Ok, all you conure and other bird owners. . .

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Seeing as how about 150 people posted about their conures and cockateils and greys and budgies, et al, in the pet rant in bbq pit, I think ya’ll should report in, with pics and descriptions.

I’ll start-- Murphy turned 10 on the 26th, is a Greater Jardine, and eats almonds. A few weeks ago he looked at me and said “BON-JOOOOUR.” Which surprised me. He has a web page. Featured pics include him eating inappropriate household furnishings.
He also broke two blood feathers (wing primaries, simultaneously) at Thanksgiving dinner, freaking us all out and causing me to have to remove my first blood feather with forceps after 4 glasses of wine (he was fine and I performed competently, but ended up covered in parrot blood for dinner at the in-laws). Oh, the joys of parenthood.

2

I don’t have a bird, but the photos are cool! :cool:

3

I have two cockatiels: a normal gray male, and a pied female. They hate each other (well, as long as I’m around, they pretend to, anyway).

I adopted both of them from a cockatiel rescue agency. The female, Quigley (I didn’t name them), had a previous owner who died. His family stuck her in their garage for about a year, with little human contact, and no toys. So, she turned to plucking her feathers. Currently, she is completely bald on the underside of her wings, and her wrists are bald as well. She can fly up, but has no control other than that. Since I got her, a little over three years ago, she has become much friendlier (to me - she still won’t let anyone lese touch her), and has reduced her plucking, but she hasn’t stopped entirely.

The male, Tyler, is just…weird. He loves to whistle tuneless tunes, and chatter at towels and feet (his “chatter” sounds like he’s trying to talk, but hasn’t quite got around to forming any words). His preferred roost when out of his cage is not on my shoulder, but on my foot. Chattering at it, of course. Prior to my adopting him, he went from household to household, always being returned for being “too noisy”.

Don’t have any pictures since I don’t have a camera.

4

This is the infamous Tupac that inspired the rant on his playground on top of his cage. He’s now four years old.

I don’t have a picture of Kurt, the cockatiel. She sees the camera and hides. The flash scares her :frowning:

5

How cool. I loved the pictures of Murphy. He looks like he is a big showoff and flirt. We used to have a bird. Her story is located here . It is still hard for me to talk about. Hardygrrl I couldn’t get your pictures up of Tupac. It could just be my computer?

6

No conures here currently, but I’ve got two cockatiels and Iian the Timneh African Grey.

He’s just plain great. http://www.millerville.cc/images/DSCN1851.JPG

AG’s have a huge vocabulary, often having a 250-350+ vocabulary. In Iian’s case, I’d believe that number, but only if you include Nastyass Congested Coughs, Fire Alarm Battery Dieing Chirps, and Hickup/Burps as ‘words’.

An annotated sample can be found here: http://www.millerville.cc/birdbuddy.wmv

I can’t hardly wait to see what he picks up from the Newborn Twin Boys.

Oh, and we had a Senegal for an afternoon. 'Seems there’s an avian vet about half a mile from here. The bird escaped, heard OUR birds and came for a visit. The owner was exctatic when we called the local PetSmart reporting a found bird.

7

Sorry about your 'tiel, Ashkicker. Rest assured that she is somewhere pleasant, happy and chirping and gorging on sunflower seeds.

I couldn’t get your picture up, either, Hardygrrl. I get a ‘currently unavailable for viewing’ message.

8

Murphy seems to be right footed, I don’t see ANY pics of him using his left foot to hold things. He looks happy.

I don’t have any birds right now. I love them, but I love cats more…and I don’t want the sheer aggravation of trying to keep birds AND cats in the same household.

9

I don’t have any pics just yet, but my mom has a grey cockatiel named ‘Lucy’. Right now she’s on an egg laying kick, poor little dear. Always so surprised when they don’t hatch. She’s decided to nest in the drawer of my dad’s nightstand. Silly little bird.

10

I’ve posted his webpage before, but he’s my sweet baboo, my little dragon, my chili pepper, my cranky kak.

Fear him. Brat the Kakariki.
He speaks pretty clearly (also says “Whatchadoin?”, like sniglet’s, but his vocabulary is very limited. He loves the “B” sound - bad, bird, birdie, babe, baby, big, and Brat. “You’re a brat. You’re a big brat. Youbad-youbad-youbad-youbad.” Or so he tells me.

I can see hardygrrl’s beautiful Tupac - he’s gorgeous!

11

Ok, when I hit the enter/ reload thing for Tupac the picture did come up-- cute! Pretty birdie. Brat’s lovely, too-- looks like he’s got nerve. That’s an Australian type, I assume? Iian’s a nice grey, too.
Lynn-- interesting observation. It hadn’t occured to me to notice his footedness, and now that I’ve tested it out I think you are right. I wonder what the ratio is like in birds? I wonder what that means. . . Hmm.
We just went out and mailed a letter and Murphy wolf-whistled at some woman walking by. What a slut he is.

12

No website, so no pictures.

I have 2 Patagonian conures, Panama and Dizzy. Panama’s been with me for 12 years, Dizzy for 2. Both were solitary birds before I got them. They don’t really interact, although they are in the same room. Dizzy has picked up Panama’s “Thank you.” Dizzy also says, “Wanna go night night?” I first heard that at 2 in the morning.

Mickey is my ‘tiel. He’s a normal grey. Favorite saying: "Good morning! Whatchdoin’?" I’ve had him for about 5 years. Got him from a friend who used to breed the little guys in exchange for weaning out her babies. He is enamored of the color yellow, which makes for some interesting confrontations with the yellow budgies, Pearl and Belle. Mickey will soon be getting a yellow cockatiel of his very own from a bird shelter I’m involved with.

Pearl was a present around 7 years ago. Belle was adopted through the shelter. She had been left at a vet’s office when her previous owners’ cat chewed her foot most of the way off. She gets along just fine now.

I live in an apartment and have had no (that I’ve heard of) complaints about the noise. My current landlord knew I had birds before he bought the building and fell in love with the critters. He subsequently acquired 3 of his own. Prospective tenants are informed of the birds before they sign the lease. Several years ago there were conures in 3 of the apartments, plus a Grey and assorted smaller birds. In the summer the conures would call to each other.

13

I have two budgies (AKA parakeets): Pele, a blue female (named for The Volcano Goddess, Madame Pele) and Pablo, a yellow & blue male (named Pablo because it’s a damn cool name).

I got them about 1.5 years ago from a private breeder. She hand fed them so they are quite tame.

I didn’t expect them to have as much personality as they do; they are very spunky.

Sorry, no website so, no pics. I do have a cute photo of Pablo kissing me though :slight_smile:
I also just finished bird sitting a cockatiel for two weeks. He had the odd habit of wolf-whistling at me. :smiley:

14

I have a red-lored amazon named Harry. We’re not exactly sure how old he is. He’s been passed around the family for a bit. My aunt was the first to get him and she claimed he was 5 or 6 for about 5 years. Our best guess is that he is at least 21, perhaps a few years older, but definiatly not younger.
He is a trip. What he lacks in vocabulary, he makes up for in personality. He loves new people (esp women) and loves going to the vet. The things that he’s afraid of or not afraid of make no sense. He has no problem at all with me grabbing him and using my dremel tool to grind his beak down, but he’s terrified of new toys. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Here’s a somewhat crappy pic. Guess I need to take some more.

http://www.angelfire.com/wv/theios/pets/harry1.JPG
http://www.angelfire.com/wv/theios/pets/harry2.JPG

15

I don’t have a bird right now, but up until last year there’s been a bird living with me since I was 8 years old.

My first 2 birds, parakeets, got really annoying and messy so I gave them to a friend. A few years later, she gave them to another friend. They’re still alive and kicking and they have to be at least 10 years old.

Lexie - my cockatiel. This thread brings back so many memories! That bird loved to whistle. Charge, wolf whistle, pop goes the weasel - she did it all. Sometimes she even created her own mix and match versions. Sadly, she flew away one night when I stepped outside to get a pop out of the garege with her on my shoulder. I spent two days looking for her, even going door to door and hangiing up flyers. A neighbor found her dead a few days later and contacted me. She was a good bird, never bit and loved to have her orange cheek patch scratched.

Then the big investment - Comet my sun conure. I wish to this very day that I hadn’t given her away. She was the kindest bird I had ever met in my life. She loved to snuggle under my chin and play in my hair. I wish I had pictures to share with you all - she was very beautiful. But I had to give her away. Her noise level was so intense that it got to the point that I just couldn’t handle it anymore. She was quiet until my brother got his bird, also a sun. They squaked across the hall to each other al at all hours of the day. A week after I gave Comet away, my brother got rid of Zoe. I wish I could get her back.

Birds are so much like children it’s hard to believe. Anyone that is not a bird person will never understand!

16

I have two cockatiels, both rescues from the Animal shelter, and the flip of Darwin Finch’s pair, a male pied, mostly white, and a female gray. Smitty, the male, was found flying around, and was brought into the wildlife shelter. Amazing that a white bird didn’t end up as hawk chow! He was emaciated, but after two months at the shelter, fattened up, and learned how to imitate whiny puppies (high pitched), and hungry baby squirrels (really high annoying pitched). All interspersed with a wolf-whistle. He is really vocal, so was kind of hard to adopt. I adopted him, because I was used to that noise(worked there), and found “hungry squirrel”, delivered at 6 AM, charming. He must have been threatened by someone’s hands, because he is aggressive toward a hand, but you can get right next to him face-wise. (Any tips on this, Birdie-lovers?)

Lucy, the female, was brought to the shelter by her previous owners with a broken wing. They surrendered her rather than pay for vet treatment.(?!?:()Unfortunately, the wing had been broken for a while, and couldn’t be repaired properly. The vet set it, but it droops, and she will never have use of it. She is a stoic sweetie, though, and loves to be scritched under-ear.

When Smitty first saw Lucy, he opened his wings at her, did a bobbing dance, and did his wolf whistle. Too Funny! She seems unimpressed. They have separate cages, and sleep separately, so I don’t know how close they are. But, they have a separate room, and have a playset outside the cage they spend the day on. They were messed up by people, thoughand I’m trying to get them to trust again.

It’s nice to see all the beautiful bird pics here, and how much y’all love your birdies. Everytime I go to the petstore to get supplies, I see the conures, Greys, and other parrots, and would love to take them home. The price is too much for me, and I’m glad that price is high. My birds were abused, or at least neglected, and a high price will hopefully avoid a frivolous purchase and neglect.

17

I can’t post a picture, unfortunately, but I have to chime in about my sun conure, Pepper. She’s about 8 years old, with a personality to match her name - spunky, bratty, and very sure of herself. But she’s also very cuddly when she’s in the right mood. And for a conure, she’s pretty quiet. I also live in an apartment (although not for much longer), and have had no noise complaints at all (but I’d certainly not recommend a conure for the average apartment dweller - I just got lucky).

Birds have every bit as much personality as dogs or cats; I wish more people appreciated them!

18

My wife and I have a female albino cockatiel named Angel. Right now she’s laying another clutch of eggs and is a little bit cranky. Still, she makes us very happy.

19

We have two African greys (both Congo). The bigger, meaner one is named Alfie. He’d just as soon give you an unexpected nose piercing as look at you, but he has a huge vocabulary that he uses appropriate unless you’re trying to get him to do it on cue. The smaller, more high-strung one is Meeko. He’s cute and occasionally lets people pet him, but he likes to nibble fingers. (He doesn’t bite, he just nibbles, but his nibbles get to hurting eventually.)

I also have a Hahn’s macaw named Ziggy, who lives in my bedroom. He can say a lot of things, mostly inane conversational bits (“Hello. … oh? Really? What’s that? Really. Oh.”) and the typical birdy stuff (“You’re a good birdy. Good bird!” “Step up?” “ZIGGY WANT A COOKIE!”) He can also say “Skanky ho!” but thankfully he’s not a very clear talker. :wink:

Pictures of Ziggy can be seen here. He’s kinda hyper, as you can tell by the fact that he couldn’t stand still long enough for me to take his picture without motion blurs. And he tried to eat the camera.

Keep in mind he’s like a foot from tip to tail, and half of that IS his tail. But he’s convinced that he’s GIHUGIC!!! In his mind, he is ZIGGY, Master Of All That He Surveys! ZIGGY, King Of The Universe! ZIGGY, THE LORD OF ALL!!! And he wants a cookie, dammit!

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Alfie uses his vocabulary appropriately, of course, which is apparently more than can be said for me.

Ziggy has just informed me that he is a good birdie, and he needs to go poopy. Then he leaned his little feathered butt WAY out over the end of his cage and pooped in my shoe.
:smack: :wally