Parrot Musings

I thought this was one of the cutest pictures of Rocky that I've ever taken. Of course, he has seed hulls on his bottom beak! But his pose and the look in his eye is fantastic!





Here is a video of an adorable Rocky. I love his little old lady voice. He will rarely talk in front of the camera, so there is a bit of dull space between words (and I say "Hi Rocky" a few times, so watch to see if his beak is open or not!) If you listen closely in the background, you can hear Calypso laughing. Rocky usually calls himself "Rock" and only adds the "y" when he's feeling particularly lonely.





I was thinking that I often post adorable (to me, at least!) stories, photos, and videos of Rocky, and I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that severe macaws are easy birds! Because they are not! Mini macaws are often sold as easier macaws because they are smaller than their larger cousins, but that is not true! They are often nippier and more challenging than the larger macaws. So, I decided to get a video of him screaming. This is not the true effect, as he stops during the screams to do his begging sounds, plus there's no way a computer sound file can replicate what it's like to be in the same room as this!

It's hard for me to capture him screaming on video because he screams for attention and when I point the camera at him, he's getting attention and therefore doesn't need to scream! So, I had to pretend that I was talking on the phone, leaving only one hand free for camera operation (excuses for the bad stability!)



And then there's my wonderful Calypso. I don't talk about him much because he doesn't create as much havoc in my life as the other parrots! He also doesn't like the camera as much as the others, so it's hard to capture what I want as he often starts puffing up and screeching when the camera is pointed at him.

The other day, though, he started doing this strange motion when he saw the camera, which I capture here. I've never seen him do this before, and I'm not exactly sure what it means. I'm assuming he's either showing off for the camera or threatening it? In any case, once the camera was out of sight, he returned to being his normal, wonderful self!