Thursday, June 2, 2011

Grey shadows

The parrots are still not allowed on my shoulder, but Thomas has decided to allow Stella on his when she flies there.  I think he's playing with fire, but it's his choice.  Lately, whenever Stella is on his shoulder, Max follows them around, flying to whatever perch is closest.

Amazingly, she never flies to his other shoulder.  She knows the rules!
 Thomas was trying to read the paper, but the greys and Rocky would not leave him alone.  They were equally spaced apart, in a diagonal line.  Made us laugh.

3 comments:

phonelady said...

I agree with you I would never shoulder a big bird such as a grey . However I have in the past and paid for it . I received a succesion of 11 stitches in my face for such a mistake . This is one of the reasons I rehomed a grey at one time in my life . It broke my heart to part with her but she was very unhappy at my home and she was very happy to leave and go with other ppl. She has thrived and I keep in touch with her owners. I hope Thomas never has to deal with an irate bird who was on his shoulder .

Anonymous said...

Our Rosey, a 21 yo CAG is a shoulder bird. She is very sweet when she gets there, but every once in a while she will nip our fingers when we ask her to come down. Most of the time however, she just wants to see what you are eating and slides down my arm to get a bite of whatever it is.

Anonymous said...

I would call my girlfriend's cockatiels "body birds." When I lay down to watch TV, they like to perch on my legs, close to my feet, but sometimes rest on my tummy or chest. Petey, the one I am closest to, sometimes rests right by my face. I don't agree it is necessarily bad to shoulder a bird. I think it is the same as any other interaction between wild animal and human. If we make the mistake of forgetting their nature, we pay for it. When the 'tiels and I interact, it is not through something coerced, but a natural and gradual process of mutual trust built up over years. In addition to Petey and his mate, we have 2 younger birds. The mutual trust is not there yet, so they perch less often, and with more of a tendency to fly at any twitch.