Thursday, June 25, 2009

Air

During the summer, I purchase my honey at the farmers' market. It comes in glass mason jars, which means I have to use a spoon to get it on my yogurt, which inevitable leaves little trails of honey on the counter. I found a squeezable container and had purchased it to solve my honey issues.

This container was sitting on the island, drying, awaiting the honey. I'm not sure what possessed Thomas, but he grabbed it and started puffing air on the greys, who happened to be on their usual kitchen perches.

They were very intrigued and interested! As usual, I feel compelled to write some kind of disclaimer as most parrots would probably not be happy with this; ours are just used to Thomas's weirdness and get into it. If they were unhappy, they would have flown away. This was not used in any attempt to punish or tease; it was just a fun game.



The reason I wanted to post this was because of Max's reaction when she starts bobbing her head up and down quickly. She only does that when she's really happy about something. This usually happens with food. For example, if she hasn't had cheese for a few weeks, when I offer her a piece of cheese, she will celebrate by bobbing her head up and down like this before finally eating the cheese.

Unfortunately for the greys, this activity has come to an end, as the container is now filled with honey!

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Wow, Max is super excited!!! Could she be thinking it's somehow part of a mating ritual? Almost like trying to feed her?

Mary said...

Elizabeth, I can't know for sure, but it doesn't seem that way to me. She's only exhibited mating signs to me a few times in the past, but it's been different -- wings are slightly extended and hang down, her breathing is different.

I think it's just something she does when she's excited/happy as we've seen the exact same behavior when she gets a favorite food, a shower, when we come back from vacation, etc.

Who knows, though? Since I don't have any more air-producing devices that are empty, if it is hormonal, at least I won't be exciting her in that way again :)

Elizabeth said...

My mom's bird used to exhibit mating signs by sticking her tail up in the air and showing me the underside. Now there's a sign.
:-)

Scritches.com said...

I think I need to move in with y'all to see this stuff firsthand -- all those great parrots doing such interesting things all the time. Who needs TV? ;-)

Mary said...

BP -- they certainly do provide a lot of entertainment! When I first got Max, I had no idea what I was in for!