Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Cockatoo feeding problems
Message-ID: <8052@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 20 Jul 89 03:43:09 GMT
References: <6468@cloud9.Stratus.COM> <20519@cup.portal.com> <1283@intercon.UUCP> <4485502b.18c0b@apollo.COM>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 51

In article <4485502b.18c0b@apollo.COM> groh_m@apollo.COM (Michael R. Groh) writes:
>Speaking of birds... I've got 2 Blue Front Amazons that,
>for the most part, are happy 
                        ^^^^^How do you know?!?

>                             and well behaved.  However,
                              ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^By whose rules of ettiquette?

>every once in a while Spenser (2 yr old male) goes wild
>and screeches, schreeches, and schreeches for a half hour
>or so.  This usually happens when I'm not home - so you
>can imagine how annoying it is to my neighbors.
>
>The question is:  Has anyone else experienced this
>behavior?  ...(phrase moved below)... (HOW?)  Why is
>he doing this?

All of the Amazons that I have experience with in the wild (I've seen 7
species, in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica) are VERY vocal creatures.  They
usually live in big flocks, of hundreds or even thousands.  They are wonderful
to watch and listen to, because they are form strong pair-bonds, and flocks
are flocks of pairs of birds, each pair flying very close together.  Shrieking
is VERY GOOD BEHAVIOR for an Amazon, I imagine.  It is the way to stay in 
contact with the flock, inform them of good food sources, etc.  The two big
Amazon species of northeastern Mexico, Red-crowned and Red-lored, are difficult
to tell apart, even at close range.  But, thank goodness, they are very vocal,
and loud, and one says "Zeee Crack!  Zee Crack!"  and the other a mellow
"Cleo!  Cleo!", almost constantly while in flight.  They are especially
vocal during pre-roost gathering flights in the evening, a sort of assembly
bugle call.

>
>           Were you able to cure it?  (HOW?) 

This is NORMAL BEHAVIOUS for Amazons!!!  There is nothing to "cure".
Maybe you should consider yourself lucky that they are retaining at least
some "normal" behavioral traits in the very abnormal environment that
you provide them with.  (Unless you have a few hundred acres of tropical
forest for them to overfly each evening.)

>I'd appreciate any help....

I recommend that you take a trip to the American tropics (before its too late)
and watch Amazons in the wild for a while, and then decide whether you really
want to keep them.  If you still do, then try to make their lives as "normal"
as possible, and don't try to modify their behavior according to human or even
dog & cat standards. 


David Mark, Geography, SUNY Buffalo            [my own opinions, of course, not 
dmark@cs.buffalo.edu                            (necessarily) SUNY's]