Sachi

Well, I think I may have mentioned before that Banner was (informally) identified as a male by 3 members of the staff at the Golden Cockatoo where we got him. They all guessed male on their own accord, without talking to each other - one has 3 amazon parrots at home and the other two staff members have been working at the store for years. His hatchmate (who was purchased right after weaning) was a DNA'd female and much smaller...and the fact that he was chatting at such a young age had them all thinking that he's a male. DNA results are in, and....we have a GIRL!!!! Goes to show you that no matter what the "typical" behaviors/size of a parrot are...you never know (unless sexually dimorphic, of course)! It's too funny, because this morning as I was talking to Banner, I got real close and saw his (now her!) eyelashes and thought...how feminine looking - wouldn't it be funny if he turned out to be a girl? We're keeping the name....she's still Banner! Here are some more photos:

I'm a portrait photographer in addition to my day job. For these I used my 5D Mark III along with my walk-around lens - 24-105 f4. Can't wait to give him a bath when my boyfriend's home so I can take some photos while he's being sprayed! To get these the process was: Spray - Drop bottle - Pick up camera and focus as quickly as possible. I'd love to have gotten some of the water falling from the above!

Well, I decided this afternoon when I went home for lunch to try to give Banner his first bath. I picked up a spray bottle on the way home and filled it up with bottled water. I placed him on the tabletop perch that we bought for future training and sprayed the bottle straight up in the air so it would rain down on him. At first I couldn't tell if he liked it or if he was angry, but I think that he did enjoy it. Here are some photos. I know he doesn't look that wet, but I only have an hour for lunch and didn't want to completely soak him. I put him in his travel cage after we were done with the "shower" - he got some sun and was able to dry off a bit before I put him back in his cage and headed back to work. Thanks for looking!

Thank you for your replies! We have named him Banner. He has an appointment tomorrow with an avian vet for a wellness check - maybe he'll be able to tell us for sure.

Our new amazon.

Hello everyone! I joined this forum back in 2010 when I first purchased my baby TAG, Sachi. It's been awhile! My life is totally different now - when I got Sachi, I lived with a roommate and didn't socialize her properly at all. I thought to myself - a bird that only loves me?? Sounds awesome! Turns out - it's not awesome! Sachi had a hard time with my roommate and only really would tolerate one of my friends. When I met my (now) boyfriend, she had a very hard time sharing me. She developed a screaming problem and would nail my bf given the chance - no matter how hard we tried to have him do all the fun and nice things and me do all the things that she didn't enjoy. Long story short, it was all my fault, but Sachi now lives with a girlfriend of mine around 20 minutes away. We still see her now and then and she's actually done quite well in a totally new atmosphere. It seems that only when I'm around does she get mean - she still regurgitates and drops her wings when she sees me! She is sweet as pie to everyone if I'm not around. She also is a huge talker now, and she never was when she lived with me. Lesson learned. I honestly believe that if I had made more of an effort to have Sachi handled and around other people when she was still very young that she would have been more accepting of others. I pretty much exclusively handled her for the first year of her life - what a terrible mistake on my part. Anyway, I now live with my boyfriend and we decided, after much discussion, that we would like to have another bird - but one that we properly socialize. He is not a bird person, per say, but he does enjoy them and tried very hard to make it work with Sachi. We had planned on getting a Jardine's Parrot, something small and playful - we put a deposit down on a still-being-weaned baby at the local bird speciality store. I went every afternoon to visit with him. Well, one day after putting the baby Jardine's away, I was walking around the store when I heard someone (thing) say "Hi!!!" I stopped in my tracks, turned around and was staring into a pair of very intelligent eyes. It was a Yellow-Crowned Amazon. Now I NEVER thought that I would bring another "Big" bird home, but this guy was a ham and a half. My boyfriend came to visit him, and, long story short - we're the owners of a Yellow Crowned Amazon that we've named Banner, after Bruce Banner from the Incredible Hulk. He's huge, green, and already quite the mumbler. He is around 5 months old and readily steps up to anyone. We are going to work hard at keeping him socialized and are prepared for the sh*t to hit the fan when he hits maturity - we're committed to keeping him happy and healthy, no matter how hormonal he gets. Anyway, thank you for reading this ridiculously long post, and I'd like to stick around even if I'm not the owner of a grey anymore.

Well, we have a new family member... We fell in love with a Yellow-Crowned Amazon at the Golden cockatoo in Deerfield Beach, Florida - the same specialty bird store that I got Sachi at. This guy was hatched on March 19th and was very chatty and friendly - after much discussion, we took him home. We love him no matter what, but I did have a question for you experienced Amazon owners... I'm a member of a different forum, and after I posted some photos of him I was told by someone who owns and breeds yellow-nape amazons that our guy looks more like a Yellow Naped than a Yellow Crown. I'm curious to hear what your opinions are... after I read that she thought he was a Yellow Nape, I did ask the employees at the store if they were sure that he was a Yellow Crown. I was told that he is definitely a Yellow Crown. They do sell all types of Amazons there, and their Yellow Napes are priced higher than Yellow Crowns. I took a look at the Yellow Napes and they were still all green, so that didn't help at all! I do trust the employees at this store as they have always given me good information and I don't believe they would misrepresent a bird in this way. We don't necessarily care what he is, but I have read a lot about aggression problems in Yellow Napes when they hit maturity and I'd like to know what to expect! Your thoughts? Here are some photos! I took these photos when I got home and the lighting is different than the store: Thank you for reading/looking!

Hi everybody! I am going to be the new owner of a TAG in hopefully about 8-10 days - my Timneh is almost weaned and will be coming home (hopefully) soon. I can't wait to bring her home! One of my friends noticed today that her beak is darker than her siblings - in fact the top part is actually pretty dark. I've read that the upper mandible of TAGs is bone colored with dark edges - so, is this normal for a Timneh? Her: a sample pic I found from the internet of a TAG: Does the upper mandible lighten as they get older or something?