My husband came into the kitchen yesterday laughing after he was messing with our Quaker parrot's toys. The Quaker is really fond of doing intricate things with her toys. She always takes her chain type toys and threads them through the cage ceiling bars, getting them nice and tightly woven. My husband decided to move some of the toys around and take the chains down from the cage's ceiling. I heard her saying, "Hey, heyyy, heyyyy!" Then when the hubby came in, he said each time he pulled a chain off the ceiling she protested with a "HEYYY!"
She cracks us up the most of any bird we've ever had. She's incredibly intelligent.
Does anyone else have birds that are very particular about their toys and their placement?
That's cute The little quakers do seem to be quite smart. They are wild all over down here. My mother has bird feeders, and they know when she it's going to feed and put seeds & nuts out. There is a park where we take the girls, to feed turtles, ducks, geese, various other birds, and occasionally otters if they are around, and the quakers actually get around and outsmart the ibis (I actually have no idea of the plural form of ibis), waiting for the herd of ibis to go to someone feeding birds, then they go out and look for food from other people.
You're in Florida, right? We've vacationed often in the Clearwater/Clearwater Beach area. I never knew quakers were wild down there. I know they're native to South America, but can easily adapt to just about anywhere. I've heard they're illegal to have in some states because if they accidentally get out & start breeding, it's feared they'll take over the native bird populations. They can even survive the colder climates, unlike other parrots.
The Eclectus parrots are supposed to be on par with the highly intelligent African Gray, but we have found our Quaker to be the most intelligent of any bird.
Yeah, we're in St Petersburg, maybe 10 miles from clearwater. The state motto in Florida really should be "If it's not a native species, it will be soon." There are populations here and there all over the state. In the park we go to, there are various species, quite a few different ducks, geese, ibis, other water fowl, plus the necessary seagulls and pigeons. If someone has food, and tries to feed any of the birds, the gulls and ibis all heard around. Sometimes, it seems the quakers will fly to the other side of the lake, looking for food it seems. I can't be sure of this, but I've seem it more than once, even when they are nowhere near the herd to begin with
"The state motto in Florida really should be 'If it's not a native species, it will be soon.'"
LOL - I love that!!! Well, next time we fly to FL., I'm going to be searching out the parks and looking for the little flocks of Quakers. I'd love to see them flying around freely. Do you ever see any of the rare blue ones, or are they all the green ones?
And yes, Buzzy is picky about where his toys go, but I think it's mostly because he gets scared when the lights go out if everything in his cage isn't just so. Seriously, if one of his toys has simply been knocked a little to the side, his crest will go up, he'll hiss at it, and he'll do that kinda crouch and sway thing that some birds do when they're trying to scare off a threat. Whenever I get a new toy for him, I have to take it out of his cage at night for the first week or so, and put it back in the morning.
I tried moving his toys and perches around once after reading it was good to rotate them periodically to prevent boredom. Let's just say that was a disaster...
Your Buzzy cracks me up! The Quaker is very particular and does not like new things either. The Eclectus doesn't mind new toys at all though. He's such a laid back, easy going bird. He doesn't like the metal tape measurer though - that's one thing he ruffles up about & sways around like your Buzzy. He's not fond of some of the cat's toys, that are long & whippy. Must be a primal fear of snake-like things. He's actually not a big toy player. We spent a fortune on big parrot toys, which are ignored mostly, except for the 2 mirror toys. He loves looking at himself!
LOL, thank you! I enjoy your birdie stories, too. The little guys are all such characters!
They're all so scared of such random things - I baked some birdie bread yesterday and put the tray in Buzzy's room to cool (we've had some ants in the kitchen and I didn't want them crawling all over it), and he absolutely freaked out. He went flapping and flailing all around the room and got himself stuck on the floor because he can't fly very well. I put him back on top of his cage, and he stood there staring at the tray in terror until I took it out and put it in the human bedroom instead. I have to remind myself that I'd probably be scared of random things too if I was a prey animal.
That's so funny - but not for poor Buzzy! My Quaker is like that though with new things being brought into the room, or sometimes just having something MOVED upsets him/her. Yesterday I picked up a hammer that's been laying on a shelf in the bird room forever, and the Quaker flipped out! I reminded him that he has seen a hammer being used a million times when he lived at my art gallery years ago! It's certainly nothing new! He used to make hammer-like noises when I'd pound nails into the wall to hang new artwork for the gallery!
The little quakers do seem to be quite smart. They are wild all over down here. My mother has bird feeders, and they know when she it's going to feed and put seeds & nuts out. There is a park where we take the girls, to feed turtles, ducks, geese, various other birds, and occasionally otters if they are around, and the quakers actually get around and outsmart the ibis (I actually have no idea of the plural form of ibis