distributed via the New Jersey Hope and Healing program, funded by FEMA/SAMHSA grants to provide assistive crisis counseling in New Jersey. It is a beautiful program of help to children that should be expanded throughout the US, and even the entire world to help families in crisis caused by the pandemic.

Cities Building Bird-Friendly Communities

May 5, 2021 by Matt Rowe

two sparrows perched on a branch outside — Photo by Oldiefan/Pixabay

Birds are everywhere. You find them in your backyard, in the trees, and flying within your field of vision while driving or walking. You hear them sing their songs and make their otherwise friendly bird sounds as they go from one place to another. There’s really little you can do to expel the bird from your daily life. And why would you want to? With many species bringing so many variations of appearance, size, and color, you’re likely to see and hear at least 10 different species in a single day. As beautiful and seemingly plentiful as these birds appear, they face a daily threat of predators, habitat disruption, and disappearing food sources. That’s why enlightened cities and towns are beginning to view themselves as a “bird-friendly community.”

Lights Out

cranes in flight at sunset — Cranes flying at sunset. Photo by Katharina2013/Pixabay

So, what’s a bird-friendly community? It’s when a city or town takes it upon itself to legislate safeguards within the community to protect birds from a series of potentially dangerous things. In 2020, Lafeber posted an article about the dangers of building collisions in large cities with tall buildings during migration. These collisions were escalated due to the nighttime lighting of buildings. Birds are vastly dependent upon their natural instincts for travel in the airspace. As they migrate, strongly lit buildings within a metropolis have wreaked havoc on their navigational system and have killed many thousands of birds as they collide into buildings.

Birds are drawn to light. They use it to properly navigate. But when artificial lighting appears in their migratory travel, they are also drawn to it. As a result, some of the biggest cities in migratory pathways have decided to reduce their night lighting significantly by way of suggestion. Chicago, Dallas. Fort Worth, and Houston have responded with “lights-out” pacts that cater to the well-being of our birds.

In Texas, an initiative known as Lights Out Texas sought to partner with building owners to shut lights off. With nearly two billion birds passing through Texas annually from their southern stayovers, this initiative is essential to the many birds flying. (I live in Fort Worth. Living in close view of the city’s skyline, I can verify that the city is extremely dark at night from their light reductions.) Chicago has been involved in this practice since 1995 with their Lights Out Chicago initiative. Audubon Societies within the cities as well as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have worked closely to produce favorable results.

Building Bird-Friendly Habitats

golden finch perched on the side of a bird feeder bag — Photo by paulbr75/Pixabay

But lighting is a protective measure designed to assist migrating birds. What about birds that are part of the ecological structure of a city or township? Many locations have gone to great lengths to install favorable habitats so birds of the area can find nesting homes and more safety. Within such parks and artificial habitats, significant efforts have been undertaken to install proper trees, plants, and flowers that naturally attract birds. These movements have rapidly spread throughout locations and contribute not only to the attraction and eventual well-being of the birds, but also to the people that emotionally enjoy birds being nearby. New York City’s famed Central Park is one of the country’s greatest effort at combining nature with an urbanized metropolis. There are many enthusiasts that haunt this park for bird sightings of all kinds, including unusual stopovers.

Back yards become favored locations as property owners can naturalize their yards to create unique hot spots for visitation. Specific plants and trees coupled with clean and sanitized bird feeders and baths have contributed to extraordinary displays of bird gatherings. These bird-friendly spots allow for the photo capture of birds and might even allow for the rare picture of a mutated bird that shows up occasionally.

As cities, towns, and property owners begin to contribute to the well-being of nature’s birds, it can only lead to good things for all of us. Not only are our birds increasingly protected from the glare and intrusion of our technologies, but they are also the lucky recipients of naturalized spots to allow for them to live stress-free. If you’re interested in creating a bird-friendly spot, the internet is a vast resource of information that gives suggestions for every species. But it also delivers sound and proven solutions to problems that you yourself can help to correct…like turning your artificial lights off for the evening hours.

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: Africa — Nigeria And The Democratic Republic Of Congo

April 28, 2021 by Ann Brooks

Africa is the native land to several old-world parrot species. This month we will look at the ongoing work to protect the Congo African grey in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These parrots are quite beloved and famed in captivity, but their very existence in Africa is in serious jeopardy. While the population has been rapidly collapsing, the current yet risky efforts to preserve this species are having some moderate success. However, more needs to be done, and soon! In 2016, Congo African greys were listed as “endangered” on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, and placed on Appendix I of CITIES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Species of Fauna and Flora).

Greys In Peril

By some official counts, over 1.2 million wild African greys have entered international trade over the last 40 years. That marks a huge dent in the population, and of course many do not survive the trip to their final commercial destination. Like many challenged species, their habitats are also now fragmented, which has implications for genetic diversity, food sources, and overall population growth. Unfortunately, it’s now very rare to find large roosting groups.

surveyor in Nigeria Okomu National Park, photo courtesy World Parrot Trust

Here are some of the projects underway in an attempt to make a future difference.

Surveying Greys In Nigeria

In Nigeria, surveys have been conducted at 28 sites throughout the country’s forests by the World Parrot Trust and local partners since 2018. These surveys have found a steep decline in the African grey population due to continued trapping, while in other areas without trapping the population is more resilient. That’s hopeful! These surveys also help to engage local communities, building the foundation for community-based conservation at key sites, which is absolutely essential to the success of any conservation effort. Nigeria has been a leader in securing protections for the greys. However, that message has not found its way to enough traders and consumers in some regions, and enacted laws are not yet well enforced. It is a hard work in progress, and COVID has added to that challenge.

Saving Greys In the Democratic Republic Of Congo

In the DRC, while efforts to dismantle illegal trafficking networks are beginning to take effect with multiple groups of parrots seized from traders, several hundred greys are still being trapped each month. The World Parrot Trust works with local authorities and rescue centers to provide emergency veterinary care for the birds that can be saved, and to improve rehabilitation and release programs. The good news—within the last year, three Congolese veterinarians have been trained to help with seizure cases to decrease the mortality rates, and an additional rehabilitation aviary was built to receive birds from three major seizures. In November 2020, the first group was released from the rehab facility, marking a major step forward towards sustaining the African grey population in the DRC.

The key to success in both of these countries is a commitment from the local population to protect these birds as part of their heritage, preserve the forest lands needed, and find sustainable sources of income. Last fall, the DRC began making regular announcements on local radio stations to raise awareness about the plight of grey parrots, a hopeful step in the right direction.

Nigeria Okomu National Park, photo courtesy World Parrot Trust

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to a new community-based initiative to monitor and protect nests at an essential breeding area in Nigeria using newly trained and employed former parrot trappers. These sites were recently identified during surveys in coastal Nigeria. You can also help this new and important initiative. For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation, go to the World Parrot Trust website. Earmark your donation specifically for Congo African greys.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: African Greys Griffin And Athena Celebrate Their Hatchdates

April 21, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

A Very Merry (Un-)Hatchday in CovidLand….

I felt that the title was appropriate, given that (a) everyone I know feels as though they have dropped down a “rabbit hole” this year, into a place as confusing as Alice’s Wonderland, and (b) for the second year in a row we will not be having a traditional celebration for our parrots’ hatchdays. Now, I realize that marking such dates has much more to do with human behavioral practices than parrot behavior, but that doesn’t mean that our birds haven’t enjoyed the events!

Cake And Friends

Pre-COVID, we always did something special on a bird’s hatchday. Alex loved carrot cake, so we always made sure that we brought one into lab — he and the other birds would get one sliver each (sans the cream cheese frosting!) and the rest of us would heartily enjoy the remainder. Griffin’s love of apples —“banerry”— and almonds —“corknuts”— led to my lab manager finding a recipe for an incredible masterpiece made mostly of apples and almond flour. Given how much healthier her banerry-corknut cake is compared to commercial carrot cake, the birds could even have more than a sliver. And, given that Athena’s April hatchday is only three days after Griffin’s, we started having a joint celebration. Students who did not have shifts on the birds’ hatchdays would stop by the lab, which meant that many who never overlapped during the semester finally had a chance to socialize. And if we came upon some of the members of our department who were special friends of the parrots, we would invite them in, too, during the day. Given that the birds always have whatever toys they like in their cages, we never made a big deal about things like physical presents, but the way the parrots acted, it really seemed as though having a lot of the “flock” together all at the same time seemed to be a special treat of its own.

A More Intimate Gathering

The last two years, however, have been rather different. Last year, we absolutely could not have more than one person in our space at any one time. So…although we found some nice organic fruit-based bread that the birds could eat, it could be only in the presence of one person, and thanks to COVID, we also could not leave anything around for any of the humans to share. Last year was Griffin’s 25^th, and we had really been looking forward to a slightly bigger celebration than usual, but such clearly was not the case.

For this year, we thought about some kind of ZOOM event, but everyone is so totally ZOOMed-out, it seemed like it would be more of a chore than an event one would look forward to attending. However, now that about half of our skeleton crew has been fully vaccinated, we can begin to loosen up some of our restrictions, at least a wee bit. So, the birds DID get a home-baked (small!) cake that they and at least one of their human companions shared, with leftovers in the fridge. And we did take a picture and also photoshopped what we would have LIKED our party to look like, posting both the real and imagined “parties” on social media. Not ideal, but…

We are, of course, thankful that everyone in the lab — parrots and people — so far have been healthy and safe, and that there is another hatchday to celebrate. Moreover, we very much look forward to 2022, when we hope that the world will return to normal and when we can have a more traditional — and fun — time for everyone. In the meantime…stay safe!

A Rare Bird — The All-Black Chicken

April 14, 2021 by Matt Rowe

black chicken (Ayam cemani) standing in grass — Photo by Legendofgao, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nature! You’re something else. Not only are you gifted with a wide array of tools for creation, but you’re also plenty handy with colors and imagination. It doesn’t take too long to glance around us and see just how diverse the world is with its many forms of life. Shapes, functions, kind, various orientations that span the spectrum from night living to essential day creatures; from the foods eaten to the locations lived in, and colors.

Did we say colors again? Why yes, I suppose we did. Since we’re mentioning colors, let’s look at an unusual and certainly uncommon creature that differs drastically from their normal kind, and even more so from the mutation that delivers albinism in so many things. Say hello to the Ayam Cemani — or to put it more easily, the black chicken.

A Different Kind Of Chicken

The assigned designation –Ayam Cemani– divides simply into a sensible description. Ayam means “chicken” in Indonesian, while Cemani translates to “thoroughly black.” The Ayam Cemani origin is found to be in Indonesia where they have been revered for more than a few centuries. In fact, the chicken is believed to have been used for religious ceremonies–and likely other types of ceremonies as well as early as the 12^th century. What makes the Ayam Cemani chicken even more interesting is that not only are their outer appearance black, their internal organs, bones, and muscles are black as well. The only thing not black in or on an Ayam Cemani is the blood, which is found to be a normal color.

The coloration of the entire creature is a result of a genetic disorder called fibromelanosis or more simply, hyperpigmentation. The tissues of the bird are infused with excess pigmentation that impacts the entirety of the creature right through to the bones and muscles. The internal organs, tongue, beak, and well…everything else become black. This is a rare instance and because it is, these creatures are typically out of the hands of the average person. In the past, it was the rich and the powerful that kept these chickens to add more differentiation to themselves from the common people. Their rare existence contributed to a rise in cost. As always, creatures with strange but desirable abnormalities interest people, people who are willing to spend a lot to acquire a rarity in the animal kingdom.

Today, the acquisition of an Ayam Cemani is still a near impossibility, unless, of course, you have expendable cash. It is reported that a single adult Ayam Cemani is worth around $2,500 US Dollars. A chick can run around $200 each in some markets but you’re saddled with the hope they grow into the adult you want. They are equally rare because they only lay an estimated 80-100 eggs on an annual basis. Even then, there are no guarantees hens will hatch chicks because they are said to be unreliable as caring setters. The eggs they lay are cream-colored and unusually large. The males can get to 7 pounds and a female up to 5 pounds. There are breeders within the United States and other European countries who have worked to make these unique chickens more available. The Ayam Cemani is considered the rarest chicken in the world.

The Ayam Cemani creature is quite assuredly a beautiful one to look at. Way to go, nature!

Webinar: The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill: Where Are They Now?

April 13, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: Where Are They Now?

Date: Friday, May 7, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Parrot lovers were captivated by the wild, feathered cast of the 2003 documentary by Judy Irving, as well as by their co-star, Mark Bittner. Join us for a Free, live, interactive webinar with our very special guest, Mark Bittner. Mark will talk about the film and the birds, including updates on both! This is a webinar you don’t want to miss! For those who haven’t seen the movie or want to watch it again, it is still available on DVD or for viewing online through several services.

About Mark

In 1973, at the age of 21, Mark Bittner left his home in Seattle for San Francisco with two aims: he hoped to make a career in music and to unravel the mysteries of consciousness. The only unraveling that took place was his hope to have a career in music, and he ended up on the street. But he never quit his pursuit of the mysteries of consciousness. Surprisingly, a lot of the loose ends of his many-years-long study came together in 1996 when he began to feed and observe a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. Out of that experience came a book and a documentary film, both entitled “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” Mark is currently working on a book and a complementary set of music recordings about the events that led up to his time as a homeless seeker. The book is called “Street Song” and the recordings are called “Street Songs.”

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: The Picky Parrot: Teach Your Pet Bird To Eat A Healthy Diet

April 13, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: The Picky Parrot: Teach Your Pet Bird to Eat a Healthy Diet

Date: Friday, May 14, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Help! My bird refuses to eat anything healthy! My bird isn’t going to touch that food! My parrot only wants to eat junk food! If any of this sounds familiar, you don’t want to miss this free interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine with special guest Stephanie Lamb, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice). Dr. Lamb will discuss healthy foods your bird can eat, and most importantly, how to convince your bird to try new foods. Her tips and tricks will guarantee that even the pickiest parrot will be trying new foods in no time!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

April 13, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, May 21, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

World’s Oldest Wild Bird Raising Chicks At Age 70!

April 6, 2021 by Matt Rowe

Laysan albatross named Wisdom sitting on nest — Photo “Wisdom sits on her nest, November 2020. Credit: Jon Brack/Friends of Midway Atoll NWR” by USFWS – Pacific Region, CC BY-NC 2.0

If you were to ask yourself—or a wider range of people—what is the one thing you’d like in your life, it’s probably a long and healthy life. You’d probably add to that a strong and positive outlook going forward. No one would disagree with you. (If they did, it’s probably time to sit down and have an honest and clarifying talk with them, right?) As for birds, they already have the potential for long life. Meet Wisdom the Albatross, who, at 70, has several distinctions to her peers in the wild. The first is that she is the oldest bird in the wild. On top of that, she’s also the oldest banded bird in the wild.

Wisdom is a Laysan Albatross who was estimated at being hatched in 1951. Captured in 1956, she was banded by Chandler Robbins, a scientist with the US Geological Survey. (Wisdom has outlived Mr. Robbins, who died in 2017.) It’s actually possible that Wisdom could be even older, as the scientists who captured her simply estimated her age as being 5 years of age then. But 70 works well for all purposes. In her tracking, scientists have logged a full 3,000,000 miles having been flown by Wisdom since her banding.

Laying Eggs At 70!

What makes Wisdom an interesting bird these days is the fact that she has recently laid and hatched an egg, her possible 36^th in a line of successful hatchings at the old age of 70. In fact, it is stated that Wisdom has hatched an egg every year since 2006. This is unusual activity since most albatross birds take a year off between eggs. But not Wisdom. In her aging, she has likely felt the need to leave behind a legacy of family. Her latest egg was laid in late November of 2020 and hatched in February of 2021. Her mate is known as Akeakamai, who has been with Wisdom since 2012. Laysan albatrosses stay in monogamous relationships until the death of a mate force them to attach to another mate.

Wisdom has made the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge her forever home. This refuge is located at the Midway Islands, which is a part of the Hawaiian collection of islands. The Midway Atoll Refuge is part of the larger Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Wisdom may lift off and fly long treks, but she always comes back to the refuge. In 2011, a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami impacted the Atoll killing an estimated 2,000 Laysan and black-footed albatrosses. Along with the adults, an unassessed but larger amount of chick hatchlings were also destroyed in the tsunami, which swept six miles inland at a speed nearing 500 mph. Wisdom survived that onslaught of nature.

A Look At Albatrosses

The Laysan Albatross is a small bird much like a seagull in size and appearance. They are largely found in the Hawaiian Islands. They are currently classified as NT (Near Threatened) on the IUCN conservation status list. They are vulnerable to extinction due to a variety of reasons. Chief among them is lead poisoning caused by ingesting lead-based paint chips. These chips are from buildings that the birds nest near. Plans are now underway to strip those buildings and to remove the toxic paint that led to the poisoning of the young.

Wisdom is quite the enduring bird. At 70, she has proven to be resilient in many ways. For that, we can only stand in awe and cheer Wisdom for her accomplishments.

Webinar: The Grey Way: Adoption – A New Start With Lisa Bono, CPBC

March 26, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: The Grey Way: Adoption – A New Start with Lisa Bono, CPBC

Date: Friday, April 9, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a free, live interactive webinar! Lisa Bono, CPBC, owner and operator of The Platinum Parrot and a certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, presents Episode 3 of The Grey Way, a Lafeber Pet Birds Webinar Series focusing on Congo & Timneh African grey parrots as pets. Are you thinking of adoption? Concerned about the myth of a second-hand bird? Lisa will discuss how understanding the process will ensure a smooth transition and will help a bird in need get a new lease on life. Helping one bird won’t change the world, but it will change the world for that one bird.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Avian Medicine: What It Takes To Be An Avian Veterinarian

March 26, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Avian Medicine: What it Takes to be an Avian Veterinarian

Date: Friday, April 23, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

We have all seen the terms Board Certified or Avian Specialist or noticed extra credentials behind the DVM after a Veterinarian’s name. What do these mean and how do they earn these? Dr. Stephanie Lamb discusses what it takes to become an Avian Vet and the specialized equipment needed in order to examine, diagnose and treat birds. What does a Vet learn about exotics in Vet School? Why won’t my dog /cat Vet treat my birds, too? Why does my bird need to be seen by an Avian Vet? Learn the answers to these questions and more during this FREE, live interactive webinar.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Heart To Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A With Chris Davis

March 25, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A with Chris Davis

Date: Friday, April 16, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

March 25, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, April 30, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: More On Individual Differences In Parrots

March 24, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

I’ve discussed personality differences in parrots to some extent in previous entries but think that it is an important enough topic to revisit in some depth. To be perfectly clear, each bird has his or her specific personality. Like humans, some birds share certain traits and differ in others, but the combinations of all these traits are unique to an individual.

For example, all my birds have had somewhat different food preferences. Grapes are a constant favorite, but Alex would eat only purple ones…to the extent that he would throw a green one at a trainer and state, “Want grape—purple!” The other birds will eat both. For Griffin, bananas are acceptable only at a particular stage of ripeness. Griffin hates carrots in any shape or form, and (probably having learned from Alex) will throw the offending vegetable at any student hapless enough to put it in his bowl. He never much liked yam until he watched Athena gobble it down, and then warm yam became a favorite…but forget it when it gets cold.

Observational learning goes just so far, however. Athena adores Swiss chard and we bring it in whenever it is available. Griffin watches her enjoy eating this healthy green and consistently asks for it…but each time he takes a bite, he spits it out and shakes his head in what looks like disgust! We actually keep lists so as not to waste food—no sense in putting something in a bowl that will just be ignored or tossed.

Our birds also have serious differences when it comes to toys. Alex would chew on pretty much anything, as does Athena—but for Griffin, the only material that is worth shredding is paper. Griffin ignores just about any toy we put in his cage, as did Alex—but not Athena. She particularly loves her foraging toy and will preferentially forage for the same pasta that is available in a food bowl. That behavior actually inspired a student’s MA thesis—I’ll write about it once the paper is published.

Some of my birds have loved being showered—Alex would keep saying “Want shower!” until he was completely soaking wet. Athena and Griffin tolerate being showered; they both much prefer to try to take baths in their (quite large, but not quite adequate) water bowls—and both will totally ignore the presence of a more suitable container. Another bird, Kyaaro (who was in the lab only briefly, as he had ADHD and wasn’t really a suitable research subject) would bathe only if we gave him a partially water-filled plastic box (the size normally used for cat litter).

From Stranger Danger To Like At First Sight

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, they all react differently to strangers. Alex, for some reason, adored tall blond men. One theory is that he was hand-fed by someone who looked like that before I purchased him; whatever the reason, it was a clear preference. I’d hire a tall blond male student at the same time as a shorter dark-haired female (someone who even looked a bit like me), and the guy would have Alex climbing and trying to regurgitate in minutes, whereas the female would take days to earn his trust.

Griffin is wary of all strangers but does respond fairly quickly to my colleagues who have lots of experience working with nonhumans (folks who know not to stare at him immediately, to spend time talking with me first so that he sees my reaction to them as ‘safe’, and who can judge by his actions when he is ready to interact). Athena in contrast, hasn’t yet met a human whom she doesn’t like—although that doesn’t mean she won’t ignore or nip a trainer who wants her to do something SHE doesn’t find appealing at the moment.

Different Approaches For Different Birds

These personality differences also mean that we must approach training and testing somewhat differently for the different birds. Moreover, it also means that we often get different results for the different birds—and find that such individual differences might be really important when analyzing our data. My colleagues often have the same experience: Sometimes they will not see an overall effect, but then find that a subset of their birds can perform brilliantly while another subset seem to have little ability—or at least little interest—with respect to the task in question. For that reason, we all often claim that if one bird succeeds, the task is within the purview of the species. The argument is much like that for humans—not everyone is an Einstein, a Beethoven, or a Michelangelo—but we claim that humans are capable of brilliance in science, music, and art because of the masterworks of those individuals.

I don’t think that these differences in parrot personality can be attributed to male versus female behavior, given that Athena sometimes matches what Alex would do or like, and at other times matches Griffin. For the same reason, although observational learning likely plays a role in some similarities and differences, it cannot be the entire basis for their behavior patterns. The reasons for personality differences in parrots are likely a combination of the same reasons that exist in humans—an interacting mix of genetics and experiences. The main point is that we need to appreciate these individual differences, accept them, accommodate them, and not assume a ‘one size fits all’ response to the actions of our avian companions!

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: Indonesia

March 17, 2021 by Ann Brooks

A Moluccan cockatoo pair perch together in their native Indonesia. Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Parrot Project

Wild parrots need our attention and help, not just to thrive but often simply to survive. Many worthy research and conservation organizations are working hard to protect a wide diversity of parrot species. Lafeber is committed to helping. We hope you will be inspired as well. This month takes us to Indonesia.

Originally known as Project Bird Watch, The Indonesian Parrot Project (IPP) was established in 2001 by Dr. Stewart Metz and Barbara Bailey. They first visited Indonesia in 2001, and were captivated by the people, birds, and exquisite islands. That trip changed their lives and inspired them to create IPP, whose mission over the last 20 years has grown to include conservation support for several parrot species: Moluccan cockatoos, Eclectus, various other cockatoos, great-billed parrots, and lorikeets.

A salmon-crested cockatoo in Indonesia. Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Parrot Project

Dr. Metz also shared his life with China, a wild-caught Moluccan, so he was deeply inspired to shepherd conservation of this endangered species. Stewart was a personal friend and mentor, and in 2003 he told me “these marvelous creatures are my passion. They grab at one’s heartstrings and then become almost a reason for being.” If you live with a Moluccan cockatoo, also referred to as a Salmon-crested or Seram cockatoo, you know what he means!

A Complicated Landscape

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of over 17,500 islands and has a complicated geography. If a parrot is confiscated from a smuggler, it is not always clear which island that bird originated from or if it can be safely released. In addition, Indonesia is part of the Ring of Fire, and constantly subject to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and other major weather events, often making travel and communication a challenge. The work of IPP and its Indonesian counterpart, Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia (KKI), is ambitious, enterprising, and often exhausting!

cockatoos in Indonesia — Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Parrot Project

We still have so much to learn about the lives of wild parrots, especially the most endangered and vulnerable ones. IPP is supporting several scientific efforts such as genetic, census, breeding, and ecologic studies. If you live with a cockatoo or Eclectus, don’t you want to know more about how they breed, build nests, and communicate with each other; as well as what they eat and what their flock dynamics are like? For those most endangered species, like Indonesian cockatoos, it is extremely important that we ask these questions and support those organizations that can help us find those answers before it is too late.

The Indonesian Parrot Project (IPP) was established in 2001 by Dr. Stewart Metz and Barbara Bailey.

Stewart Metz, who we sadly lost in 2017, knew that the only way to staunch the tide of poaching and trapping, was to help local populations find other sources of income and work. Habitats where parrots live are also places of great poverty, so it essential to create sustainable income for the local community. Therefore, IPP helps support the forest wardens who find and track active nests. It also supports local women’s cooperatives for arts and crafts, as well as organic farming.

The love Stewart Metz had for the Moluccan cockatoos and the people of Indonesia was palpable in everything thing he said and did. He remains an inspiration to this day, and his remarkable conservation work now continues in the good hands of Executive Director Bonnie Zimmerman and the Indonesian community at large. Check out the IPP documentary.

Community pride in Indonesia — The Indonesian community shows its parrot pride. Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Parrot Project

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to the Indonesian Parrot Project. You can help too. For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation, go to: https://indonesian-parrot-project.org/ As they say in Bahasa Indonesia, “Sempai jumpa!” (Cheers!)

Prosthetic Beak Saves Injured Wild Parrot

March 11, 2021 by Matt Rowe

looking up at a white-eyed conure perched on a cord — This shows what a healthy, uninjured white-eyed conure looks like. Photo from Evelimlamaiara, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For many years, the technological ability to help repair damages to nature has been on the uptick. One of the most satisfying trends has been 3D printing of damaged and essential parts of creatures in our animal kingdom and their appendages. Some years back, a maliciously abused toucan by a teen gang in South America had its beak snapped off. It was replaced by the miracle of 3D printing. Since that event, other miracles have occurred that have enabled birds and other creatures to carry on with their lives. But as science improves so do its methods.

Parrot In Need Of A Helping Hand

Recently a white-eyed conure with a severely damaged beak was discovered in the wild and brought to a Brazil-based animal center. With the damage assessed, it was realized that the bird would have little chance of survival in the wild given the state of its beak. The beak was so severely damaged it was almost non-existent. Enter the visionaries of Renascer Acn in both the founder of the agency, Paulo Roberto Martins, and a veterinarian, Dr. Maria Ângela Panelli Marchió.

After the arrival of the parrot, the two professionals spent some time to figure what would improve the unfortunate accident to the parrot’s decimated beak. The solution was a resin creation of a beak that was affixed to the bird. The veterinarian had experience in critical situations and was essential to the restoration process. After a bit of rehabilitation, it was determined that the bird could never go back into the wild due to the possibility of the resin beak failing. The parrot was lucky once in being found and saved. It might not be so lucky a second time should the beak fail.

New Beak Offers A New Lease On Life

The parrot will reside in the home of Paulo’s Renascer ACN’s home-base with the newly assigned name of Maritaca. Currently, the facility houses around 150 birds. The facility was started back in 2017 after the rescue of a macaw parrot, who had hit a wire and was damaged. Rather than see the bird euthanized, Paulo decided to take care of the bird especially since it was known that the bird had eggs to care for. It was then that he decided to start the agency by which he now cares for many birds, including the parrot with the repaired prosthetic beak.

On average, the facility rescues about four animals a week. The facility is operated on donations, a stipend from the local government, and personal funds from the founder. As with many facilities, donations are welcomed and help to make the lives of creatures and birds better. One can easily imagine the possibility that the plight of the parrot with the damaged beak might have been unresolved if Renascer Acn were not available to provide the help it so desperately needed.

If interested, you can go to the Facebook page of Renascer Acn and watch their work unfold.

Spotting A Rare Beauty: Pied Mutation Rainbow Lorikeet

March 3, 2021 by Matt Rowe

rainbow lorikeet (pied mutation) — photo courtesy Jayde Parrey

Nature has a funny way of evolving sometimes. One of its quirks is the mutation. Mutations can come in the way of color changes, and it can also slam up against the wall with a dual-sided male/female combination. We’ve seen this dual oddity in several birds, including the Northern Cardinal. Other mutations can be found producing excessive feather growth like in the Silkie Chicken or the Feather Duster Parakeet. And while many of these kinds of genetic mutations are rare, they show up more often than we would think they could. One such mutation is a coloration abnormality referred to as a “pied mutation.”

A pied mutation is when expected color displays in areas on a bird are replaced by patches of other colors that are not expected, as well as some unusual body markings. The mutated colorations in a bird fall under three types of pied mutation – dominant, recessive, and clearflight. Of course, there are multiple types of other kinds of mutations affecting birds, but for this article, we’ll stick with the pied mutation as the subject of this writing is a recently seen beautiful abnormality. The bird is a Rainbow Lorikeet that was recently spotted in North Rothbury, a small village located in the state of New South Wales in Australia. Although the Rainbow Lorikeet is a common bird in Australia, this one was anything but common.

Spotting a Rare Beauty

New South Wales resident, Jayde Parrey, discovered this unusually colored Rainbow Lorikeet in her yard along with around 20 other normal Lorikeets. According to Jayde, the mutated bird seemed to get along nicely with the flock it was spotted with. It fed with them and did all the things a bird normally does without displayed prejudice from the other birds. Jayde has lovingly named this bird Kalyn after a rugby fullback by the name of Kayln Ponga. The headgear worn by the footballer is as colorful as the head of the bird making it an easy choice to pair the names. Jayde has managed to get several excellent photographs of Kalyn, some of which Jayde has graciously provided to us as exclusive photos.

A normal Rainbow Lorikeet has a solid green back with the front of the bird a palette of colors that led to the naming of the bird. Typically, that means an orange/yellow chest, a solid, blue-colored head, a greenish collar, and a beautiful solid blue belly. The spotted mutation (AKA Kalyn), perhaps the first of its kind spotted anywhere, has patches of different colors replacing the normal colors. The head is primarily blue but is a firework display of a mix of colors that include red and yellow. The expected collar is missing replaced by a continuation of the primarily green back. The back is patched with yellow displayed in a random patterning. The front of the lorikeet is heavily splotched with a non-patterned collection of orange, yellow, and blue. The coloration of the beak has determined Kalyn to be an adult Rainbow Lorikeet. Kalyn is nonetheless striking and is as beautiful as the normal “mates” it hangs with. Regardless, its difference to the others is striking making it an easily recognized oddity.

We like Kalyn.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Parrots And Vocal Learning

February 25, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

close up on head and shoulders of African grey parrot — Photo by rbojanssen/Pixabay

Parrots are special not only because they are vocal learners, but also because they are open-ended vocal learners, able to learn new utterances their entire lives. Of the approximately 10,000 species of birds that have been identified, a bit fewer than half, less than 5,000, learn their vocalizations. Most of these are the 4,000 songbirds—called oscines—but only a small number of these, like European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and canaries (Serinus canaria), can learn new songs throughout their lives. Hummingbirds also learn their songs but not beyond their youth.

However, of the 350 species of parrots, all that have so far been studied do so. But not all parrots can learn the vocalizations of other species, such as human speech. Vocal learning itself is quite special, found only in humans, birds, bats, marine mammals, elephants, and possibly naked-mole rats (Barker et al., 2021). What exactly does vocal learning entail, and what is responsible for this special ability?

A Look At Vocal Learning

In general, vocal learning is not simply the ability to produce sounds. Many species do so, and do so in specific instances, such as a dog’s greeting bark versus its aggressive growl. Such species, however, do not learn their vocalizations. These utterances are innately specified and will develop in the absence of any input. The vocalizer, like the vervet monkey that uses different alarm calls in various contexts (Price et al., 2015), does need to learn the appropriate contexts for specific utterances, but not the utterance itself.

Vocal learners, in contrast, need both to hear input and hear it in the appropriate context to acquire the appropriate utterances and their appropriate uses. If raised in auditory isolation, vocal learners fail to acquire any real communicative behavior (e.g., Thorpe, 1958). If we compare species that do and do not exhibit vocal learning, we find differences in their vocal tracts (the parts of an individual’s anatomy used to produce sounds) and in a number of brain areas. It is these differences that enable the individual to learn the appropriate sounds from out of everything it hears—and learning what to ignore is just as important as learning what to acquire!—what they mean, when and how to use them, and how to produce them.

Birds’ “Song Systems”

I’m not a neurobiologist and therefore cannot discuss all the details of the changes in the avian brain that allowed the oscines and parrots to learn their utterances (for anyone who is interested, several papers by Michael Farries are referenced below), but a very simplified take-home message is that the areas responsible for such behavior evolved through the reorganization of existing areas plus the development of additional pathways in areas responsible for existing behavior; the anatomical structures controlled by these pathways could then be used in multiple ways (e.g., areas and pathways that are used to control the beak and tongue for singing evolved from those used to control the beak and tongue for eating so that these structures could be used for both activities; other areas evolved for acquisition of sound patterns, etc.).

The point is that once these areas for learning existed—known as the “song system”—such vocal learning allowed birds’ vocalizations to develop in amazing ways. For example, birds of the same species were able to adjust their repertoires into dialects so as to be heard more easily in specific ecological areas, some could expand the size of their repertoires, males and females could develop different singing styles—without going into all the possible variations, vocal learning allowed for innovation and adaptation, characteristics that release communication from rigid, innately specified responses to stimuli. And, with respect to parrots, new data (Chakraborty et al., 2015) provides evidence that (a) parrot brains uniquely contain a second song system (a shell) in addition to the core song system that they share with other avian vocal learners, (b) relative size differences occur in the core and shell regions among parrot species, and (c) parrots with a greater shell/core ratio (e.g., Greys) are those that can learn other species’ vocalizations compared to others (e.g., keas) with smaller ratios that do not.

No one really knows why certain birds like parrots are open-ended learners, but some theories about parrots involve their long lives—for example, parrots engage in specific vocal duets with their mates with whom they pair for life; however, over a long life, a bird is likely to lose a mate and then must be able to develop a new duet with a new partner. Another idea is that over their long lives, birds of various flocks might need to merge—or split—and thus acquire new dialects appropriate to the area.

Why Birds Learn To “Parrot”

Mynah bird with beak open sitting on perch — Some mynah bird species have become well known for their imitative skills. Photo by PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay

Why parrots might need to be able to learn other species vocalizations is also unknown. One suggestion arises from a study of Indian Hill mynah birds (Tenaza, 1976). In India, humans set out foods in shrines that are often scavenged by monkeys; mynahs learned to reproduce the alarm calls of monkeys and used the calls to scatter monkey troops just long enough to swoop down and steal some of the food. Munn (1986) documented non-parrots that used alarm calls of other avian species to dupe them just long enough to swoop in to grab their insect prey.

Perhaps the same is true of parrots who want to grab bites of ripe fruit or nuts from other species? In the wild, African grey parrots have been documented as producing the sounds of nine different bird species and a bat (Cruickshank et al., 1992), but the authors did not suggest any reason for this behavior. Might another possibility be that a larger repertoire would make a bird a more interesting mate, because its duet would be more distinctive from those of other pairs? Or maybe it relates to the need to communicate in mixed-species flocks? Chapman et al. (1989) describe such flocks in Costa Rica but do not report any vocal behavior. In captivity, parrots generally learn human speech as a means of integrating themselves into their human “flock,” or acquire other sounds that they have observed attract the attention of their human owners.

Only further research will answer all our questions!

References

Barker, A.J., Veviurko, G., Bennett, N.C., Hart, D.W., Mograby, L., & Lewin, G.R. (2021). Cultural transmission of vocal dialect in the naked mole-rat. Science, 371, 503-507.

Chakraborty, M., Walløe, S., Nedergaard, S., Fridel, E. E., Dabelsteen, T., Pakkenberg, B., … & Jarvis, E. D. (2015). Core and shell song systems unique to the parrot brain. PLoS One, 10(6), p.e0118496.

Chapman, C.A., Chapman, L.J., & Lefebvre, L. (1989). Variability in parrot flock size: Possible functions of communal roosts. Condor, 91, 842-847.

Cruickshank, A.J., Gautier, J-P., & Chappuis, C. (1992). Vocal mimicry in wild African Grey Parrots Psittacus erithacus. Ibis, 135, 293-299.

Farries, M.A. (2001). The oscine song system considered in the context of the avian brain: lessons learned from comparative neurobiology. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 58, 80-100/

Farries, M.A. (2004). The avian song system in comparative perspective. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016, 61-76.

Munn, C.A. (1986). Parrots that ‘cry wolf”. Nature, 319, 143-145.

Price, T., Wadewitz, P., Cheney, D., Seyfarth, R., Hammerschmidt, K., and Fischer, J. (2015). Vervets revisited: A quantitative analysis of alarm call structure and context specificity. Scientific Report,5, 13220. doi: 10.1038/srep13220.

Tenaza, R.R. (1976). Wild mynahs mimic wild primates. Nature, 259, 561.

Thorpe, WH. (1958). The learning of song patterns by birds, with special reference to the song of the chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs. Ibis, 100, 535–570.

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

March 26, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, March 26, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian), will answer your questions about pet bird health, nutrition, care and behavior problems. Is your bird’s problem health related or behavioral? Are you offering the right foods to your pet bird? Ask the Vet!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Grey Parrot Anatomy Project: An Update And Relevance To All Parrot Species

March 19, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Grey Parrot Anatomy Project: An Update & Relevance to all Parrot Species

Date: Friday, March 19, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Scott Echols, DVM, DABVP(Avian Practice) is the founder of the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project and will give updates on the comprehensive study. The information gained goes beyond simply identifying anatomy and has been used to better diagnose and treat a multitude of diseases that affect pet birds. New imaging technology and future directions will be presented.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Where Do Baby Parrots Come From? A Veterinary View Of Avian Reproduction

March 12, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Where do Baby Parrots Come From? A Veterinary View of Avian Reproduction

Date: Friday, March 12, 2021

Time: 11:30 a.m. PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Whether you breed birds or have pet birds, it’s important to understand how a bird’s reproductive system works and to be aware of possible health concerns. In this webinar, Dr. Stephanie Lamb will discuss avian reproductive anatomy and physiology, as well as possible treatment strategies for related issues.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Webinar: Heart To Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A With Chris Davis

March 5, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A with Chris Davis

Date: Friday, March 5, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Show your feathered friend how much you love them by tuning in to this free webinar focused on bird behavior and the human-bird bond. Inspired by her former Bird Talk Magazine column, Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A, Chris will share a behavior case or problem and then field viewer’s behavior-related questions. Chris is a pioneer in avian behavior who has helped many bird stewards open the lines of communication and grow their bond with their feathered friends.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Lafeber’s Global Parrot Conservation Spotlight: Bolivia

February 18, 2021 by Ann Brooks

blue-and-gold macaws — Blue-and-gold macaws
photo by CLB/ José Antonio Díaz Luque

Wild parrots need our attention and help, not only to thrive but often simply to survive. Many worthy research and conservation organizations are working hard to protect a wide diversity of parrot species. Lafeber is committed to helping. We hope you will be inspired as well.

This month takes us to Bolivia, South America. The Conservación del Loro Boliviano Foundation, or CLB, (www.fclbolivia.org), is a relatively new organization. Formed in 2011, it describes itself as young, but full of life. Based in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, CLB is comprised of people with a deep conviction to the preservation of biodiversity and habitats. The Conservation Director is José Antonio Díaz Luque, who is also a conservation programs facilitator for the World Parrot Trust.

Bolivia is home to more than 2,900 animal species, including over 1,400 birds (about 14% of birds known in the world, and the sixth most diverse country in terms of bird species).^.There are 54 Psittacine species, ranging from the critically endangered red-fronted and blue-throated macaws, to a diverse number of other macaws, Amazons, conures, and Pionus species.

Bolivia has gained global attention for its “Law of the Rights of Mother Earth,” which accords nature the same rights as humans. Passed in 2010, it defines Mother Earth as “…the dynamic living system formed by the indivisible community of all life systems and living beings whom are interrelated, interdependent, and complementary, which share a common destiny.” This law recognizes the need for equilibrium, restoration, clean air and water, and, most importantly, the diversity of life. This is good news for parrots.

On the other hand, one third of the country is in the Andean mountain range and home to 20% of the world’s glaciers. This means Bolivia is particularly sensitive to climate change. We know that a change to any part of a habitat may greatly affect another, and all the ecosystems associated with it. This may leave parrots more vulnerable.

Bolivia is also home to a lush Amazon basin, as well as dry, rugged scrub filled with cacti. Parrots are indigenous to all these areas. Protecting wild parrots requires action on many fronts, and it is especially complicated given the wide diversity of habitat and life in Bolivia.

Here are some of the important things the CLB Foundation has done recently.

Rescue & Rehabilitation

blue-and-gold macaw — Blue-and-gold macaws are released in the wild.
photo by CLB/ José Antonio Díaz Luque

Birds confiscated by trappers often require medical care and rehabilitation. CLB participated in a 20 month rehabilitation effort for a group of blue-and-gold macaws, yellow-chevron parakeets, and white-eyed conures. They were successfully released back into the wild in December 2019, the first parrot release ever authorized in Bolivia. Upon observation of the birds one month later, the results were very positive!

CLB is also working with the Endangered Species Research Center (CIESA) to develop critical facilities for parrot rescue and rehabilitation. This will be the first facility on its kind Bolivia, a country where the illegal parrot trade is still a massive problem, so there is an overwhelming need for proper rehabilitation and release.

Community Outreach

Critical to conservation is an interested and committed local community. Without this support, trappers have few constraints, and habitat is destroyed. CLB knows that, and this is why it is laser focused on supporting local organizations that are leaders in conservation in their regions.

These communities promote fairs and events that not only promote conservation but also generate economic activity for the local population.

For example, CLB supported the development of the first festival for the conservation of the blue-throated macaw in the Gran Mojos Municipal Protected Area, and 50 people from the local community participated in activities such as drawing, painting, talks and a field activity to learn about the blue-throated macaw in the wild. For the red-fronted macaw, CLB supported the Jardin Cactaceas Municipal Protected Area in the development of its first fair for the endangered red-fronted macaw, where more than 60 participants were able to purchase products derived from mango fruits, liqueurs, and jams from eight producers of the communities of Anamal and Las Juntas, an important breeding region.

Involving children is especially important! The goal is to increase and maintain community pride and participation for years to come, as well as ensure new activities are created to support community development. CLB is committed to this huge effort.

Research & Publications

The Conservation Director of CLB, José Antonio Díaz Luque, was one of 11 contributing authors to the October 2019 study about the ecological reasons that parrots waste food. This study involved 103 parrot species, including 26 from Bolivia. What wild parrots eat is also an important area of research, and helps us better understand our parrots in captivity. In April 2020, he was also an active participant in a published scientific study on the critical role of blue macaws (including the hyacinth macaw) in seed dispersal in their natural environments, which shows the importance of the species in the ecosystem and the need to preserve them.

Habitat & Environmental Protection

green-wing macaw
photo by CLB/ José Antonio Díaz Luque

Protecting existing nests is essential. Equally important is expanding potential habitat areas. This often means working with private land owners to minimize habitat loss. CLB is building relationships with local ranchers to locate nests and preserve those areas on private property, as well as continuing support the protected areas team where those endangered species survive.

Lafeber’s $500 GLOBAL PARROT conservation grant this month goes to the CLB Foundation for its continued good works. There are several ways you can also help the parrots of Bolivia. Visit the CLB campaign page or make a tax-deductible donation through the World Parrot Trust (parrots.org) specifically noting it is for CLB.

Webinar: The Grey Way—African Grey Behavior

February 19, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: The Grey Way—African Grey Behavior

Date: Friday, February 19, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Lisa Bono, CPBC, owner and operator of The Platinum Parrot and a certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, presents Episode 2 of The Grey Way, a Lafeber Pet Birds Webinar Series focusing on Congo & Timneh African grey parrots as pets. This episode tackles on common behaviors and quirks exhibited by pet greys. Is this a normal behavior or a problem behavior? Learn how to recognize the difference and what to do during this free, interactive webinar.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Additional References:

https://www.facebook.com/LisaABonoParrotBehaviorConsultant/videos/743529335737790

https://www.facebook.com/LisaABonoParrotBehaviorConsultant/videos/4646222597189/

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

February 26, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, February 26, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian), will answer your questions about pet bird health, nutrition, care and behavior problems. Is your bird’s problem health related or behavioral? Are you offering the right foods to your pet bird? Ask the Vet!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Rare Snowy Owl Lands In Central Park NYC

February 11, 2021 by Matt Rowe

snowy owl with wings spread standing on post — Photo by sipa/Pixabay

One hundred years is a lot of change for Earth. From technological advances, environmental changes, prevalent thought, and evolutionary movement, a hundred years can be defining in its historical containment. As the stress of Covid isolation rages on, the interests of birdwatchers, especially those who look for rare appearances, have concentrated on the arrival of a snowy owl. Ok. No big deal, right? Well, this one is, as it’s the first documented sighting of the snowy owl in New York’s City’s famed Central Park since 1890. That’s well over 100 years of history and change for the park and the city between sightings.

Spotting A Rarity

The snowy owl arrived in the park on January 27, 2021. The popular twitter account, @birdcentralpark, run by noted birder, David Barrett (with a verified follower base of 4,200 birders), alerted readers to the arrival of the raptor at around 10:30 am. In little time, the park had more than 100 onlookers catching sight of a probable ‘once in a lifetime’ viewing of the majestic bird. The party of viewers were respectful but were policed by the New York City Urban Park Rangers. Dogs were leashed and not allowed to disturb the bird as it stayed behind a fenced location of baseball fields at the Park’s Northern Meadow field. During the stay, the owl contended with a few crows, and a hawk, all displeased with its arrival. By 6:30 pm the snowy owl had lifted wings and flown away. The extended stay charmed the masses and gave plenty of opportunity for rare photos, a chance to educate themselves, and a lucky spot to watching an owl out of the ordinary for the spot.

A Snow Bird

The snowy owl is a bird of the Arctic region where it spends its summers. It is migratory, which leads it to other locations primarily found in Canada and the upper regions of the US. There are some that find their way to Siberia. But with the changes in the weathering of the environment, these magnificent birds have changed their patterns as noticed by the unusual arrival of the snowy owl in Central Park.

The snowy owl is a large creature with a wingspan that can reach over 5 feet in the male and a maximum of 6 feet for the female. The male can be measured as large as 25 inches in length while the female can be slightly larger, measuring 28 inches in length. Make no mistake, these raptors are quite sizeable and can be intimidating. They are nocturnal hunters of prey and are carnivorous, often eating their catch whole.

They are listed as Vulnerable, which is the first stage in the Threatened category of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). There are approximately 28,000 mature Snowy Owls in existence (not counting juveniles) with a decreasing trend attributed to global warming. The lifespan of a Snowy Owl is approximately 8 years in length. You can review pertinent conservation data of the Snowy Owl at the IUCN site (here).

The snowy owl that graced the stage for the NYC Central Park birdwatchers is considered to be a juvenile. It is suggested that the dark bars on the wings indicate its youthful status. Regardless, this sighting will be a warm memory for the few that were able to see the grand creature.
The @birdcentralpark Twitter account posted this video of the snowy owl.

Webinar: Heart To Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A With Chris Davis

February 12, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Heart to Heart: Pet Bird Behavior Q&A with Chris Davis

Date: Friday, February 12, 2021

Time: 12:00 p.m. PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

“Twitching” Is Bird Watching At Its Extreme

February 4, 2021 by Matt Rowe

close up on man holding binoculars up to eyes — Photo by Forest Simon/Unsplash

Let’s face it. We love our birds. We love them in the wild where we can watch them being completely themselves uninterrupted by anything other than being aware of preying species. And we certainly wouldn’t be here if we didn’t love exotic birds in our care. Every color, every revelation of intelligence, and every sighting makes our pulse quicken in ways that other seemingly mundane world views do not. (Do you get excited over a traffic jam, messy roadways, and other unsightly or unwanted visual stimuli? I thought not.) Birds are in our everyday life in so many ways. If you’re one of the lucky ones who care for a winged friend, then this is even more accentuated.

There are a group of extraordinary people that take birding (watching them in the wild as a hobby) to an even greater extreme. They count the ability as a tremendous gift made freely available to them. Some go to great lengths to catch sight of a bird that is rare to the human eye. There is a developed term for these birdwatchers. It’s called “twitching.” Yeah, I know. Me, too! I was pleasantly surprised to discover such a term and behavior, but it exists. And it is a noun used to describe an obsessive compulsion to travel great distances to find otherwise rare birds, birds that would not normally be seen in a natural setting.

What’s With The Twitch?

jay perched on snow-covered branch outdoors — Photo by TomaszProszek/Unsplash

Twitching is a revered application of an assigned phrase to describe those who are extreme birdwatchers. As the story goes, the term derives from a story of two British bird fans from the ’50s who used motor bikes to travel from location to location just to catch sight of a bird they have not seen. Cold weather did not deter these two UK fans in preventing them from an immersive experience.

As the weather grew even colder, the two would shiver on their bikes – or “twitch.” The term stuck and is now used worldwide to describe those who stop at nothing to catch sight of a rare bird found in a discovered location. If you were to look on the internet for the origin of twitching, you’re more likely to discover that the term is attached to Howard Medhurst, an avid British birdwatcher. He exhibited a twitchy motion as part of his normal behavior pattern. He would travel great distances to catch sight of a bird, all at the drop of a hat. That makes twitching a more revered and honorary designation for a person who is super-indulging in an acquired and compulsive habit of birdwatching.

Extreme Birding

Today, to “twitch” means to stop at nothing to catch sight of any bird. No expense is spared, no location too far, and no means are too difficult if it will present a wonderful view of a bird that few are lucky to see in the wild. Recently, a surge of twitchers flocked (sorry) to a location in Maryland at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Park to catch sight of an unusual appearance of a Painted Bunting. The bird is explained to be too far north for its normal movement, but this one out of place bird captured the fancy of every avid birder–or twitcher worldwide to catch sight of this beautiful bird away from its normal range. This sighting caused entry snarls to the park and was the place to be for lovers of birds. Armed with cameras–some quite expensive–twitchers from all over shivered in the cold weather simply to snap a lasting photo.

Twitchers go the extra mile for everything simply to tick a rare bird sighting off a meticulously compiled list. Simply put, a twitcher is the most avid, the most enthusiastic of all birdwatchers…or more likely, bird-chasers.

Do you twitch?

Webinar: Love Is In The Air: Am I Sending My Parrot The Wrong Signals?

February 5, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Love is in the Air: Am I Sending My Parrot the Wrong Signals?

Date: Friday, February 5, 2021

Time: 11:30 am PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Dr. Lamb February 5 webinar

Dr. Stephanie Lamb will discuss the signals we send to our birds that can actually be hormonal triggers. This can include body language, physical contact or even how we house them or the environment we provide. Can foods be a trigger? Are any of the toys or enrichment items a trigger? What is the possible harm to my bird or how can triggering my bird’s hormones affect his or her behavior? Learn the answers to these questions and more during this free, interactive webinar.

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Some Parrots Dislike Uncertainty And Novelty

January 28, 2021 by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.

African grey parrot sitting and looking downward with head tilted to side — Photo by Hannah Dickens/Unsplash

Nonhumans run the gamut in terms of where they land on a scale of neophobia (dislike of novelty) and neophilia (attraction to novelty), and birds are no exceptions. Some birds that one might expect to be very “bold” because of their size and overall behavior patterns, like ravens, are actually quite neophobic. My colleagues who work with ravens say that it may take several months before a raven will explore a new apparatus placed in their enclosure (Bugnyar, pers. comm.), and when I’ve visited their large aviaries in Austria, just my appearance sends the ravens to their furthermost perches. Urban crows, in contrast, although still skittish, are much more exploratory (Greggor et al., 2016).

Parrots: Curious or Skittish?

Different parrot species also respond differently. As soon as I entered the kea aviary, a short walk from that of the ravens, half a dozen parrots landed on or near me, and I was glad that I had removed all my jewelry and covered the buttons on my shirt with a zippered hoodie; I had to chase them from my hair clips, which they viewed as a new toy. Goffin’s cockatoos responded similarly; in fact, one was quicker than the keas and made off with a hair clip! In contrast, African greys and most Amazon parrots, although not nearly as neophobic as ravens, often take a while to accept novelty of any sort.

Goffin's cockatoo sitting on branch — Goffin’s cockatoos are more inclined to exhibit neophilia (attraction to novelty). Photo by RoyBuri/Pixabay

Not surprisingly, parrot neophilia/neophobia has been the subject of several research studies. Mettke-Hoffman and colleagues (2002) argue that neophobia and exploratory tendencies in parrots are related to the costs (e.g., predation risk, risk of eating noxious food) and benefits (e.g., finding unexploited foraging sites, nest sites, or mates) of engaging in exploration, and that species that must deal with highly variable environments in nature tend to be less neophobic. Fox and Millam (2007) also found, at least for orange-winged Amazon parrots, that early exposure to various toys and other objects decreased—though did not eliminate—the neophobia that normally develops with age. The bottom line for our feathered companions seems to be that we need to start early when introducing novelty and, in later life, give them plenty of time to adapt to new items.

From my experience in Austria, I learned that neophobia involves people as well as objects. I’ve often been told that greys are “one-person” parrots—but all my birds, from the time they entered my lab (from 7.5 weeks to ~1 yr) were exposed to multiple people on a daily basis, including students who rotated in and out each year. I think that is why all of my students have always been able to handle all of my birds. That doesn’t mean that birds and students don’t have favorites (they do; Griffin will always be a momma’s boy), but it does mean that, with very few exceptions, my parrots work with everyone in the lab.

It may take a student several weeks to gain the trust of a particular bird, and my birds definitely recognize someone with experience in handling animals (Griffin, who is wary of strangers, immediately climbed up for Frans de Waal, a famous primatologist, and for Thomas Bugnyar, the raven researcher mentioned above), but in 40-plus years I’ve had to let go only one student who couldn’t handle the parrots.

Sticklers To Schedules

Interestingly, I’ve found that more than anything else my greys dislike changes in their daily schedule. They seem to have an internal clock that tells them when it is time for lunch and dinner, and object to any alterations. If I lose track of time (when writing this blog, for example!), and it gets close to dinner time, both Griffin and Athena start squawking. Alex would specifically call out “Want GRAIN!”

They also really get cranky when we have to change the trainers’ schedules every semester (because of class schedule changes) and between semesters, when several students usually take vacation time. Even when the birds normally get along really well with a student, if she covers for another trainer during a particular shift, both birds will often refuse to comply with her requests. And, because my birds seem to understand numbers, and I tell them how many days I’ll be gone when I have to go to a conference, they seem very upset if my flight is cancelled and I am not back when promised! I’m often greeted with pile of chewed-off feathers on my return, to let me know in no uncertain terms how inappropriate my behavior has been. I believe that some of this behavior goes back to the subject of the previous blog, trust. Because captive parrots depend on humans for basics, they have to be able to trust that we will always be present for them….thus, if they think we are letting them down…

Furthermore, being suspicious of change is one way to ensure that their environment is benign (hey, that misplaced rock could be evidence that a predator is near!); when living in our homes, they also have to trust that we will keep their surroundings safe. Therefore change must be introduced gradually. Interestingly, I’ve learned that if my students and I play with a toy, show the bird how it works, even act as though it is our toy and something the parrot shouldn’t have…well, that will likely spark a lot of curiosity!

It is also obvious to me that each parrot has his or her own personality, and broad generalizations don’t always apply. Griffin and Athena couldn’t be more different. At 7 years old, Athena acts like a chick. She adores new people and if a new toy has any similarity to an old one, I can barely hang it in her cage before she investigates. None of my other African greys were quite so inquisitive after reaching maturity, and Griffin is particularly wary of strangers.

In sum, as I’ve said before, we must really be attuned to our feathered friends. Each bird, just like each of our human friends, has a different personality, with different interests, needs, wants, and preferences. They may each have different favored foods, toys, perches, etc. Being aware of these differences, particularly their tolerance for change, will improve everyone’s lives!

References

Fox, R.A, & Millam, J.R. (2007). Novelty and individual differences influence neophobia in orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica). Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 104, 107-115

Greggor, A., Clayton, N., Fulford, A., & Thorton, A. (2016). Street smart: faster approach toward litter in urban areas by highly neophobic corvids and less fearful birds. Animal Behaviour, 117, 123-133.

Mettke-Hofman, C, Winkler H., & Leisler, B. (2002). The significance of ecological factors in exploration and neophobia in parrots. Ethology, 108, 249-72.

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A With Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

January 29, 2021 by lafebercares

Webinar: Ask The Vet: Q&A with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian)

Date: Friday, January 29, 2021

Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)

Join us for a live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian), will answer your questions about pet bird health, nutrition, care and behavior problems. Is your bird’s problem health related or behavioral? Are you offering the right foods to your pet bird? Ask the Vet!

Missed our webinar? No problem! You can access the webinar in its entirety here:

Starling Murmurations: A Sight To Behold

January 21, 2021 by Matt Rowe

The visual beauty of nature always seems to capture our imagination in unexpected ways. Whether that might be the stunning colors and natural attributes of a bird in your backyard (cardinals, jays, hummingbirds, and buntings to name a few), the displays of affection by creatures, or even the beautiful flight of exotic birds in exotic locales, nature never ceases to draw a gasp when it runs into your field of vision.

One of the more amazing displays of nature and physics are the murmuration clouds of starlings. If you’ve seen one, then you already understand the awe of the display as hundreds of birds navigate with precision to fly in concert with each other.

Recently, a massive gathering of starlings delighted crowds in San Rafael, CA. It is said that thousands upon thousands of the European Starlings have gathered in locations and have commenced to provide artistic displays of their murmuration phenomenon. It is reported that the birds begin their show like clockwork at around 4:30 pm – 5:00 pm. They mesmerize gathering crowds as they arrive to take in the sight. The birds have done this for several weeks. Watchers have been incredibly touched and say that the “show” appears to be undertaken by “a million” birds.

Murmurations Explained

murmuration of birds over a wood dock in ocean — Photo by Hamish Duncan/Unsplash

What are murmurations? It is thought that the starlings undertake this procedure as means to keep warm in colder climes. It is also thought that it is a defensive maneuver that is evolutionarily designed to thwart the precision of predators making it nearly impossible to zero in on any one bird in the swarm. There are amazing physics involved in this procedure. (If you have seen this particular display in San Rafael, please leave a comment, or better, a photo.) Dusk in San Rafael will never look the same for the onlookers who took time to watch this new display of their current Starling residents once the birds move on, as they usually do.

The Art Of Murmurations

Photographer Søren Solkær, who who hails from Denmark, is known for his photography of the famous and popular. He has changed his focus to the capture of starling murmurations. And his photos are incredible. His newfound interest over the last few years have led him to capture some of the most important views of murmurations in an artistic manner. He states, “starlings move as one unified organism…”, which poetically describes the visual treat the birds supply.

Solkær began a project of photographing starling murmurations back in 2017, calling his project Black Sun. With a group of photographs, many of them ethereal and inspiring in their viewing, he has created beautiful and unforgettable scenes of unique murmurations. He has referred to these individual scenes as “…an ink drawing or a calligraphic brush stroke…” A look at the many photographs in his growing collection for Black Sun will underscore just what he means by his assessment of the natural display. You can look at the photographs of his developing Black Sun project here. We have hope that the photographs for Black Sun will eventually make their way into a published book.

Hopefully you have already witnessed the grace of a murmuration, which means a close collection of starlings in one place. If not, I sincerely hope you are able to in your lifetime. They are as wonderful to behold as the clear night sky, and a colorful display of auroras.

Parrots Dislike Trickery Too!

Assessing Lovebird Populations

Unique Kakapo Parrot Is A Unique Lego

Order A Kakapo Parrot Now

Hard To Stop A Clever ‘Too!

Recovery Efforts Offer Hope

Old Man

Scarlets: Ageless Beauties

Parrots’ Opinions on “Fresh” Produce

Accommodating Individual Meal Preferences

A Feathered Inspiration

Feathered Focus

Seeing What Was Unseen

A Newfound Passion

Making Birding More Accessible

Kea Parrots Look For A Place To Chill

Room With A Unique View

Mutual Exclusivity in Children

A Parrot’s Grasp of Mutual Exclusivity

References

Birds Got Game

Looking For Romeo?

Reintroducing Macaws In Rio

Instituto Arara Azul (Hyacinth Macaw Institute)

Fire In The Pantanal!

Everyone Likes Rewards

Powerful Positive Book

Lights Out

Building Bird-Friendly Habitats

Greys In Peril

Surveying Greys In Nigeria

Saving Greys In the Democratic Republic Of Congo

A Very Merry (Un-)Hatchday in CovidLand….

Cake And Friends

A More Intimate Gathering

A Different Kind Of Chicken

About Mark

Laying Eggs At 70!

A Look At Albatrosses

From Stranger Danger To Like At First Sight

Different Approaches For Different Birds

A Complicated Landscape

Parrot In Need Of A Helping Hand

New Beak Offers A New Lease On Life

Spotting a Rare Beauty

A Look At Vocal Learning

Birds’ “Song Systems”

Why Birds Learn To “Parrot”

Rescue & Rehabilitation

Community Outreach

Research & Publications

Habitat & Environmental Protection

Spotting A Rarity

A Snow Bird

What’s With The Twitch?

Extreme Birding

Parrots: Curious or Skittish?

Sticklers To Schedules

Murmurations Explained

The Art Of Murmurations

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