SunnyBird

Hey you guys - ganging up on Salsa like that. I ought a fly over there for a male to male talkin' to.... You can't treat my emerald like that! Anyhow, I'm really glad you're goin' strong - Salsa you keep lookin' out for Spock. He's a good bird even though he's a pain in the tail feathers at times!

I'm so pleased to post happy hatchday congratulations for Sunshine my sweet yellow crowned amazon baby boy. While we were having the hatchday party we also remembered and honored Alex our CAG who never made it to his first birthday. Today Sunny ate as many sunflower seeds as he wanted, got scrambled eggs, mango juice and tore up a whole lot of cardboard. We had a blueberry pie with a candle on it, all he wanted was the whipped cream on top. Happy Birthday, Sunny Boy. Thanks for being part of my life. Yours truly, Renate

Hey what's all this? You mean I'm going to be on a learning curve again? AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH Oh well. If those greys can do it the greenies sure can! Sunshine and Renate PS What happened to my karma?

My husband just bought a laser pen light which zaps them on contact - we are looking forward to target practice....at 3 a.m. zzzzzzzzzzzz

I just got this pile of post notification emails..... like a tsunami. I just started looking at them randomly and linked to this topic which I had forgotten about. Jill you're so funny! Next time you will need to go out and have your picnic right after it rains if you want to save some worms who want to be saved! They are the ones that come out of the ground at that time to avoid drowning! (Of course you might have to wait until they have finished a "chance encounter"). <br><br>Post edited by: SunnyBird, at: 2010/04/08 15:43

Hi. I have a pack-o-bird which I got for Christmas. I use it in the car when we are traveling (but on long trips I also let him out of it and he sits on the headrest while I'm driving. If he gets fidgety I put him back inside. He definitely feels a bit squeezed for space but I think that the ease of transport and the things he can see and participate in are so enriching that it's worth it. I have not gone hiking with it on my back yet, I will do that too however. Meantime I have been harness training him which is much better of course, but he tends to chew on it too much - we will see in the long run if it works out. Unless you intend to take him out for walks and you need the ease of transport which the backpack certainly gives you, you can rig up a dog carrier very nicely with a natural perch and cups. You will probably save a lot of money too. I wanted the backpack because I need to carry him for distances with my hands free when I go to our country trailer and it's raining. (Can't reach the property by car in the rain.) About going to the beach - I will certainly take Sunny to the beach but I will be sure to find a shady spot. I don't know if an umbrella is sufficient. I have not done it before but it will be easy to tell if he's enjoying it or not... So just do it and see how it goes. Have fun! P.S. My Sunny will NEVER sit in the pack-o-bird with the door open like the photos on that website. He will immediately climb to the top and sit on the support bar. I have to be quick when he steps down in it so that I can get the zipper closed quickly enough, but he doesn't complain, either.<br><br>Post edited by: SunnyBird, at: 2010/04/02 21:51

Whoopee hooray!!!! Thanks everyone! <br><br>Post edited by: SunnyBird, at: 2010/03/30 20:21

I'm trying to teach Sunshine the song "You are my Sunshine" but she seems to prefer the whistling version so far....

Which end did you do CPR to and how do you tell the difference? :blink:

If you want to play it super safe, then do not leave them in the same room with the parrot during the night when they are absorbing oxygen instead of emitting it. Otherwise cut flowers are fine as long as the bird doesn't eat one since they are heavily sprayed with chemicals unless you pick them yourself from the garden.

crossfit wrote: Thank you crossfit! I think that's a great idea! Come on, anyone else want a challenge?? <br><br>Post edited by: SunnyBird, at: 2010/03/25 08:59

I adore that foot toy - I must admit that I have a weakness for anything that resembles crystals.... I will try to make one since I can't ship from the USA!

Congratulations to both of you! That's wonderful and I'm sure during the next few days something else will come out as well. My Sunny says a few words, I don't think he's going to have a big vocabulary, of course he's only 11 months old... so you never know. Often his speech sounds like he's got pebbles in his mouth. However, every once in a while he'll shout HELLO so clearly that it makes me jump! He knows I'll come running when he does that {Love-000200BF} with LOTS of praise! In any case, the body language is always crystal clear, right?? :laugh:

Here's a link to a description of the long tailed parakeet with some nice photos - http://www.avianweb.com/longtailedparakeets.html Thanks for the pictures. I really like how that little cockatiel is preening the cockatoo! Are those small cages just for transport - i.e the one the Hahnn's macaw was in?

Thank you for sharing those beautiful photos and telling us a bit about a place unfamiliar to many of us. By the way, just curious, what is Cocoa eating in that last photo where he's standing on the stone table?

What a shame. It is lucky that they had just got a grant to rebuild their structures. At least they can continue and won't have to try to place a lot of animals. I wonder what caused the fire?

But Jilly - she says she has a healthy lifestyle... in her wheelchair....

EXTINCT: The Guadeloupe Amazon (Amazona violacea) Island birds are highly vulnerable to extinction, originally due to loss of habitat and, in the case of parrots, also hunting for food. Although fewer than 20% of all bird species are found on islands, more than 90% of those that have become extinct in historical times were island forms. In the Caribbean sad examples are provided by the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Antilles. Deforestation was almost complete there by the 18th century. The indigenous species that vanished with the forests will remain unknown but it seems likely that, on both islands, a parrot was among their number. The parrots of Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent have survived because they were fortunate enough to live in mountainous areas. Had those islands been flat, neither the forests nor the parrots would have survived to this day. Take the Guadeloupe Amazon (Amazona violacea) which the naturalist Buffon mentions “is very rare in Guadeloupe today”. That statement was written in 1779. As you can imagine, this bird is long since extinct. It was first described by Dutertre (1654), translated from the French: “The Parrot of Guadeloupe is almost as large as a fowl. The beak and the eye are bordered with carnation. All the feathers of the head, neck and under parts are of a violet color, mixed with a little green and black, and changeable like the throat of a pigeon. All the upper part of the back is brownish-green. The long quills are black, the others yellow, green and red, and it has on the wing-coverts two rosettes of rose color.” Dutertre described the cere and orbital ring as red; this would be unique in an Amazon. This casts just a hint of doubt on his description. However, he must have been describing a live bird because he wrote: “When it erects the feathers of the neck, it makes a beautiful ruff about its head, which it seems to admire, as a peacock its tail. It has a strong voice, talks very distinctly, and learns quickly if taken young.” The ability to erect its neck feathers and its plumage coloration, suggest that it was very close to the Imperial in appearance, which is likely considering how close Guadeloupe is to Dominica. Regarding the iridescence, Clark (1905) pointed out that iridescence can be seen in several species of Amazons in the wild, notably Guildingii and Imperialis. Brisson (1760) described the violacea as follows: “Head, throat and neck ashy-bluish, varied with green and black. Back and rump green. Upper tail coverts and scapulars green. Under parts, sides, thighs, and under tail coverts ashy bluish. Wings green, varied with red and yellow.” This description has the ring of truth, the kind that one might make if the bird was in front of the person writing it. There are some notations regarding the “habits” of the Guadeloupe Parrot which were made by Dutertre and which most of us who have come to love our companion parrots and respect their intelligence will find rather shocking, however we must take it in context with the era in which it was written (the 1600s). It sheds light on how these beautiful creatures were viewed and what mostly led to their extinction. “The Guadeloupe Parrot lives on the wild fruits which grow in the forests, except it does not eat the machioneel [a poisonous tree]. Cotton seed intoxicates it, and affects it as wine does a man, and for that reason they eat it with great eagerness. The flavor of its flesh is excellent, but changeable according to the kind of food. If it eats cashews nuts, the flesh has an agreeable flavor of garlic; if ‘bois de irdes’ [a kind of wood], it has a flavor of cloves and cinnamon, if on bitter fruits, it becomes bitter like gall. If it feeds on genips [a Caribbean fruit], the flesh becomes wholly black, but that does not prevent it having a very fine flavor. When it feeds on guavas it is at its best, and then the French commit great havoc among them.” A large parrot known to be good eating could have been rapidly exterminated on a small island where the forests were dwindling fast. In 1779 the naturalist Buffon wrote that it was “very rare in Guadeloupe today” and commented on the love of the French colonists for it as a culinary item. How sad that this was the aspect of a magnificent bird that they found the most remarkable. How sad that, today, 250 years later, we have still not managed to educate mankind to respect the creatures we share this planet with. ....................... Source: Amazon Parrots: Aviculture, Trade and Conservation, by Rosemary Low (2005) http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/parrots/amazon/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadeloupe_Amazon http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=30082&m=0

Kitty,Caitlin, you are not the only ones... it had the same effect on me. Non parrot owners wouldn't understand. Renate

Wow Cocoa obviously thinks he owns those monkey bars. No fear. Personally I don't think I could have just stood by and filmed with those kids slapping the bars using their shoes... I would have been too nervous. Cocoa took it like a champ!

Acappella, I need major room clearing! When I moved to Greece I packed a 4 bedroom 1 family house into a smallish 3 bedroom apartment. It's quite a squeeze and I'm weeding it out very slowly due to my long working hours. However I do believe that clearing clutter clears also the mind and helps you focus. As for the "supernatural and the other side" I'm also a believer but when I was a kid the Oujja board scared the @#$% out of me once and I never touched it again. Be careful whom you invite into your home, even inadvertently. Anyhow, I used to sing in a jazz/funk band but then I became a mom and didn't have the time anymore (it was always an after-working-hours thing). I love nature, my husband and I are creating a little fruit and vegetable farm on a plot of land we bought in the country last year. Hopefully someday we will move there permanently. I am a Reiki Master (touch healing) and like to work with aromatherapy - it helped my daughter a lot when she was a baby and I find it very effective for adults too. I like to sew (home decorations - pillows, curtains etc), cook - especially bread baking - nothing like the feel of elastic dough in your hands - and read ancient history and classical literature, ice skate and bicycle ride, watch movies, and spend as much time in the Mediterranean Sea during the long Greek summer as I can!

How come those cockatoos have such great natural rhythm? Thanks for sharing. My Sunny celebrates St. Patrick's Day every day...

Definitely sounds like an interesting recipe and I bet the tofu suited it well. I suppose you also left out the shrimp? You don't have to leave out the onions and the garlic. I use them in my cooking almost every day (I live in Greece, after all, home of the Mediterranean Diet!) and these ingredients, since they are cooked, have no ill effect on my fid who usually shares dinner with us, whatever it is. (He won't have it any other way....)

Besides Sunshine my male yellow crowned amazon, I currently have: 1 male Persian cat 1 female Burmese cat (who's pregnant) 1 daughter (who's jealous of the parrot) 1 husband (who just want some peace and quiet....) Hoping to get a terrier in a year or two and maybe another parrot (female amazon or african grey) depending upon the divorce threat level from my husband... :whistle: :blink: :woohoo: Cheers, Renate

Sounds like he likes you a lot and as if he's acting like a baby that wants to be fed. He probably views the grey as competition - perhaps he's trying to "woo" you? How long have you had him?