They’re not wrong.
Look at that dumb stare.
But cute, nonetheless.
Yeah, that’s what parrots do. They look at things and they make a lot of noise.
If you can’t tolerate that you should not get a parrot or live with parrots.
Based on the current surviving dinosaurs I can only speculate that the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods of history were colorful and VERY VERY LOUD.
They are quite tasty though. I like Guinea fowl spatchcocked on a BBQ. They are fairly common here, ie, a fucking infestation, but only a few butchers stock them. They are quite small, like a poulet once plucked and prepared, so one per person attending.
I would LOVE to get hold of a peacock for a roast.
Hmmm…nah.
She’s already showing signs of outgrowing her acute screaminess.
He didn’t serve anywhere near enough time for that–and I don’t mean on account of the kid (who should’ve known better or been taught better than to eat meat s/he found laying on the ground), either. The guy murdered a whole bunch of innocent animals, and the penalty should have been much harsher for that. Fuck that asshole and his lawn. Now put me on your list of anti-cruelty wackos.
I’m pretty sure the main reason people keep Guineas is as a chicken coop alarm system–anything that gets near the flock at night will set the Guineas off making their gawdawful racket.
Agree. Totally
Also ugly. And yes, the panic screeching must be heard (just once thankyouverymuch) to be believed. They like to roost in barn rafters and poop on whatever’s below. They make nests with a dozen or more tiny eggs* and sometimes** hatch out huge broods, most of which are unlikely to survive to adulthood since they’re groundbound and easy snacks for foxes and coyotes and such.
- I actually tried hard-boiling a few of the eggs. The shells were so hard and stuck to the innards that by the time they were peeled there wasn’t much left to eat.
** Besides nesting on the ground, they’ll also build a nest up in the rafters, and how any keets would survive the drop to the ground I don’t know.
ETA: I must admit that guinea fowl parents are protective of their keets, though – in fact a GF family once puttered through my horse’s paddock and an adult terrorized my horse away from the keets. Pretty funny to see a 16 hand Thoroughbred fleeing a tiny bird.
To be fair, the average horse will also easily be terrified by a falling leaf, its own shadow, or nothing at all.
Sadly, true. Also cows, at least for both my Tbred and my Quarter Horse, who despite the cutting horses in his bloodlines was terrified by them, despite being a normally calm fellow. But then, the one time we rode on the beach he freaked out at the pale rings around his hooves as the water in the sand got squeezed away with each step.
One of my college roommates kept parakeets, who would make obnoxious noises at all hours, including emulating the microwave beeps, and also scattered their shit in a ~3-foot radius of the cage.
At one point I used the living room to build a medium-size Tesla coil. It produced fairly decent sparks, not to mention also making a hell of a racket with the spark gap.
I always secretly hoped the birds would escape from their cage while I was testing the device and zap themselves into McNuggets. For better or worse, though, a bird cage is similar to a Faraday cage and they remained unharmed. They didn’t even seem to be particularly bothered by the noise.
You know, I find it disturbing when someone is wishing death on a creature for merely being what it is.
Birds make noise and they make shit. It’s the nature of birds. I agree it can be annoying (I’ve had as many as five parrots in my home at once, although thankfully not long term for that many). Wishing death on them for chirping/imitating sounds and shitting is like wishing death on a dog or cat for shedding fur and needing to piss and shit.
If you can’t stand such things don’t have pets
Granted, there are issues with roommates and roommates having pets… which is why I got my own place as soon as possible in life.
For the record, I was not actually planning on killing my roommate’s birds via Tesla coil. Though the experience taught me that I will never, ever own a bird as a pet.
Do they also have good qualities or do some people just enjoy living with a pet that spends a lot of time screaming?
They’re highly intelligent, very social and engaging.
Which are additional reasons not to get one. They make absolutely charming pets. But as highly social, intelligent birds that communicate vocally they’re a fucking nightmare. They demand constant attention and novel stimulation and they will let you know very loudly if they’re unhappy. Or happy. Or depressed. And it is easy to depress a captive parrot through lack of proper engagement/stimulation and that is a sad sight indeed.
I really like them and will never, ever own one.
ISTM if you replace “bird” with “small child” you’d have an equally valid description and an equally appropriate response. 
Yes. They can be very affectionate and engaging. They can make a variety of noises that are pleasant as well as irritating.
My current parrot is a green cheek conure which is slightly less loud than the average cockatiel. That conure species maxes out around 70 decibels for most vocalizations.
Contrast this with the nanday conure, which clocks in around 155 decibels. The big macaws and cockatoos aren’t quite as loud as that, but they are around the 90’s and up in decibels.
One reason my late spouse chose a green cheek (aside from amazing cuteness as a baby) was that they are relatively quiet as far as parrots go. As are cockatiels and budgies. Lovebirds are getting into the “too loud for apartments” category.
It can also be partly a matter of pet management - content, happy parrots also make noise but tend to be less piercing, and less frantic. Again, this is also somewhat variable by species (cockatoos are known to have daily screaming sessions because, well, cockatoos are like that). Proper attention (and that means hours a day for most parrots) means less screaming and loudness. Just being in the same room can quiet a bird - if they can’t see you they’ll engage in “contact calling” because that’s how they keep in touch with flockmates they can’t see in the wild. Sometimes all you need to do is make some sort of vocal response to keep the noise down, they just want reassurance you’re still there even if they can’t see you. But unless you’re a bird person you wouldn’t necessarily know that.
Yelling/screaming back at the bird is useless - they view your noise making as a positive response, not a negative, and will attempt to encourage you to yell and scream more at them. If your response is softer you’re far more likely to lower the volume that way.
I often find that when my bird gets to screeching just going up to him and talking to him for a few minutes quiets him down. He’s doing it because he wants attention and giving him some attention satisfies him.
Yes, birds can and do train their owners.
And sometimes… they’re birds. They make noise and we don’t always know why.
Only get a pet bird if you have some noise tolerance and you’re both willing and able to give the animal what it wants and needs. That includes a LOT of attention. Minimum for my bird is a full hour a day of my attention, and some days he spends many hours riding around on my shoulder or on his perch or just with me next to him while he’s in his cage.
They are time consuming, messy eaters, only minimally trainable in bowel habits (mine has been taught to poop into trash cans and usually, but not always, manages to do this), shed feathers, destroy their toys (and other things), and loud. That’s part of owning a bird, just like having a litter box and scooping it, hairballs, shed fur, and claw sharpening on things is part of owning a cat. Just like shed fur, drooling, chewed objects, barking, and having to take the animal outside multiple times a day to pee and poop is part of owning a dog. Every pet has its downsides.
Roses painted on the street for the Rose Parade.
I have an acquaintance who lives very near the Los Angeles Arboretum, where there are peafowl. And they often decide to roam the neighborhood. People who live there have gotten used to the racket, but they got very upset when the birds would get on their shake-singled roofs and tear up the shingles trying to get at bugs.