Probably not. Because by "this," we mean "tricks most humans can't do."
Someone call the talent police! This bird needs to be detained!
Posts tagged "birds"
Flickr/Art by Karen
Personality: Finches are generally entertaining, social (with other finches, but not so much with humans) and active.
Grooming: Finches are relatively easy to care for, grooming included. They bathe themselves as long as you provide a water bowl for them to use (separate from their drinking water), and you should let them dry themselves, i.e. no blow dryers. If you give them a rough landing surface, you most likely won't have to trim the nails. Watch while your bird molts, though; this can be uncomfortable or even painful for them, but there are things you can do to help. As with all birds, you will need to be meticulous about cleaning a finch's cage.
Common Health Issues: Finches are hardy birds with a life span ranging from five to 15 years, varying by species. A good diet and appropriate cage (width is more important that height) with access to sunlight will help your bird stay healthy. A healthy finch will have well-conditioned feathers, bright eyes, and legs free of scales or masses.
Training Tips: Finches are not as interactive as some pet birds. While it's possible to hand-train them, this isn't terribly common. You'll need to start slowly and work your way toward taming your finch, using soothing voices and plenty of consistency.
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Flickr/poorjasper
Personality: Canaries are solitary and somewhat aloof. They generally do not bond with their humans.
Grooming: Canaries will groom themselves; just put a bird bath in the cage once a week or so. You'll still need to clip their nails occasionally, and, of course, you must keep the cage clean and sanitary.
Common Health Issues: Canaries are generally healthy, though they are prone to some human illnesses. Cold sores, in particular, can be dangerous. If your canary seems listless, his feathers seem unusually fluffed, his eyes aren't clear and bright, or his droppings appear abnormal, you should see a veterinarian.
Training Tips: Usually, canaries are kept in cages and enjoyed for their beauty and song. It might be possible to hand-train a canary if you receive it when it's very young.
Best For: Canaries are one of the easiest birds to have. They don't take up a great deal of room and don't require interaction, so they're fine being home alone if you're away much of the day (though you might want to leave the radio or TV on for entertainment).
What Canary Owners Say: JP from Callicoon Center, N.Y. tells Paw Nation, "I guess what I loved most was the male singing. I also like the variation in plumage. Most people think of canaries as being yellow but there are differences in color as well as looks. My canary (a crested) looked like he was wearing a bad imitation wig that looked like one of the guys from the Three Stooges. Would I have them again if I had the time to care for them? You bet!"
Flickr/kiwiclanger
Personality: Curious, playful, active, energetic.
Grooming: Lories and lorikeets need a waterbath attached to their cages at all times, and they typically enjoy being sprayed with water occasionally. Despite their proclivity for bathing, they're very messy. Because lories eat nectar, they have liquid droppings which can make more of a mess than some other parrot species. Cages (and the area around them) need to be properly cleaned on a regular basis.
Common Health Issues: Given a proper diet of nectar and fruit, lories and lorikeets are very healthy birds with an average lifespan of 10-15 years. The proper diet is trickier for these birds than for many parrots, though, and improper nutrition can lead to health problems. As with other parrots, they require regular interaction with their owners and a wide variety of toys to prevent boredom.
Training Tips: It's possible to potty-train these birds so you can carry them around the house without making a mess, and larger lories can be good talkers, but will require ongoing obedience training. As with most animals, training requires patience, time, consistency, and plenty of positive reinforcement.
Best For: A high maintenance bird, lories and lorikeets require families that have plenty of space as well as time to spend with them. If you're not fastidious about cleaning, it can be detrimental for yourself and your bird. And they can bite, says Mira Tweti of Playa del Rey, Calif., so they probably aren't the best choice for children.
Flickr/Young in Panama
Personality: Parakeets are friendly, active, talkative, intelligent and more independent than many parrots.
Grooming: These birds need to be bathed every couple of days. If you leave a wide, flat bowl in their cage, they might bathe themselves, but if not, you can spray them down (use fresh water only). Flight feathers should be trimmed, as budgies can fly quite far with just a few flight feathers.
Common Health Issues: Parakeets typically live to be nine or 10 years old. Signs of a healthy bird are bright eyes, shiny feathers, and a consistent weight. Common health problems include mites and upper respiratory issues.
Training Tips: With some patience and the right instructions, you should have no problem training your parakeet. First, you'll want to hand train them. From there, you can train your parakeet to talk!
Best For: It's almost universally agreed that parakeets are a great starter bird. They're less dependent on their owners than other parrots, so they require less interaction. Their diets are fairly straightforward and it's not difficult to clean up after them. These beautiful birds pack a lot of brains into a small package.
Flickr/benimoto
Personality: Though there are many species of conure, they're generally all social, active, playful, intelligent and always ready to engage. Many are also quite cuddly.
Grooming: Nails and beak might need to be trimmed, and you'll need to clip their feathers if you want to discourage flying. Otherwise, conures take care of most grooming themselves. Regardless, they do enjoy a bath, and will preen and preen and preen when finished.
Common Health Issues: These are hardy birds, resistant to disease, with a lifespan of around 25-30 years. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that they're far more sedentary in captivity than in the wild, so it's important to keep a close eye on their diet. And, like many intelligent birds, they're prone to feather-picking if not given enough attention and socialization.
Training Tips: Training a conure to talk requires quite a bit of skill, but teaching them to be handled and do tricks is certainly possible. Minimize distractions, use positive reinforcement, and remain patient and calm.
Best For: Conures will do best if kept in a busy area during the day; the more that's going on, the more entertained they will be. If the bird is well-trained and children are mature enough to properly handle it, a conure can be a great family pet.
Flickr/BékiPe
Personality: Fun, playful, inquisitive, social, and sometimes cuddly. Full of personality.
Grooming: Trimming of nails and sometimes the beak is required, and if the lovebird is alone, you'll likely want to clip the wings. However, if there's more than one bird in the cage, you shouldn't clip the wings so they have fuller range of motion and can get away from each other if need be. You'll also need to supply a water source for bathing a few times a week; otherwise, your birds will end up playing in the drinking water.
Common Health Issues: Deficiencies in Vitamin A and calcium are quite common in lovebirds who eat a diet high in seeds. Arthritis occurs often in overweight birds, and they're also prone to depression.
Training Tips: With a little time and patience, you should have no trouble training your lovebird to perch on you, talk, and even do tricks. Or, as the case may be, train them to break bad habits such as biting. Use only positive reinforcement (and no yelling!) and make sure to be consistent in your training.
What Owners Say: Michael Moretsky of Edmonds, Washington, has had a lovebird named Bean for eight years. "I love every fuzzy bit of him. He has a wonderful temperament though he can get in his 'moods' every once in a while ... I love that [birds] have wonderful personalities -- they are very smart, and they are wonderful pets," Moretsky tells Paw Nation, but admits it's challenging keeping them entertained, saying that they need lots of toys and time outside their cage.
Flickr/oldcockatoo
Personality: Cockatiels, the second most popular pet parrot (trailing parakeets), are known for being gentle, playful, sweet and affectionate.
Grooming: Cockatiels have a powder (or dander) on their feathers that they use to clean themselves. Bathing cockatiels with a mist of plain water is fine, but might not be necessary. You may need to clip your cockatiel's feathers (to keep it from flying) as well as its nails, but you should not have to do anything with their beaks.
Common Health Issues: Provided with clean air and a comfortable cage away from heat and draft, these birds are generally very healthy and should live for 15-20 years. Cockatiels' most common health problems include viral infections like polyoma and Pacheco's disease; a bacterial disease known as psittacosis; and candidiasis, a type of yeast infection. All of these can mostly be avoided with proper nutrition and care.
Flickr/quinn.anya
Personality: Amazon parrots are intelligent, affectionate, playful and loyal. However, emotionally, they're similar to a two-year-old human for their entire lives.
Grooming: Regular showers are required, both for the bird's health and to keep their natural musky smell at bay.
Common Health Issues: These birds are prone to obesity and hardening of the arteries as they age; they're perfectly happy being quite sedentary. While they can live to be anywhere from 40 to 80 years, obesity can reduce the life expectancy by as much as 70 percent.
Training Tips: Amazons, especially hand-reared males, are easy to train, and are great talkers. In fact, they crave the interaction and socialization that training brings. If not properly trained, they can become quite aggressive.
Flickr/JunCTionS
Grooming and Care: Cockatoos shouldn't need a great deal of grooming, but some of them love to bathe. You should only use pure water, as anything else can disrupt the pH balance of their feathers. You'll need to clip their nails and wings. If you have just one bird, you will need to help out with preening as well. The size of the cage depends on the size of your bird, though it's generally agreed that the larger the enclosure, the better, and it needs to be placed in an area frequented by people, away from drafts. Food and water should be changed daily, and the cage needs a thorough cleaning a couple of times a week.
Common Health Issues: One of the main problems cockatoo owners face is a certain amount of neurotic behavior, generally due to a lack of attention paid to the bird. This can lead the bird to engage in feather-picking and self-mutilation. Otherwise, as long as your cockatoo is well cared for, it should remain healthy.
Dogs get to wear t-shirts. Cats get to wear ties. What about birds? They're pets too! Recently, a number of Web sites have popped up to fill this void in avian apparel. And what have they come up with? Diapers!
The problem with birds is that they don't care where they poop. After all, they normally live in trees, so the poop just falls to the forest floor where it cannot betray the birds' locations. So birds just poop willy-nilly, like you did when you were 2 years old. But say you want to take your bird out on the town, perhaps to see Hitchcock's "The Birds." Well, he can't be naked; that would be indecent. Conversely, you can't expect to clothe a bird without getting the clothes all poopy, so any attire must double as a diaper. That's where Avian Fashions comes in.
Avian Fashions is a one-stop shop for all things bird-clothing related, with the top of the line in bird diapers, bird sweaters, and bird costumes. (Our favorite is the camouflage costume. Now your bird will be able to join the military while effectively hiding from enemy combatants.) The site even has costumes for ducks and geese. Unfortunately, no clothing lines are available yet for penguins, emus, or California condors.
Photo: Paulo Pinto
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
Why choose just one color when I can have them all? Photo: Manjith_Kainickara/Flickr
You won't find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow -- but you will get a rewarding glimpse at nature's impressive palette. Read on to see the dazzling effect of nature at work.
It can take anywhere from five minutes to five years to teach your critter to roll over, but once they make the connection between trick and treat, the results can be adorable.
We've rounded up videos of some brainy non-canines who have mastered the art of rolling and aren't afraid to showcase their skills, whether it be for some chow or just a moment in the spotlight.
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