More bird pics? I’ve posted this before, but here’s the outdated page of our african birdie (jardine’s parrot) Murphy.
Murphy’s page
Nice grey, Paul. Remember not to feed african birds avocado.
Parrots are so cool.
Wasn’t Dorothy Parker’s parrot named Onan, too?
Okay, I just wanted to pop in and tell you I got a great laugh out of the title. When I was a little girl, my mom’s word for the . . . um . . . female part was “bird”. So, you can take it from there.
Onan is a pretty bird!!!
Um, dude, you might want to think about lowering that cage. If a bird sitting on top of its cage is higher than the eye level of its pet humans, it can get the idea that it is the dominant member of its flock, and become aggressive toward the “subordinate” human members. If Kadaji is checking the board today, he might be able to provide more info. If this is not possible, maybe put a step near the cage to raise you up higher than the bird. Great cage, though. Nice and roomy.
I’m glad you’re making progress with the bird. I was actually wondering the past couple of days how you and Onan were getting on possibly inspired by my own progress with Shamus the Senegal parrot. He had been very shy of my hands for a long time, not sure why, I probably did some weird scary to Sennies but not to any other kind of bird thing early on, and would not allow me to pet him. He’d sit on my shoulder for hours on end, but, no petting allowed. Lately, he’s been allowing me to hold his beak between my thumb and middle finger and scratch the top if his head with my index finger. Occasionally, he’ll even bow his head and ask me to scratch his neck.
A well-trained and well-socialized bird is a joy to have around. I was commenting to my mother the other day how much like being owned by a bird is like being owned by a cat (people who have experience with both will know what I’m talking about). The Mango Tree laughed at me, until the next morning when I was sitting eating breakfast with Shamus and reading a magazine, and the Green Feathered One climbed down off my shoulder and… sat on the magazine and looked up at me, like, “why are you paying attention to this and not to me?”
Right now, I’m sitting here with Shamus on one shoulder, Mom’s cockatiel Maureen on the other, listening to O’Brien the budgie chirping away from Mom’s room (she’s in a stay-in-the-cage kind of mood today).
Birds rock, man!
He’s right about this, BTW. I should have noticed it, too.
Thanks for the pics Paul in Saudi. When seeing your posts I’ve wondered about the birdy-baby. He’s very cute!
I’d post pics of Iian, but I just discoverd that part of my website is borked. 
I’ve got a Timneh African Grey that’s about 7-8 now…I’d been a little worried when the kids were born, but things seem to have settled down well enough. He only bit one of the kids once…that was enough to let the kids know we menat it when we told them to leave him alone.
He’s not quite as loving as he was before the kids (doesn’t want to barf on me anymore.) but seems otherwise to be pretty mentally healthy. (no plucking, steps up well, still friendly and curious)
I think I’ll go tell him g’night! (which is funny, if he’s happy, he give a certain whistle that he ONLY does when I tell him goodnight…if he feels neglected, he won’t whistle that way. I didn’t teach him that, he figured it out by hisself.)
Nice parrot! I like the way you handle your bird.
Serious question: Have you investigated how to bring him to the US when you leave the KSA? It’d be a shame to leave him behind.
The Parrot Palace is two and half meters tall and about three meters long. It is an environment all in itself. It goes all the way to the floor, and so cannot be lowered. In any case he more or less roams at will of late. I have a Thai gentlemen here who for the past few weeks has been my full-time Parrot Whisperer.
Onan will never leave the Kingdom. Bird (especially wild-caught ones) carry the threat of Newcastle Disease. As a result most bird in the US are now captive-bred. One day I will leave but a part of my heart will stay in Arabia.
How heartbreaking.
Heartbreaking indeed. Enjoy him while you can, and make sure he gets a good home when the time comes. The Thai man, I assume.
Onan and Murphy are beautiful.