Post by heem on Jun 2, 2012 2:34:05 GMT -5
An Amazon Named Elliot
(originally published in Bird Talk magazine, Oct. 1997)
She didn't believe me.
Money was scarce at the time, but I reassured my girlfriend that we would, without a doubt, be getting a parrot soon. “Sure,” she said, unconvinced.
But the tales she would spin about Rocky, the parrot she lost in a divorce, would break my heart, and I wanted her to have another pet to help replace the one she lost. My total experience with birds had been bravely proving my machismo when an acquaintance offered to let his cockatoo sit on my shoulder. (I was terrified.)
However, I'd always wanted a pet, and my folks would never let me have one, so I got interested when she talked about the goofy things her lilac-crowned Amazon used to do.
It was late one evening when we received an unusual phone call from her mother, who wanted to know if we were still interested in adopting a parrot. A family in her town had gone through a divorce and found themselves with a parrot that no one had time for. If we wanted it, we could look at it that weekend when we came to visit.
That bird was ours the moment we walked into the house. I walked up to the cage and whistled the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show, and before I knew it, the bird was halfway up my arm. He spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on my shoulder and on my knee, and only nipped us once each, which we felt was understandable, under the circumstances. Our new bird was a red-spectacled Amazon (also known as a white-front Amazon). He is the smallest of the Amazons, but has no idea that he isn't a full-grown Macaw. (Red spectacles will routinely stand up to
birds four or five times bigger than they are.) My girlfriend quickly thought of a name for our new bird. Our favorite player on the Arizona Suns basketball team was Elliot Perry. Our bird became Elliot Parrot.
Elliot was an amazing bird right from the start. He would ride around on my shoulder each morning until it was time for me to go to work. Or, I would be laying on the couch and let Elliot walk around on my stomach in that funny, plodding, pigeon-toed walk that Amazons have, and he would pick up my finger gently in his beak to get me to pet him. Of course, we knew he wanted to be petted because whenever we would get near, he would drop his head as if a hypnotist had put him under a trance. Elliot became fairly tame and loves to hang from one of my fingers by one foot. He looks so weird when he hangs by his foot and preens himself upside down.
Elliot wasn't in the greatest shape when we got him. The people ar out local bird store recommended something that has become one of his favorite things. Each morning, Elliot and I take a trip to The Rainforest(conveniently located in our shower). He waits on the counter - chewing on magazine subscription cards, another favorite thing - while I take my shower, then I bring him in and hold him by my chest and let the water bounce off my shoulder onto him. His feathers are looking much, much better, and the new feathers he has coming in are beautiful.
Elliot also takes this opportunity to check out his voice in the bathroom. He makes all kinds of strange new sounds and practices using his voice. One day while I was in the shower, I left my cassette recorder turned on close to where he was on the counter. I replayed the same tape on our stereo, and Elliot was shocked! His eyes were popping out of his head, and he leaned over so far on his cage door to listen that I thought he would fall off.
However, Elliot is a very tenacious bird and sometimes we feel like we have a permanent 2-year-old child to care for. My girlfriend and I took a trip to Mexico for the weekend and left Elliot at her brother's house. Her brother Wayne loves birds, and we thought this would be the ideal solution. We found out that Hell hath no fury like an Amazon boarded. Elliot bit me three times in the next two weeks (two were really hard), and it shocked me because he had never bitten me again after those first few days of getting to know us. My girlfriend warned me that he would sulk, but it seemed he wasn't getting over this. We were frustrated and hurt because we couldn't understand why he would be playing with us one moment and slashing us the next.
I decided it was time to do some research. I went to the bird store and they loaned me a copy of an old Bird Talk Why Birds Bite.
I went to the library and checked out books on parrots and Amazons. I talked to everyone I knew. Finally, a pattern started to emerge. Elliot was hit with a triple whammy. In addition to being fairly new to our home, he was in mating season with hormones in overdrive, and he shared the Amazon trait of fierce protectiveness.
That little bit of research paid off. For the next couple of weeks, I only took Elliot out of his cage to play for short periods of time - sometimes as little as a minute each. If he started to get those beady eyes or fan his tail or bob his head (the Amazon dance of love), I would put him back in his cage and try later, or the next day. I understood things from Elliot's point of view and didn't take it so personally.
The other thing is that Elliot bonded to me, so he was not quite the companion that my girlfriend might have hoped he'd become. But, he is cordial to her when I am not around, and sometimes will let her pet him even when he is sitting on my finger. Since he displays good manners, she lets him eat off her dinner plate. Since then, she has gotten a parakeet, a cockatiel, and we have recently adopted a dog that follows her around the house.
I once took Elliot to work with me at the Mexican restaurant. After initially being a bit intimidated by the new surroundings, he liked the attention from everyone else and being around me all day. He sat in the bar and would call out "Hello!" each time he caught sight of me in the next room. That is about all he will ever say, which is fine by me. Goodness knows what he would pick up around our house and repeat for company!
Owning a bird has been wonderful. They are unlike any other pet. I will always remember how shocked I was the first day I came home from work, and Elliot said “Hello!” to me as I walked in the door. Since then, he has learned to trust me enough to lay down on his back on my hand, sometimes with no feet hanging on, and to let me pet him underneath his wings and on his back. With his red spectacles and the way he hold a french fry like a cigar, I could almost imagine we're living with Groucho Marx. It certainly is a Night at the Opera when he starts screaming for attention!
(originally published in Bird Talk magazine, Oct. 1997)
She didn't believe me.
Money was scarce at the time, but I reassured my girlfriend that we would, without a doubt, be getting a parrot soon. “Sure,” she said, unconvinced.
But the tales she would spin about Rocky, the parrot she lost in a divorce, would break my heart, and I wanted her to have another pet to help replace the one she lost. My total experience with birds had been bravely proving my machismo when an acquaintance offered to let his cockatoo sit on my shoulder. (I was terrified.)
However, I'd always wanted a pet, and my folks would never let me have one, so I got interested when she talked about the goofy things her lilac-crowned Amazon used to do.
It was late one evening when we received an unusual phone call from her mother, who wanted to know if we were still interested in adopting a parrot. A family in her town had gone through a divorce and found themselves with a parrot that no one had time for. If we wanted it, we could look at it that weekend when we came to visit.
That bird was ours the moment we walked into the house. I walked up to the cage and whistled the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show, and before I knew it, the bird was halfway up my arm. He spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on my shoulder and on my knee, and only nipped us once each, which we felt was understandable, under the circumstances. Our new bird was a red-spectacled Amazon (also known as a white-front Amazon). He is the smallest of the Amazons, but has no idea that he isn't a full-grown Macaw. (Red spectacles will routinely stand up to
birds four or five times bigger than they are.) My girlfriend quickly thought of a name for our new bird. Our favorite player on the Arizona Suns basketball team was Elliot Perry. Our bird became Elliot Parrot.
Elliot was an amazing bird right from the start. He would ride around on my shoulder each morning until it was time for me to go to work. Or, I would be laying on the couch and let Elliot walk around on my stomach in that funny, plodding, pigeon-toed walk that Amazons have, and he would pick up my finger gently in his beak to get me to pet him. Of course, we knew he wanted to be petted because whenever we would get near, he would drop his head as if a hypnotist had put him under a trance. Elliot became fairly tame and loves to hang from one of my fingers by one foot. He looks so weird when he hangs by his foot and preens himself upside down.
Elliot wasn't in the greatest shape when we got him. The people ar out local bird store recommended something that has become one of his favorite things. Each morning, Elliot and I take a trip to The Rainforest(conveniently located in our shower). He waits on the counter - chewing on magazine subscription cards, another favorite thing - while I take my shower, then I bring him in and hold him by my chest and let the water bounce off my shoulder onto him. His feathers are looking much, much better, and the new feathers he has coming in are beautiful.
Elliot also takes this opportunity to check out his voice in the bathroom. He makes all kinds of strange new sounds and practices using his voice. One day while I was in the shower, I left my cassette recorder turned on close to where he was on the counter. I replayed the same tape on our stereo, and Elliot was shocked! His eyes were popping out of his head, and he leaned over so far on his cage door to listen that I thought he would fall off.
However, Elliot is a very tenacious bird and sometimes we feel like we have a permanent 2-year-old child to care for. My girlfriend and I took a trip to Mexico for the weekend and left Elliot at her brother's house. Her brother Wayne loves birds, and we thought this would be the ideal solution. We found out that Hell hath no fury like an Amazon boarded. Elliot bit me three times in the next two weeks (two were really hard), and it shocked me because he had never bitten me again after those first few days of getting to know us. My girlfriend warned me that he would sulk, but it seemed he wasn't getting over this. We were frustrated and hurt because we couldn't understand why he would be playing with us one moment and slashing us the next.
I decided it was time to do some research. I went to the bird store and they loaned me a copy of an old Bird Talk Why Birds Bite.
I went to the library and checked out books on parrots and Amazons. I talked to everyone I knew. Finally, a pattern started to emerge. Elliot was hit with a triple whammy. In addition to being fairly new to our home, he was in mating season with hormones in overdrive, and he shared the Amazon trait of fierce protectiveness.
That little bit of research paid off. For the next couple of weeks, I only took Elliot out of his cage to play for short periods of time - sometimes as little as a minute each. If he started to get those beady eyes or fan his tail or bob his head (the Amazon dance of love), I would put him back in his cage and try later, or the next day. I understood things from Elliot's point of view and didn't take it so personally.
The other thing is that Elliot bonded to me, so he was not quite the companion that my girlfriend might have hoped he'd become. But, he is cordial to her when I am not around, and sometimes will let her pet him even when he is sitting on my finger. Since he displays good manners, she lets him eat off her dinner plate. Since then, she has gotten a parakeet, a cockatiel, and we have recently adopted a dog that follows her around the house.
I once took Elliot to work with me at the Mexican restaurant. After initially being a bit intimidated by the new surroundings, he liked the attention from everyone else and being around me all day. He sat in the bar and would call out "Hello!" each time he caught sight of me in the next room. That is about all he will ever say, which is fine by me. Goodness knows what he would pick up around our house and repeat for company!
Owning a bird has been wonderful. They are unlike any other pet. I will always remember how shocked I was the first day I came home from work, and Elliot said “Hello!” to me as I walked in the door. Since then, he has learned to trust me enough to lay down on his back on my hand, sometimes with no feet hanging on, and to let me pet him underneath his wings and on his back. With his red spectacles and the way he hold a french fry like a cigar, I could almost imagine we're living with Groucho Marx. It certainly is a Night at the Opera when he starts screaming for attention!