John Connellan
Valued Senior Member
Don't forget biologically speaking too!
Avian psychology?
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Don't forget biologically speaking too!
When a crow flies up to a bird feeder to scare the little birds into a window so as to grab the injured bird and eat it that’s like our sense of ethics?
huuum does remind me of pyramid scheming salemen.
my avian thinks i'm a strange looking bird whose sole purpose in life is to play with him, talk to him, buy him things, feed him and occasionally make him some yummy food (especially eggs or green things). but i wouldn't compare how my little sweetheart thinks with other avians. he's really just an exceptionally beautiful feathered human who is is head of the household.
avian behavior is the topic most covered by the professor when i took animal behavior, since he's an orinthologist by trade. fun stuff. i'd like to discuss it with you when you learn more.
avian behavior is the topic most covered by the professor when i took animal behavior, since he's an orinthologist by trade. fun stuff. i'd like to discuss it with you when you learn more.
I just read teh latest Nature. I did not know most birds could see in 4 colors: Red, green, blue, ultra-violet. They have four types of photo receptors for color unlike us with only 3. It seems birds see things very diffrently then us. Many bird speacies that have males and females that look alike to us are in fact diffrent color in the UV.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
SwedishFish said:
Your bird, especially if she's a female, may be so closely bonded to you that she'll start exhibiting courtship behavior. That's a lot of fun. They try to regurgitate food into your mouth to demonstrate what a great parent they will be to their fledgelings. She might even build a nest and lay infertile eggs. Males do all this too (except the part about laying eggs). In virtually all species of parrots the males and females share the job of raising the family. Most of them mate for life. (One life. If one dies the other may eventually get over it and remarry.)
I assume you're talking about a domestically bred bird that was hand-fed by humans from about the time that his eyes opened. He has "imprinted" on humans and he thinks he's the same species you are.
There are a few species of birds (most of the parrot-types) that can be captured wild and tamed. And there are a very few that seem to be adaptable and are human-friendly even when raised by their parents. Also parrot-types: budgies (we erroneously call them parakeets in the U.S. but they don't have long tails), grey-cheeks, even cockatiels. These last three are species that have been domesticated for so long that perhaps they've been selectively bred. The ones that didn't like hanging out with people weren't kept in the gene pool.
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Thanks for your extensive and informative post, Fraggle; I don't suppose there's much you haven't covered within the context. Perhaps "avian psychology" is more influential in humans than we think. Or primate forebears, living in the trees as you said, must have felt a need to fly rather than fall - they must have envied the birds around them. Although we've only achieved powered flight over the last century, people have always WANTED to fly. Leonardo Da Vinci would agree. Without birds (or bats, or insects..) as an inspiration, our literature, art, culture and technology might be very different.
Fraggle Rocker said:One thing's for sure. If the next dominant species on this planet is rats, they'll probably build a civilization very much like ours, because they are so much like us in so many ways, for example their sense of ethics.
The rats' instinct is to burrow rather than to soar. A rat civilization, if one ever did develop, perhaps would not build upwards as much as we do: their cities would be primarily underground, with endless subways, caverns and galleries rather than skyscrapers. Nor would they find the idea of aviation so compelling, though they might realise its obvious advantages over land and sea travel.
my budgie is extremely bonded to me. his favorite thing to do is kiss me. it's so cute. he's never tried to "feed me" but he'll come take whatever i'm eating. it doesn't matter what it is. if i have it, he wants it. he'll have a full cup of water in his cage but he'll come fly over and sit on the rim of my glass to drink some (and occasionally hop in for a bath if he finds the temperature inviting). he also won't touch new foods unless i eat it first and then offer him some.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Most parrot species are extremely social. I mean, look at any nature video about parrots. You don't see one parrot or even fifty parrots. You see about 500 of them all hanging out together. They don't like being alone, they much prefer group activities.SwedishFish said:
So when you adopt a pet psittacine, you're taking on the responsibility of being his entire flock. If there are several of you living together it makes it easier. If you have other pets too that can help, although it can also be a heartache. Dogs, in particular (strangely enough not cats) are notorious for killing pet birds. Anyway, you have to fill in for the missing 499 birds of a feather. Being bigger helps, but they don't really see us a big creature, they see our head and think that's us, and the rest of our body is a really big tree for everyone to perch on.
So a parrot-type bird will develop all kinds of little rituals and behaviors to do with his only friend. Any kind of mouth-to-mouth contact is a vestige of courtship behavior, be glad he doesn't do the whole thing including the regurgitation!
definitely glad he doesn't regurgitate. but he does try to stick his head in my mouth (looking for food maybe). he's gone as far as trying to hop in. apparently it's common for them to try to get into dogs' mouths.
he gets really depressed when left alone which is often now that my parents work all the time and i don't live at home anymore. it helps to leave the radio on so he has someone to talk to. when i visit, he's usually mad at me at first and won't talk to me for a while, but then he won't leave me alone the whole time (cute but annoying).
we've talked about getting another bird for him to play with but it was so much work getting him trained and acclimated that we couldn't do the same thing with a new baby. plus, he's about 7-8. if we got a baby, it would be too hard on him/her when he finally "flies away".
he gets really depressed when left alone which is often now that my parents work all the time and i don't live at home anymore. it helps to leave the radio on so he has someone to talk to. when i visit, he's usually mad at me at first and won't talk to me for a while, but then he won't leave me alone the whole time (cute but annoying).
we've talked about getting another bird for him to play with but it was so much work getting him trained and acclimated that we couldn't do the same thing with a new baby. plus, he's about 7-8. if we got a baby, it would be too hard on him/her when he finally "flies away".
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Most people have very good luck keeping two parrots. A parrot left alone every day for hours can develop a genuine psychosis. It's not a lifestyle that they can easily adapt to.
Even if you have to keep the birds in separate cages, just being there makes them feel better. If one is a baby you probably don't want to leave them alone together until you're confident that they make nice.
They don't even have to be the same species. We have a Blue and Gold Macaw and an African Grey who were brought up together and they are great pals. Preen each other and everything.
The second bird doesn't ever have to "fly away." It will be better for both birds and for the humans in the household if you just keep them both.
We've been working with parrots for 20 years. The only species we've encountered that seems to actually be solitude-tolerant is the African Grey. Even though in the wild they hang out in flocks of a thousand like all other parrots, many of them (but not all) seem to adapt to being alone just fine, as long as they have toys and stuff to do.
If your parrot is not an African Grey, I can't suggest strongly enough that you really should not expect him to be happy staying in the house alone all day. Please get him a friend.
And be careful with that dog. Many, many more birds are killed by dogs than by cats. Like LOTS more! Just about every bird lover we know (including ourselves) has had at least one killed by a dog.
Even if you have to keep the birds in separate cages, just being there makes them feel better. If one is a baby you probably don't want to leave them alone together until you're confident that they make nice.
They don't even have to be the same species. We have a Blue and Gold Macaw and an African Grey who were brought up together and they are great pals. Preen each other and everything.
The second bird doesn't ever have to "fly away." It will be better for both birds and for the humans in the household if you just keep them both.
We've been working with parrots for 20 years. The only species we've encountered that seems to actually be solitude-tolerant is the African Grey. Even though in the wild they hang out in flocks of a thousand like all other parrots, many of them (but not all) seem to adapt to being alone just fine, as long as they have toys and stuff to do.
If your parrot is not an African Grey, I can't suggest strongly enough that you really should not expect him to be happy staying in the house alone all day. Please get him a friend.
And be careful with that dog. Many, many more birds are killed by dogs than by cats. Like LOTS more! Just about every bird lover we know (including ourselves) has had at least one killed by a dog.
Then avian psychology isn't too far removed from ours - at least in parrots! Humans prefer companionship, unless they are severely autistic; solitary confinement can drive us into psychosis too.
i meant when the older one dies