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As we approached the July 4^th holiday, with all the accompanying fireworks, some of my newer Research Assistants (RAs) asked me how we were going to prepare for what they expected to be Griffin’s fear reactions to so many loud, unexpected noises. I reassured them that Griffin would not be bothered much at all. I can’t claim that all parrots, or even that all Grey parrots are unaffected, but we’ve never noticed any strong reactions from our birds. Importantly, we have cameras on them to observe their night-time behavior, so we know this is the case. In the Boston area, we also have fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and, again, have never noticed more than a brief awakening with a fairly quick return to rest.

We have no idea why they are so calm. One thought is that the fireworks might sound a bit like a somewhat far-away thunderstorm. Keep in mind, they are never all that close to the epicenter of the explosions, so it might simply be a recognition of the distance involved. If that were the case, they’ve learned that they are always safe in such situations, and not to be alarmed.

Why Fireworks Don’t Scare Griffin, But Lawn Mowers Do

However, they do respond intensely to other relatively rare but unpleasant sounds. In two of the apartments we’ve inhabited since leaving the lab at Harvard, we have been on the ground floor, which means the birds hear lawn mowers. Fortunately, the noises don’t persist for all that long, but Griffin really freaks out. Maybe it is because it is something he’s experienced only later in life, or maybe there is a particular “sound signature” to the motor that he finds particularly unpleasant, but he is definitely not a happy camper. We have to work hard to calm him down, sometimes actually holding him close to our chest, as we did when he was a chick (see Figure).

In contrast, other sounds barely register. Although he doesn’t much care for the nightly sound of our vacuum cleaner, that noise has been a constant in his life, and he doesn’t respond with anything near the level of fear saved for the lawn mower…he gives the vacuum what we call the “stink eye” and resumes whatever he is he had been doing. Street cleaning machines and garbage removal trucks don’t seem to be nearly as disturbing as a lawn mower—maybe because they are further away from the windows and are quickly gone? He might briefly startle at those sounds, but then shrugs them off. But even the sight of a now-quiet lawn mower sends him into a bit of a frenzy…

I discuss this topic because we really do need to be aware of the effects of sounds on our feathered companions. Although the peak of their hearing range overlaps ours, their hearing is much more sensitive at higher frequencies, and sounds we simply don’t hear could be annoying or downright disturbing to them. And sometimes we are totally oblivious, as was the case described to me by my close friend and colleague Chris Davis.

Chris had been called in by a parrot owner because her bird had suddenly started to pluck extensively. Chris interviewed the owner, who claimed that the bird’s diet had not changed, that there were no new people in the house, that the daily schedule was the same as ever, and that even the inter-personal relationship among the household members had not changed. Chris was quite perplexed, when all of a sudden she heard some extremely loud ‘bongs’ from a grandfather clock in the entryway. “And how long ago did you install the clock?” queried Chris. “And how long after did your bird start plucking?” “And does the clock chime all night?” I’m sure you can figure out the answers to these questions!

I’m also reminded of a case described by another colleague, who was trying to design appropriate ‘soundscapes’ for bird enclosures at a zoo. When she reviewed the literature, she found just how careful one would have to be: In one instance, the chosen material, which was supposed to be a completely naturalistic, calming, enrichment experience inadvertently contained alarm calls to which the birds never habituated (Kleinberger, 2020). Needless to say, the effects were not as positive as expected.

So, the bottom line is that we need to be conscious of all of the input received by the birds that inhabit spaces with us. It is quite possible that your particular bird really does share your love of heavy metal bands, but maybe you should pay some attention to their reactions before blaring your preferred music in an enclosed area!

References

Kleinberger, R. (2020). Vocal connection rethinking the voice as a medium for personal, interpersonal, and interspecies understanding (PhD dissertation). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A few years ago, I wrote about my intention to connect to my parrots via video calls while I travelled. I realize now that I never followed up on what has turned out to be a very effective way of keeping in touch when I’m not in town.

Fortunately, I don’t travel quite as much now. When I turned 75, I decided that the three-trips-per-month schedule of my life had to change, and now I’m generally down to one trip a month (although there are exceptions, given that I don’t have any control in scheduling conferences). Even so, I’m gone from the lab more than I would like, and although there is a small army of research associates catering to his every need in my absence, making sure that Griffin knows he isn’t being abandoned by me is high on my list of priorities.

The ease of calling, of course, depends on where I am…When I’m in the US, arranging for a call generally isn’t much of an issue. I can always take a short break, wherever I am, with at most a three-hour time differential…so making sure that I call before Griffin’s 8pm bedtime is almost never a problem. When I am in places like Dubai, with an 8 hour time difference, or Japan, with a 13-hour time difference (and, of course, international dateline problems), things get a LOT trickier—there are only very short time windows in which to make a call. I’ve found myself calling using an internet “hot spot” from a colleague’s car on occasion! (Of course, they’ve really enjoyed seeing Griffin, too!)

Phoning Home

As I mentioned in the earlier blog, we are not exactly sure what Griffin observes over the video. Parrots see in the ultraviolet, and cell phone cameras are optimized for human vision. People’s faces probably have little or no UV components—unlike parrot feathers—so probably he does see a reasonable replica of me on the screen. We aren’t even sure how well he can hear and recognize my voice. Maybe it is just that I’m the only one who engages video calls with him, so he has associated the sounds from the phone with me. Nevertheless, he always bends down to touch the screen to give me ‘kisses’. In any case, he seems to find the experience as something positive and absolutely not aversive, and I definitely like to see how he is looking in my absence. He’s also learned not to request ‘tickle’ from the phone, thus he understands something about my not really being present.

So, is a phone call a good substitute for my presence? Not really…When I am in town, Griffin will spend at least an hour a day on my hand, getting tickles and preening himself; we spend additional time together in sessions; and while he eats his afternoon birdy snacks, he likes to have me nearby, eating my human snacks (things like carrots, which he absolutely hates—so no sharing!). None of those things can be replaced by 10 minutes on a phone. But is a video call better than nothing?….For sure.

When I return from a trip after calling, I am much less likely to receive the ‘cold wing’ treatment, and if he does ignore me at first, he engages in such behavior for a much shorter time period. Thus, while traveling, I am very likely to schedule my day around a short window in which I can ‘phone home’. Even when such scheduling is truly difficult, I remind myself how much I both appreciated and disliked ZOOM calls with friends and family during COVID: Nothing could replace a real hug, but sharing news and seeing the faces of loved ones certainly made life a bit less miserable!

My career as a scientist has been incredibly rewarding. Mostly because of the chance to discover new information and to share it with anyone and everyone interested. And this last part means that I travel a lot to give colloquia and attend conferences all over the U.S. and the world. Although it sounds rather glamorous, most times all I see of some exotic place is the airport, the hotel, the conference center, and, maybe if I’m lucky, a local restaurant for dinner one night; I have to be back in the lab without time for sightseeing.

Then there’s the sleep deprivation and almost constant jet lag. And I’ve had my share of negative experiences: having to travel to Sweden just days after 9/11; being stranded in Heathrow en route to Berlin after a bomb scare and another time due to awful weather; being in New Orleans during a horrific hurricane (though not Katrina-level, still one that caused widespread flooding for ~24 hrs). There was an extra week in the Netherlands after the Icelandic volcano stopped all air traffic, and, of course, the usual craziness caused by missed connections (like arriving at a conference just in time for my talk, with almost no sleep and in the clothes I wore to the banquet the night before, after a very delayed red-eye). But, I have to say, being in a war zone was never on my bucket list…and that’s where I find myself now thanks to the new Gulf War.

So, to dispel any remaining glamour associated with business travel: I arrived in Dubai on February 21st to do a study on falcons, a continuation of the work from last year. We got some terrific data from some of the birds and were very excited! We made some tentative plans for me to return next year, and were thinking of how the study would proceed (yes, that is the good part!)…And then my colleague took me to the airport on February 28th…

Let me start by saying that I’m currently safe, and that is the most important thing, but the past few days have not been easy. The first day, I stayed with my colleague, and the blowback from several missile interceptions rocked his house and rattled the windows! Another colleague found a website that said that the UAE would cover all hotel and food for those stranded, so we figured I should move to a safer area. (Turns out that the offer seems to be only for those flying Emirates, which I’m not, but that’s another story.) Anyway, I’m now in a hotel near the airport, so that when flights do take off, I’ll be ready to go!

From Dubai, With Uncertainty

But for now, I’m stuck. This past Tuesday and again on Friday (tomorrow, as I write this on March 5th), I’ll continue the falcon work for which I came here, so that is good. But basically, I am sitting in my hotel room, trying to do a bit of work. Unfortunately, I am too distracted to think clearly to do anything really useful (I’ve tried to read some journal articles, and keep re-reading the same paragraph!). There is a mini-mall next door, so I can get food and fill my prescriptions (thankfully, the UAE is pretty good about selling stuff like allergy and blood-pressure pills without a prescription). I have the BBC running in the background to get the news.

I’ve tried contacting the State Department, and they will do nothing. (I was on hold for 20 mins; between calls like that and those to American Airlines for almost daily rebookings as flight after flight gets cancelled, I’ve been told my cell phone bill is now over $500). I filled out all sorts of forms in case they ever figure anything out. The airport in Dubai is now open, but with limited flights, and these are pretty much only by Emirates and FlyDubai (I’m on Qatar Airlines, which is part of British Air/American Airlines, who have cancelled all flights from Dubai).

Emirates is totally booked for weeks, and I have no “clout” there. I have the highest rank on American Airlines, so that gives me priority on Qatar, but they have to be allowed to fly, and Doha airspace is still closed…and I just saw that they are evacuating residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha, so who knows if they will re-open air space anytime soon? Now, the earliest I will be able to leave is March 8th (fingers X’D). They have already cancelled the morning flight out on the 7th, not yet cancelled the evening one, but it doesn’t look good. I feel a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz… “There’s no place like home…”

For those of you who do not follow us on Facebook, this is likely the first news you may have of Athena’s passing. She left us on September 11th while undergoing a procedure at her veterinarian’s practice. She was only 12 years old, and her passing was quite a shock. A necropsy showed that her death was caused by a congenital problem—hypercholesterolemia—which, unfortunately, is not all that rare in African grey parrots.

Hypercholesterolemia is an inability to appropriately process lipids in the diet and is hereditary. Like humans with the condition, her arteries were badly blocked (~90% in some cases), and she could not have lived very much longer. We took some comfort that her death did happen while under a veterinarian’s care—she received “birdie CPR” and other life-saving treatments—so that we knew that everything possible had been done to save her. It would have been even more traumatic had she passed away while in the laboratory.

With respect to the medical issue: Not too long after Athena passed, I attended the annual AAV (Association of Avian Veterinarians) meeting, where they had a long session solely on this problem in pet parrots. It seems to be more prevalent in African grey parrots, but it does occur in many other species. It turns out that, if the disease is suspected, it is not too difficult to diagnose from a CT scan. The problem, however, is that not all that much can be done after a diagnosis. The drugs used in humans have very little effect on parrots, and some veterinarians told me that they are losing Greys at extremely young ages…like 4 years old.

The researchers did find a correlation between the life spans of the affected birds and their diets. So (interestingly!), just like humans, those whose diets had a healthier balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fats seemed to survive the longest. If you are wondering, that means far fewer sunflower seeds and more flaxseeds. I was told that the reason Athena lived so long was because of the excellent care she had received.

Smart, Sassy, and So Very Loved

But knowing all of this does not fill the hole in our hearts that Athena has left. She was a very big presence in all the lives of those with whom she interacted. She always made it clear that she wanted to be the center of attention, much to Griffin’s chagrin. She would make us laugh with her antics; her water bowl picture (below) was classic. She didn’t always want to engage in experiments, and we would joke that her theme song should be “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” But when she did work, she would focus intently. She was incredibly smart and often used her intelligence to undermine us.

I’ll never forget how she hoodwinked us one day when she wanted to chew the buttons on a research assistant’s (RA) shirt. Athena asked to go “Shoulder,” where she started to preen, and then surreptitiously approached the collar button. We scolded her, removed her from the shoulder, and gave her a brief time-out. She then requested “Shoulder” again, and the same scenario played out several times in a row. Finally, after being put on the RA’s shoulder, she asked for “Ring”—a favored plastic chew toy, with which she began interacting. We were so pleased…until we looked up to find that she had carefully placed the ring around the button and had started chewing on the object of her desire.

She was very popular with visitors to the lab and had no fear of strangers, probably because once she climbed onto the hand of someone new, she became the focus of their attention and could probably con them into playing one of her favorite games by saying “Up”, she would ask them to lift her high enough so she could tap her beak to the ceiling. (Why that entranced her so, we never knew…but it was definitely something she clearly enjoyed.)

Life in the lab goes on, and eventually the ragged edges of that Athena-sized hole in our hearts will smooth over; memories of her will bring smiles rather than tears. Griffin definitely does his part, keeping us focused with his constant demands of ‘tickle’ or requests to engage in experiments so he can obtain his daily ratio of rewards….But we will never forget Athena and how much she enriched our lives.