I sit here typing and admiring Steve the african grey parrot. So far today, he has climbed up his ladder, attempted to climb down, failed, and cried until manually removed from the ladder. I tried to coach him (“Jump, your wings work fine” " Climbing head first didn’t work last time, either") but the complexity of the task seemed to overwhelm him. Across the room, George the conure demonstrates climbing up and down, but Steve did not catch on. This has happened before. He tries to step off perches backwards, slides off couches (despite his powerful claws), and occasionally goes to sleep and falls off of my lap. The wierd thing is that I have proof of his intellegence. He can call people by name, open cage doors, use cuss words appropriately, and respond to sensitively to environmental or emotional cues. Is this intellegence a natural adaption to make up for his appalling lack of grace? I have this vision of flocks of greys in Africa thinking big thoughts and falling out of the trees like a soft hailstorm.
I just love your birds’ names! I don’t know that much about parrots, but I’ll relate a little story. In the late 70’s early 80’s I lived in the Bay Area. I heard of a flock of escaped parrots that got together & lived wild quite successfully there. I thought it was an urban legend, but I saw them twice…about 6-8 big parrots, sitting on a freeway sign over Hwy 17, & then in a tree somewhere in Willow Glen.
My guess is hand raised birds are a bit more dependent than wild ones…but if they have to, they’ll find a way to survive. Or, maybe Steve would be totally hosed in the wild & would’ve been eaten by a gibbon by now.
Maybe it’s the name “Steve.”
A friend of mine had a dog by the same name. He was a black lab/something cross. Sweet mutt, just dumb as hell. If you were outside and called him, he’d come running. Thing is, he always seemed to misjudge the stopping distance. He’d barrel into you full tilt. I literally had to hurdle him once.
That dog was either:
- Stupid beyond belief
- Very nearsighted, or
- Trying out for “Jackass”
Carina42: I don’t know if this is related to your tale or not, but I live in the Bay Area too, and each year for several years in the mid-80’s a large (20+ birds) flock of brightly-colored parrots would come to our backyard and eat the apples off the apple trees that grew there. They didn’t seem to talk, but they made quite a din with just the cawing. We always wondered where they came from, and where they went-- one year they just didn’t show up, and we never saw them again. Just one of those things, I guess.
Rysdad: My friend’s got a cat named Steve. He’s definitely not the brightest knife in the drawer himself, if you know what I mean. He lives with a dog (the dog is named “Dammit”), and he seems to have a real hard time distinguishing between Dammit’s rear end and his own. In terms of the grooming. BTW I love your list. You rule.
conurepete: In case no one else has yet, I’d like to extend to you a hearty “Welcome to the SDMB!” So far I love your work, your comment on Dr. Laura was priceless. You rule too. Here’s hoping you stick around!
White Lightning…I remember hearing that the parrot flock had been around for years. Given the longevity of most parrots, I hope they’re still hanging around. I moved to Colorado in '85, but I lived in Santa Cruz & just loved it!
Not to hijack the OP…but thanks for the link to the “Dr” Laura thread. I listen to her occasionally when I feel like being irritated. [sub]bitch[/sub]
I’ve got a green-cheeked conure(Flynn), probably the smallest of the parrot family.
I’ve noticed that parrots tend to be very independent when the need arises, but just love companionship and need lots of attention. I suspect that Steve is just being “needy” as a way to get a little more attention.
/slight hijack/
A friend of mine took in a macaw from a family that just couldn’t take care of him anymore. Very intellegent, but also also would bite. Friend woke to the soundof his neighbors working on their deck at dawn. Grabbing a robe and preparing to go give them what-fer, he ran into his living room only to hear the sound of hammers, power saws, etc coming from the macaw. He probably picked up the sounds during the daytime when they ACTUALLY were working on their deck.
Continuing the hijack…
There are fairly large flocks of parrots (I assume that’s what they are) in Orange County, CA. It seems that all of the birds are bright green with red cheeks, and most are (I’m guessing) about eight to 12 inches long. I’ve seen smaller flocks near my home in west L.A. too.
Personally, I think it’s a conspiracy. Squawking? Ha! They’re talking! About us! They’re planning our overthrow! Aaahhhhh! It’s the Parrot Conspiracy! Aaahhhh!
i don’t know how they survive in the wild. i guess there aren’t any ladders in the trees of africa.
on a complete diffrent note. a grey parrot became very famous here in philly when he warned his owner about a fire in the house. the owner was able to get out of the house with the dogs, (all escaped via the bathroom window.) when she picked up the towel covered bird (smoke protection) she thought he was dead. she left him in the shower stall and went out the window.
once the fire was out she asked a fireman to retreive him and they found out he was alive but in very bad shape. they rushed him to a vet who nursed him back to health and returned HER back to her owner. the vet proclaimed him a girl. we would have daily updates on the news everynight on her progress and there was a website that the vet updated every day. the parrot does charity work now.
so don’t give up on the parrot’s smarts, steve maybe smart enough to save your life.
OK, disclaimer time: All I know about birds like this is what I’ve been told by friends and neighbors that have them.
Having said that…
One neighbor has a blue and yellow macaw. His name is Reagan, and he was raised by hand. This meant his mother never taught him how to fly, so they can safely take him outside and set him down. He waddles around the yard as if he owns it. Yours may not be able to get around very well because his momma never taught him how.
Reagan also has a decent vocabulary, and uses words in context. If someone comes to the door, he says hello. He wants a lot of attention, too, but not from everyone. I’ve been warned that he can remove a finger with that beak if he wants to, so I admire him from a distance. He’s been timed when chewing on a 1 inch wooden dowel on his perch. It took 12 minutes to chew it in half once when he was mad.
The best story they told me was when they first got him. The bird had a reputation as being hard to work with. The pet shop that sold him wouldn’t handle him with bare hands. They used a broomstick instead. The neighbors came by the store every day for 2 weeks, and spent half an hour or an hour talking with the bird, working with him, letting him get accustomed to them. Then on the day they brought him home, they put him in the cage, covered it, put the cage in the back of the van, and uncovered it. The bird looked around at his new surroundings, paused a minute, and then distinctly said, “Fuck”.
From the OP:
That’s nice imagery. I’ll have to see if I can use it to reprogram my own thoughts about these lovely birds.
Every time I think about African greys it makes me cry. I’m not sure why really, but it started when I saw that documentary about Alex the African grey and he could identify colors, shapes, etc. And then he would ask for a “corknut” as his reward for being so smart. He just looked so sincere and a little sad… I’m tearing up now just thinking about it. Pathetic, I know.
Anyway, about Steve…
Maybe Steve just can’t see where his feet should go going down the ladder. Maybe he has an equilibrium problem and needs avian cochlear implants. Maybe he thinks you think it’s cute and he does it to get more corknuts.
In the wild, probably he’d fall down once and either get eaten or get better balance.
Am ex of mine had some sort of conure. I put my finger near it to get it to climb on, and >CHOMP!< After I hastily pulled my finger away the conure said “C’mere!” (Its other good word was “squawk.”)
The owner also kept lizards, and she had a 4’ savannah monitor in a plexiglass-sided cage. The monitor saw the conure on the floor outside the cage and started flicking its tongue. The conure saw the tongue and thought “A toy for me!” It waddled closer, and the lizard slammed into the plexi that was luckily between them. It would have eaten the bird in one bite. So no, I don’t understand how they survive in the wild.
There are green parrots all over the place here in San Diego (at least on the coast). They like to come and eat the palm fruit in the tree right next to our window. Loud buggers. We also have a couple of pairs of macaws flying free. A couple of big blue ones used to like to perch on the top of a particular billboard in “downtown” Ocean Beach. Quite surreal, like some sort of living Captain Morgan’s ad.
There’s a flock of Quaker parakeets (aka monk parrots) living in New York City.
I used to have a Quaker. His name was Yoshi. He used to ride around on the brim of my cowboy hat, screeching at people.
We have two African greys, named Alfie and Meeko. Alfie is a bastard; he once pierced my nose for me. He answers the phone when it rings. And he makes his own phone calls. (“BEEP. Beep-beep-beep beep-beep-beep-beep. Hello? Hi! How are you?.. Oh. … Ohhh. … Alright! … Oh. … Well, I’d better go. I love you! B’bye! BEEP.”) He can’t climb down ladders, either.
Meeko is afraid of paper cups. He’s fine with plastic, glass or metal cups, as well as paper plates and bowls, but he’s terrible frightened of paper cups, and will cower in the bottom of his cage growling if you have one near him. WTF?
Our Hahn’s macaw, Ziggy, thinks my name is What, and screams it at me whenever I go near him. He once opened the food door to his cage, but couldn’t squeeze himself through it, and was stuck half in and half out of his cage for fifteen minutes.