Are all pet birds playful and full of personality like these ones?

I have never owned a bird so I am not familiar with their behavior.

>> ^critical_d:

Are all pet birds playful and full of personality like these ones?
I have never owned a bird so I am not familiar with their behavior.


Definitely not. We had parrots growing up and while they could be friendly, I never saw any of them act as much like a kitten/puppy as these seem to do. They were nice enough mind you, but they just didn't seem to care to "play" like this.

Enzo, I'll distract her. You get the door.

Aww, what cute little feathery dinos!

For the last 20 or so years, my family has owned a yellow-naped Green Amazon parrot. He's finicky, and very territorial around his cage. He's quite a bit larger than these Caiques, but smaller than a Macaw. When we let him out of his cage, he's not nearly this... playful. He usually just wants to hide in a corner until he feels safe enough to explore. If you handle while they're still very young, then they can be this playful. It really depends on how their raised.

In general, social animals, that is to say, animals that flock or group with animals from the same or even similar species (the birds on Telegraph Hill in SF come to mind, they're not a homogeneous flock) tend to make better pets than animals that lead solitary lives in the wild (cats, reptiles, etc). They tend to have a more defined personality, and have more capability to read social cues and take training.

The things is, birds know they're fragile - most of their bones are only paper-thin. So they posture up, get defensive and territorial around their cages. To train them, you usually have to take them out of their place of power, that is, their cage, to another space that they don't have as much familiarity or control.

The Amazon my family has kept for 20 years, as I said, is very finicky. But 20 years of trust built up has made him a little more friendly to me, at least. He tolerates my mom, and used to be outright hostile to my dad (the bird would kick grit from the bottom of his cage at him, lunge to bite at him if he got close to his cage. But I'm the only one he'll let pet him on a consistent basis, and even then, if he's in a mood he might lunge at me. He also hasn't had much training at all, and to handle him by hand is to risk getting bit HARD. No one else in the family has attempted it, and I usually get bit in the process His jaws put out a LOT of force. Usually he tries to play with my earrings or hair, but winds up chomping my ear or scalp. I don't hold it against him, he's probably trying to figure out how to climb to the top of my head. If you want to handle animals, you have to accept that getting bit or scratched will be an inevitability.

My wife's family took care of a Grey Amazon that found his way to their home about 20 years ago. You could say the bird adopted them. One of his legs was busted - he likely broke it himself to break free of what chained him down, and he still managed to fly away with clipped wings. Most birds keep their beak ground and well-kept, but he let his beak over-grow, curving to one side of his upper beak and hooking upwards in a manner that looked threatening. His cage was left open frequently so he could bop around, but usually he'd just want to climb up someone's leg all the way up to their shoulders. He was very rough around the edges, likely because of the constant pain of a disfigured leg, but eventually warmed up to me and let me scratch his head. He passed away a couple years ago, around Christmas time. He is missed.

PWE Parrot Wrestling Entertainment