Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Claw

All of my larger parrots withdraw a foot into their bodies and perch one-footed. They tend to do this most often at night, when they are a little sleepy. I believe they sleep one-footed as well, but, believe it or not, I have never caught them sleeping. If we're around they instantly pop to attention.

Usually they ball their foot up and bury it in their feathers, appearing to be one-legged. I searched for a picture of this, but don't have any. That pose must not be exciting enough for me to capture! I'll try in the future, but when they see the camera, they usually start strutting around.

This morning, Max was perching one-legged, in the position we call "The Claw." She is the only one of our parrots to do this. We're not sure why, but it makes us laugh. Thomas and I make jokes about the claw coming to get us and occasionally make claw motions at each other.
This next picture turned out a little blurry. I think she was unfurling her foot and making the begging motion to get me to pick her up, but it looks a little threatening when I captured it in this stage:Max says, "I'm going to get you!"

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

For some reason I think bird feet are so cute. I'm sure you agree! :)

Meg said...

Max is so cute, I love the pics!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary, Love the post about Max's feet. I too love parrot feet. The funniest in my group of 4 are the cockatiels' feet. Charlie has nice neat little feet, but Chipper has these very long, ungainly feet that I'd trip over if I had them. When he walks on cardboard, they flap, flap, flap. Sam, my Jardine's Parrot, does exactly the same with "the claw."