photo by By Ian Barbour from Cape Town, South Africa

1. Offer your bird a “spa day”: Bathing is an important part of maintaining healthy feathers, and most parrots enjoy bathing in one form or another. Since summer is now upon us, and with it warmer weather, set aside some time on a sunny day to treat your bird to an outdoor spray bath. Roll your bird’s cage outside, place your bird in a travel cage or, if its trained to wear a harness, place it on a T-stand and give it a gentle, yet thorough drenching via a spray bottle bath. Aim just about your bird’s head so the water falls like a mist down on it, as opposed to a direct body hit with a stream of water. (A word of caution: Don’t let your bird’s wing feather trim give you a false sense of security. Some birds, especially cockatiels, can gain lift off and fly off even if its feathers were recently clipped.)

After its outdoor bath, give your bird some time to preen under the natural sunlight, which is also good for feather health; just be sure to stay with your bird while it is outdoors … you don’t want its spa day ruined by being dive bombed by a bird of prey or pawed at by a neighborhood cat!

2. Hang time on you: If your bird enjoys hanging out on you, offer yourself up as an edible tree. I’m not talking about enticing your bird to bite you; I’m suggesting sprinkling some spray millet seeds on your arm, shoulder or lap and letting your bird “vacuum” them up as it climbs or cuddles with you. You can also crumble up a Nutri-Berry and spread it around you. This is pampered parrot activity is more ideal for small birds (with small beaks!), such as cockatiels, budgies and small conures. Strips of cardboard, shredded paper or balsa wood pieces for your bird to find and chew up are fun to throw into the mix as well.  Of course, there is likely to be a mess afterwards; however, since this is your bird’s “pampered parrot” day, you can put up with a little laundering and sweeping up, right?

3. “Schedule some silly talk.” If you haven’t had a silly conversation with your parrot lately, set aside some time for this fun yet simple activity.  This is especially great for parrots that tend to be hands off — your bird might not want you to pick it up or pet it, but it will still love you taking the time to give it 100% of your attention devoted to telling how handsome/pretty it is, how much you love him/her and how smart he/she is. Talk to your parrot in a silly, enthusiastic voice — even the most seemingly standoffish parrot will start to relax and revel in the fun talk. Ideally, this setup should be free of visual and sound distractions, so you have your bird’s full attention and so you don’t have to compete with other visual and audible stimuli. Invite your bird to participate in the conversation by whistling or singing to it, too!

4. Make it movie night. What bird wouldn’t love to spend a full-length movie time with their favorite person?  There are some fabulous bird-themed movies that both you and your bird can enjoy together. For animated flicks, check out “Rio,”  “Three Caballeros,” there’s also Disney’s live action “Paulie,” starring a blue-crowned conure. Two excellent bird-focused documentaries are “The Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and “Winged Migration.” Many birds also enjoy cartoons, so flip the channel to Cartoon Network, Disney Channel or Nickelodeon or peruse the many animated selections on Netflix’s family category. Open a bag of Popcorn Nutri-Berries to give your bird a true cinematic experience.

5. Food & Games.  No pampered parrot day would be complete without catering to its taste buds. Use your imagination to create a fun-to-eat treat. Imagine you and your bird having a picnic or tea together. For medium to large parrots, cut the core out of a mini apple and wedge a couple of almonds or mini carrot in it, or pull a handful of cilantro through the center. For a healthy treat that’s nutritionally balanced try Lafeber’s Nutri-Forage “Pack-N-Snack.” It’s a kit to make your own foraging treats for your bird and better yet, it is fun to make and you can shape into whatever offering you prefer.

How do you pamper your parrot? Or how do you think your parrot would want to be pampered? Do share!

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Similarities

Cockatiels and budgies are both parrots, or hookbills, with hooked beaks suitable for cracking seed. Both live in flocks in the wild and lay eggs in holes in trees, which is also a trait shared by many parrots. Budgies and cockatiels are natives of arid, inland Australia. These are common species in their native Australia, and they are quite numerous in aviculture.

Both cockatiels and budgies are desert-adapted birds. I’m convinced that some of their success as companion and aviary birds is due to the fact that they can survive under less than ideal situations. They thrive when fed a formulated diet and vegetable treats, with fresh water and loving socialization. But they have survived all-seed diets and unsuitable environments — and sadly, even neglect.

Both cockatiels and budgies became companion birds through the efforts of John Gould in the 19^th century. He brought these two species to England and Europe, where they started to become established in wildlife collections. Because of this relatively long history in captivity, color mutations have developed in both species.

Cockatiels in the wild are solid gray with red cheek patches and white wing patches. In captivity, cockatiels can have lacy or pied patterns and a range of colors, from soft brown to gray, cream and white. Wild budgies are green with yellow faces, but those kept as pets come in many colors of the rainbow. Common pet budgie coloring is a green bird with a yellow face or a blue bird with a white face. Their bodies also can be patterned or pied, and their colors are myriad and varied.

All of the cockatiels, no matter what color, are not different breeds but only different colors of one species. The same goes for budgies, which are all still budgies. They simply come in a variety of colors (and sizes and shapes, we’ll get to that).

We keep both species as pets because cockatiels and budgies are easily hand tamed. They are both curious enough to also learn other behaviors and tricks, if their owner cares to work with them. Budgies have often been thought of as pets for children, but they can be interesting companions for adults and seniors as well. The same goes for cockatiels. They make good, interactive adult companions and can help keep a senior company without the need for walks and without being underfoot with its potential for causing a fall.

In both cockatiels and budgies, it is the male that typically learns to talk, while the females generally do not. Both species adapt well to living in most home situations. You can offer them a roomy cage and a chance to fly free in the average home and apartment, which cannot be said of some larger parrot species!

Since I mentioned apartments, both cockatiels and budgies make good apartment pets. They do vocalize, but generally their calls do not disturb neighbors. And, like most parrots, they are quiet all night, which makes them good neighbors, too.

Differences

Birds have individual personalities but, in general, cockatiels are low energy and pacifists. They spend a lot of time sitting and preening. Cockatiels are most likely to vocalize in mornings and evenings; cockatiels are the smallest member of the cockatoo family and act like one of them. Budgies move around and play a lot, as well as keep up a steady chatter while they do so. Budgies are parakeets, a group of long tailed, slim-bodied birds found throughout the world. You may know of Indian ring-necked parakeets, the Carolina parakeet (which became extinct in the U.S.) and the South American native, the quaker parakeet, for example.

There is definitely a difference in size between these two species. A cockatiel is generally 12 to 14 inches from the top of its head to the end of its tail feathers. Budgies vary in size from 5 to 11 inches.  Why is there such a big difference in budgie size? The budgies most often raised as pets are called “American parakeets” and are about 5 to 6 inches long. Budgies bred by exhibitors to be larger are called “English budgies” and are 10 to 12 inches long. The biggest English budgies and the smallest cockatiels are similar in size. Despite the size difference, American parakeets and English budgies have the same DNA, the show birds have just been selectively bred to be bigger and to have a certain conformation.

Which Bird Is Right For You?

You may have a preference for a budgie or a cockatiel because of their size. Budgies are smaller, and so their cage could be slightly smaller than suitable for a cockatiel environment. Which bird would you rather handle? And how do you propose to handle your bird? Budgies are very trainable and can become hand tame. If you want a bird to interact with vocally and to fly after you in the house, the budgie is a good choice. A budgie is not, however, as tolerant of petting as a cockatiel can be.

Many cockatiels love to be petted behind their crest feathers and over their ears (marked in many colors by that fiery red cheek patch). A budgie typically does not like this type of interaction. Choose the bird to match your personality: cockatiels are low key and touchy feely, while budgies are high energy and will perch on a finger but generally don’t like to be touched.

Size in companion birds correlates with age span. A budgie can live 10 to 15 years, while a cockatiel can live 15 to 20-plus years. Obviously, accidents may happen or a bird could get a disease that shortens its life. By the same token, each species can outlive their projected lifespan.

Both species make rewarding, interesting and loving companion birds. That’s something else they have in common!

About the author: Diane Grindol was author of Bird Talk magazine’s “Small Birds” column from 1995 to 2012 and has written numerous books dedicated to pet birds, including Amazon.com’s top-selling cockatiel books “The Complete Book of Cockatiels” (1998) and “Cockatiels For Dummies” (2001). Diane is also co-author of “Birds Off The Perch” (Simon & Schuster, 2003), which is a parrot behavior book and parrot owner’s manual. Grindol shares her life with a small flock of cockatiels, a blue-headed Pionus parrot and a guinea pig.

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The most striking features of birds is their ability to perform very rigorous functions in harsh environments, such as diving deeply in cold water, flying at high altitudes and running in hot deserts. This requires that their cardiovascular system (CVS) be able to meet the demands of providing adequate delivery of oxygen to vascular beds that are taxed by extreme metabolic demands. The CVS must also efficiently remove metabolic byproducts to maintain function and hence performance. As homeotherms, this CVS must maintain internal body temperature while conserving or removing excess heat.

Gross Anatomy & Function of the Avian Heart

The avian heart is four-chambered. The right side of the heart receives blood from the systemic circulation and pressurizes the pulmonary circulation. Blood returns to the left side of the heart, where the left ventricle then pressurizes the systemic circulation. Both the right and left ventricles receive blood at the central venous pressure before they enter their respective outflow tract. This resistance to blood flow (peripheral resistance) is less on the pulmonary side when compared to the systemic side. For this reason, the left ventricle has more muscle mass to overcome the increased resistance on the systemic side to produce the same flow rate as that on the pulmonary side.

The heart is located in the cranial portion of the thoracoabdominal cavity with its long axis slightly to the right. Radiographically, the liver extends caudally from the apex of the heart, and this overlap results in an hourglass appearance of the two organs. The heart is enclosed in a tough, fibrous pericardial sac that contains a small amount of serous fluid for lubrication. The pericardial sac is loosely attached to the sternum, vertebral column, and adjacent air sacs and more firmly to the liver. By its peritoneal connections, it is attached to the hepatic peritoneal cavities. This arrangement makes the pericardial sac relatively noncompliant and thereby resistant to large increases in size from volume overload.

The relative size of the heart in birds is inversely related to a species’ body mass. This suggests that the larger species of birds have reduced heart mass in comparison to the smaller ones, which have proportionally larger hearts. This arrangement differs from mammals, as their body mass is directly proportional to the size of their hearts. This difference may result from the fact that the heart of larger birds, such as the barnacle goose, can hypertrophy (enlarge) prior to migration so that their hearts are proportional to their weight. Hummingbirds have proportionally larger hearts for their size, most likely as a consequence of the high aerobic demands of hovering flight.

The four chambers of the heart are completely divided into two atria and two ventricles. The right atrium tends to be larger than the left in most birds. The wall of these chambers consists of the same components as in mammals – the endocardium as the inside lining, the middle myocardium and the outer epicardium. The muscular myocardium of the atria is thinner than that of the ventricles. However, the myocardium is arranged in thick muscular bundles forming muscular arches. The atrial muscles contract to empty blood into the ventricles during ventricular diastole.

The muscular anatomy of the ventricles is more complex than the atria. The left ventricle is cone-shaped and extends to the apex of the heart, while the right ventricle is a crescent-shaped cavity that does not go to the apex. Its right wall forms the interventricular septum that separates the two chambers. The wall of the left ventricle is two to three times thicker than that of the right. The curvature of the wall of this left chamber is less than the right and results in a greater mechanical advantage for pressure generation. This allows it to generate systolic pressures that are four to five times greater than those produced by the right ventricle.

The atrioventricular (AV) valves of the heart of birds are similar in their anatomy to those of mammals; however, the cusps of the valves are poorly defined. The right AV valve is structurally distinct, however. It consists of a single spiral flap of myocardium attached to the free wall of the right ventricle. The AV valve of the left side is tricuspid, and not bicuspid, as it is in mammals. It appears that these valves are connected to the Purkinje system — a network of fibers that carry the cardiac impulse from the atrioventricular node to the ventricles of the heart and causes them to contract — and are electrically activated prior to activation of the myocardium to contract the valves and close the AV orifice at the start of ventricular systole. This arrangement differs from that of mammals, which allows the leaflets to float up into the atrial chambers.

The outflow valves of the ventricles are similar to those of mammals except for the fact that there is myocardial tissue that extends into the valves. Additionally, the myocardial extensions have connections to the Purkinje electrical system. This suggests that the valves act as a sphincter that is capable of constricting the outflow opening and changing flow dynamics.

Oxygenated blood from the left heart can enter the right and left aortic sinuses that become their respective coronary arteries. Most commonly, there are two coronary arteries in birds but there may be up to four in number. Often the superficial branches form a ring around the coronary groove to provide blood to the area. There are also deep branches that supply the ventricular walls along with the atria. The right branch is often the dominant vessel and supplies that majority of the blood to the heart. There are frequent anastomoses between branches of the coronary arteries particularly near the coronary groove.

There are often five groups of coronary veins with small tributaries that return blood to the right atrium and/or the right ventricles. There is often a coronary sinus where the blood is shunted before it enters the atrium.

Perfusion of the heart muscle is more active than in skeletal muscle and other avian tissues. As in mammals, perfusion (the passage of fluid through the lymphatic system or blood vessels to an organ or a tissue) occurs during diastole (the normal rhythmical dilatation of the heart during which the chambers fill with blood). The reduction in oxygen supply and increase in myocardial oxygen demand results in an increase in coronary blood flow. These factors come into play in birds that fly at high altitudes.

Arrangement of the coronary arteries of the chicken, Gallus, drawn from the cranioventral aspect. Solid black and dashed lines represent superficial portions of arteries. Cross-hatched lines represent deep arteries embedded in the myocardium of the ventral and right side of the interventricular septum. A. aorta: P. pulmonary trunk.
(After West, et al. (1981) with permission)

Coronary blood flow increases as a result of decreases in vascular resistance in response to hypoxia (inadequate oxygenation of the blood). As birds fly at even higher altitudes, the reduction of oxygen results in a compensatory increase in ventilation. Therefore, the arterial blood becomes alkalotic or the pH of the blood rises and the carbon dioxide levels decrease but the perfusion of the tissues with blood increases. This is very different from the dynamics of coronary flow in mammals where hypocapnia (abnormally low levels of carbon dioxide in blood) causes a decrease in blood flow.

Studies and dissections of avian hearts demonstrate that birds have larger hearts with bigger stroke volumes resulting in larger cardiac outputs than mammals.Birds have lower heart rates per unit size for greater perfusion of the tissues of the body. However, they have a greater mean arterial blood pressure than those mammals of comparable body mass. Values that compare birds of different sizes show that larger species have a greater increase in heart rate in absolute terms when transitioning from rest to flight. All of these factors are important to allow birds to have the oxygen capacity to flight and to handle these extreme conditions — something man has only been able to do with machines in the last 100 years of time!

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After a day full of eating and making a playful mess, give your bird a clean cage to wake-up in by changing the cage liner and wiping it down before bedtime.

Cage safety starts with not just what you put in your bird’s cage, but what you don’t leave behind.

Don’t leave these in the cage …

Food That Can Spoil
A serving of healthy cooked food like quinoa or a bit of sweet potato and/or pieces of fresh produce are great additions to your bird’s diet. However, don’t be tempted to leave cooked foods or produce in the cage all day (or all night, for that matter) thinking that your bird can continue to nosh on them over the course of the day. Bacteria can start to grow in perishable foods in a couple of hours, or sooner during hot weather. Remove perishable food items within a half hour to an hour after serving them to your bird.

Cooked food is yummy for your bird but don’t leave foods that can spoil in the bowl all day.

A good habit to get into is to offer cooked foods in the morning, and then remove the uneaten portion before you leave home for the day. You can offer homemade goodies again when you return home. During the day, offer your bird a nutritionally balanced base diet, such as Lafeber Pellets, Nutri-Berries or Avi-Cakes, which offer good nutrition yet are fun for your bird to eat, and you don’t have to worry about them spoiling.

A Mess …
Another good habit to have is removing all food, even seed and pellets, at your bird’s bedtime. Leaving food in the cage overnight can attract rodents keen on pilfering bits of your bird’s food. A mouse can slip through gaps as small as a 1/4-inch, which is common bar-spacing size for many small- to medium-sized bird cages, such as those designed for cockatiels and conures.

Signs that you might have a rodent rummaging through your bird’s cage include: night-fright type episodes where your bird thrashes about its cage at night; you notice scattered cage debris below the cage in the morning or see cage liner/newspaper pulled out through the cage bars. Make your bird’s cage less appealing to pests by removing your bird’s food bowls at night, change the cage liner and clean up any leftover food, including seed hulls, at your bird’s bedtime. Another reason to clean the cage bottom at bedtime: Well before you rise and shine for the day, your bird might be up and playing on the floor of its cage, foraging through its droppings and discarded food from the day before.

Dirty Water In The Dish
Water doesn’t have to look dirty to be dirty; water that sits in the water dish for a couple of days can be full of bacteria, which can make your bird sick. Of course, if your bird is inclined to poop or drop/dunk its food in its water bowl, bacteria counts can be significant by the end of the day. Ideally, your bird’s water should be changed twice a day or sooner if your bird is a prolific food dunker/water pooper. Chances are good that your bird wakes up before you do, so don’t let its first drink of the day be a cloudy, debris-filled one. It might be tempting to save water changes for the next day, but its much healthier for your bird to do it right away. But don’t forget to change your bird’s water as part of your morning feeding routine.

Accustoming your bird to drinking from a water bottle can help keep its water cleaner and fresher longer (Make sure your bird reliably drinks from the water bottle before removing its water bowls). Using a water bottle, however, doesn’t mean you can skip water changes or cleaning duties. If you use a water bottle, be diligent about changing the water, thoroughly cleaning it, and make sure your bird hasn’t stopped up the bottle’s sipper tube with food or other debris.

Toys are meant to challenge your bird, but play it safe and check toys frequently for wear and tear.

A Ragged Toy
Toys, of course, are more than a pet bird accessory — they are a necessity because toys keep birds active and mentally engaged.

Routinely check your bird’s toys for wear and tear. Toys are designed to take a beating/chewing, but this also means that your bird might alter a toy during play, and inadvertently create a hazard. Keep an eye out for frayed ropes or strings, which can wrap around a bird’s leg, toes or neck. (The rope/strings on some toys can be trimmed down to prevent long strands from wrapping around a bird.) Also check for gaps or sharp pieces that might have been created when your bird chewed off pieces of the toy. Don’t leave a ragged, potentially unsafe toy in the cage, even if it’s your bird’s favorite — replace it with a new one!

Toys designed specifically for pet birds are generally safe; however, some birds are capable of interacting with their toys in ways that the toy’s manufacturer or the bird’s owner never intended. Birds have been known to get caught up in clamps, hooks, ropes and other toy elements.It is especially important to supervise your bird whenever introducing a new toy to see how it plays with it.

Bedtime Checklist

• Remove leftover food
• Change/replace cage liner
• Check door latch and food bowl doors to make sure they are properly secured (so you don’t wake up with your bird loose in the house
• Cover the cage, or a portion of it, if it makes your bird feel more secure or to keep out nighttime drafts
• Turn night-light on (of your bird is prone to night frights)
• Don’t forget to tell your bird “Goodnight!”

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You don’t have to know a budgie — or “parakeet” as it is widely known in the U.S. — for long to know that it’s a bundle of energy. Give your budgie some toys! You will be wildly entertained as your budgie plays, and your budgie will stay active and engaged without getting into any mischief from boredom.

Social Nature

When choosing toys for your budgie, consider how a budgie likes to play. Budgies are very social birds. They do well in small flocks. If you have a single budgie, give it a friend with a mirror. A budgie will talk to a mirror, chortle at it, and check up on it frequently. Lori Hughes-Begley posted on Facebook that she believes her Gizmo thought he had two friends in the cage with him, since he had a double-sided mirror. You might have to clean a budgie’s mirror occasionally, as many budgies will “feed” the bird in the mirror, they like it so much.

Another toy based on a budgie’s social nature are the plastic budgies that clip on to the cage or a perch. Budgies bonk each other with their beaks, and will often do the same to artificial budgie friends. That’s why sometimes these toys only feature a budgie face. The other traditional budgie go-to bonk toy is a penguin on wheels that responds to the bonking by falling back, then bounces right up for more. Hours of entertainment for you and your little feathered friend!

Climbing Toys

Budgies like to climb on toys. For this activity, a round, hollow plastic ball is a favorite of budgies Yin and Yang in my household. They perch on it and climb around. There are other round-shaped climbing toys made of rope or wood.

For climbing fun, consider a rope spiral or a wooden or plastic ladder. Wooden ladders offer the additional entertainment value of wood that a budgie can chew on. Plastic ladders sometimes make up for that by coming outfitted by colored beads that a bird can jiggle and move.

Colorful Assortment

Unlike dogs and cats, birds see the full spectrum of colors (and beyond what people can see!) Their favorite toys are often those that are brightly colored and have movable or chewable parts to keep budgies’ beaks busy.

Parakeets Love Noise Toys

Budgies talk and chatter a lot. They like toys that add to their repertoire. Toys that feature numerous bells get chimed and clinked. Susan Kitz commented on her Facebook post that there used to be a windup musical toy for budgies. When the bird hopped on the perch music would play. If you can find a similar, interactive toy for your budgie, it will enjoying making the music play and may even learn to imitate the music.

Fast Learners

Budgies enjoy learning tricks. The only reason that they aren’t featured as performers at theme parks is because of their size. They don’t show up too well on a stage. But they’re fine on your coffee table or dining table. You can order budgie-sized trick-training props like pegs and colored rings to put on them. The sky is the limit for budgies, which love to learn and respond to your attention. They can walk a tightrope or dunk a basketball in a hoop.

Let Your Parakeet Swing

A simple but much-appreciated budgie toy is a swing. These come in many styles. Once your budgie figures how to get on a swing, it will also learn to make it swing and how to just sleep quietly on it. Some swings have chewable or movable parts, but a basic swing can be very entertaining for our busy little friends.

Lettuce Surfing

A friend of mine used to clip a dripping wet piece of romaine lettuce onto her budgie’s cage. Her budgie would surf the piece of lettuce, stand on it and bath in the water on it, going through contortions that made it look like the budgie was surfing a wave. Ginny Tata-Phillips wrote in from Facebook that she offers wet parsley for a similar effect. As Phillips says, “It is ok to play with food!”  That includes large items that a budgie can tear apart, such as a chunk of celery with leaves, corn on the cob, a carrot stick or a Lafeber Avi-Cake, a large chunk that can be torn apart.

Don’t Forget Foraging!

Like other parrots, budgies benefit from foraging for at least some of their food. This is an activity that simulates natural budgie behavior. There are a variety of foraging toys available with parts a budgie can pull or turn to get at a treat or food.

Create a Parakeet Playground

It can be handy to have a portable play gym for your budgie. If it learns to stay on the playground, you can take it with you as you move from room to room. Many of these playgrounds combine favorite budgie elements, rope perches, a bell, colorful toys, wooden parts and ladders. Maybe even a treat bowl. The main thing to consider about a play gym is how easy it is to clean. Can it be run through the dishwasher, or can you scrub the base and keep it clean and disinfected? By putting a portable perch or stand over a piece of newspaper, you can have an easily cleaned and portable perch for your bird.

Parakeet Play Styles

About the author: Diane Grindol was author of Bird Talk magazine’s “Small Birds” column from 1995 to 2012 and has written numerous books dedicated to pet birds, including Amazon.com’s top-selling cockatiel books “The Complete Book of Cockatiels” (1998) and “Cockatiels For Dummies” (2001). Diane is also co-author of “Birds Off The Perch” (Simon & Schuster, 2003), which is a parrot behavior book and parrot owner’s manual. Grindol shares her life with a small flock of cockatiels, a blue-headed Pionus parrot and a guinea pig.

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Like other parrots, cockatiels are natural-born communicators. In their native Australia, cockatiels live in flocks, where contact calls are crucial to alerting others in the flock if a predator is too close for comfort. No doubt, there are many other vocalizations going on in a wild cockatiel flock — from happy foraging sounds to “Yes, you can perch here,” and “Did you hear that?” chirps and squawks.

Parrots typically are most vocal at sunrise and sunset, including cockatiels. However, that doesn’t mean a pet cockatiel will not vocalize intermittently throughout the day. In fact, a happy, playful cockatiel will not check the clock to see if it chirp or whistle time. Male cockatiels, in particular, are inclined to burst into a whistle song when the mood hits them, especially if they spy their reflection in a mirror or other reflective object like a lacquered vase; but that doesn’t mean they won’t whistle a song to just themselves or to you. Here are some common cockatiel sounds:

The Contact Call: “Where’d you go?!”

Cockatiels are social by nature and use vocal cues to warn of perceived threats and to keep the flock together.
Photo by Jim Bendon, Karratha, Australia

A pet cockatiel will most likely attempt to keep household members’ movements in check with contact calls. When you leave the room, your cockatiel responds with a chirp or sequence of chirps, as if to say, “Where are you going, and when will you be back?” A cockatiel’s contact calling isn’t strictly reserved for people the bird is affectionately bonded to. Even a “hands-off” cockatiel is inclined to send out a contact call from its perch spot in the cage when you leave the room. You can help put your cockatiel at ease by answering its contact call with a quick whistle back when you turn a corner out of its sight.

The Alarm Call: “Attention! Attention!”

A pet cockatiel might sound an alarm call if something startles it. This call is a louder, more intense chirp that continues until the bird calms down. Just about any sudden sound or movement, such as a truck rambling down the street, a crow flying past the window or a dog being walked on the sidewalk outside, can result in an alarm call. Inside the home, there are even more sights and sounds your cockatiel might feel the need to vocally comment on, such as when you move a chair across the room, sweep the floor, drop a dish or the phone rings.

Happy & Content

The sound of beak grinding is a telltale sign that a cockatiel is happy and relaxed. This is often accompanied by facial feathers that are fanned out over its beak and relaxed, fluffed body feathers. A sleepy cockatiel might grind its beak shortly before falling asleep.

Leave Me Alone!

An uptight cockatiel will have an uptight look — the feathers will be held tightly in — and it might also let out a quick hiss to show its disdain.  One sound you don’t want to hear from your cockatiel is “hissing.” A cockatiel that feels threatened might retreat to a corner of its cage or travel carrier and hiss like a snake. This is sometimes the case with cockatiels that are not used to interacting with people, such as an unsocialized cockatiel being brought from the pet store and into a new home. It is especially important to not force interaction if the cockatiel is frightened. Instead, allow the cockatiel time to adjust to its new environment.

Ready For Bed

A cockatiel might send out a bedtime call, such as some attention-grabbing chirps, when it is ready for some shuteye. It is your cockatiel’s way of reminding you to go to bed, too.

Inquisitive chirp

A cockatiel that is unsure of something might emit a single ”What was that?” chirp, as if it is not quite sure what to make of the situation. This might be your cockatiel’s way of asking, “What do you think of that sound?”

Talking ’Tiels

Like most parrots, cockatiels are also capable of talking. A cockatiel’s vocabulary is generally not as extensive as other parrots, such as African greys and Amazon parrots, but some can be taught to say a few words or phrases, such as “Hello,” “Pretty bird,” “I’m a good bird,” etc. Male cockatiels are more inclined to speak than females. The key to getting a cockatiel to talk is to repeat a specific word or phrase and then moving on to another word/phrase once it masters it.

Your cockatiel vocalizes to communicate with you. Just as you would check to see why the dog is barking, you should also check to see why your cockatiel is squawking, especially if it sounds urgent. Is there a cat outside the window? Did something fall near its cage? And if your cockatiel is by itself in another room, its chirps might be its way of reminding you, “Hey, I’m over here … talk to me!”

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I really can’t remember when I first met Liz — it was so long ago. Avian medicine was in its infancy, and we would attend meetings and hang onto every word. Those words would provide clues that might help us save birds’ lives. There were few pieces of information written, so we relied on the experiences of others to help us move forward in the field of avian medicine.

Most meetings of the Association on Avian Veterinarians were small enough that you got to know those in attendance pretty quickly, and it was there that I first heard Liz talk. She came by her credentials from the road of experience — as a veterinary technician who had seen a lot of parrots and, like all of us, knew that we needed to help them adjust to a life in captivity.

She came to lecture to veterinary students and veterinarians back in the early ’90s at The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.  I think that was my first time to sit down with Liz over a period of days and talk ”parrot.” Her deep voice (a bit gravelly), quick wit, and even quicker assessment of the situation, were hallmarks.

I remember the first thing that Liz wanted all parrot owners to do when they first got their bird and especially if they were having a problem: she wanted them to take it to their avian vet! She needed them to learn from their vet the “bad birdie” diseases and how to keep them safe. We all knew then that husbandry issues – the lack of quality care, from food to cages – had a hand in killing birds. As a veterinary technician, Liz knew how important it was at getting care right. In a more recent conversation with her, we discussed that even fewer new bird owners, and even bird owners in general, do not seek yearly exams and help from avian veterinarians.

Liz was even more alarmed at Internet doctoring and many owners’ lack of general knowledge. She alluded to the hazard of Internet misinformation and mystery sources with her famous quote, “The danger with internet quotes is that they can rarely be verified…  Abraham Lincoln. ” With this, she again demonstrated her wit and cut-to-the-chase style of communication.  She knew that this problem has only escalated and is a detriment to parrots!

Another topic that we had recently discussed was her rewriting of the veterinary issue topics in her articles. The first issue is “Is it TRUE you can’t tell when a bird is SICK?”  She relates in one of her articles that a novice bird owner actually picked out a bird because he was “real nice and quiet.” Her recommendation was to … you guessed it … take your bird to your avian vet! As she related, it is NOT normal for a parrot to be quiet. And in this case the bird had psittacosis, a disease that can be transmitted to people and make them very sick! The point is that birds often have subtle symptoms when they are first sick, and these early warning signs are very important clues. That means that when an owner sees a bird on the bottom of the cage, the time to go to the vet … is NOW!

“When dogs are sick they stare at you with mournful eyes and they practically pull on your pant leg and say I DON’T FEEL GOOD! This is because (as a predator species) the body language is so different… and with birds the body language is unfamiliar.” Liz related that she had a problem with her female, blue-and-gold macaw, Sam, and so she took her to her avian vet. She said that she knew that there was a change but “telling the difference between a normal biological change and that a medical problem developing is the job of a competent avian veterinarian.”

As she told vet students so long ago, when working with owners she would refuse to work on their bird’s behavior problem until they had been “vetted,” that is, the bird was thoroughly examined by a veterinarian. She also insisted that birds go to qualified vets. In one of her articles, she related how a bird owner said her vet had told her that her bird had a runny nose due to an allergy. Liz, in her quintessential, direct manner, questioned the qualifications of “this vet! ” She stressed that the vet be “competent in avian medicine.” And to determine a vet’s competency, Liz had a routine question that she would pose to the receptionist — “What was the most recent continuing education avian veterinary seminar the vet attended?” As she said, there are fewer veterinarians who are willing to spend their own money and their own time to attend a continuing education seminar having to do with birds. Her attitude was “my own bird deserves state-of-the art medicine, and yours does too!”

Another issue that we discussed recently was her article, “The ToP 18 ways to drive an Avian Veterinarian CRAZY.” This is a classic article and those of us who only see birds and exotics really understand and unfortunately nod our heads in recognition, albeit sadly. Those words still rattle us vets 15 years later. One common item to share is number 5 from an owner: “Don’t do annual check-ups with their birds, only bring in a bird when there is an emergency.” Unfortunately, this still drives avian vets crazy. Birds deserve yearly exams just like dogs and cats!

I will always remember Liz at the podium discussing how we vets would grab birds up in a towel – acting, as she said, like a Harpy eagle! “And how and what does the parrot think?” she asked the veterinary audience with her eyes almost bulging! “No wonder they scream and are in a panic!” She went through a calm, slow approach with the towel, and we all benefitted.

Once she came to visit my avian and exotic animal hospital, and she patiently answered questions and worked with a variety of owners, from those wanting a 5-minute “silver bullet” session to ask questions about their birds to those who paid to spend an hour with her and their birds. She was able to assess and provide care from biters to screamers to complex problems. I remember how Liz replied to an owner who said her young Amazon parrot had not bitten her. “Yet!” was Liz’s one-word response. I often think of that word when owners say similar things. And I smile, and think ”Yet “in Liz’s voice.

Liz reminded us that parrots are intelligent sentient creatures. She wanted so much for humans and birds to live well together. Her words over the years ring true to all of us in our search to enhance the lives our companion birds. Liz was very special, just like the parrots that she loved. We will miss her words of wisdom.

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Swift parrot (photo by JJ Harrison)

World Migratory Bird Day (www.worldmigratorybirdday.org), which takes the second weekend in May, is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the protection of migratory birds and their habitats. The survival of migratory birds is closely tied to the availability of well-connected habitat networks along their migration routes. What about parrots, do they travel to one region or climate to another at specific times of the year?

Parrots do not migrate in the sense that they fly hundreds or thousands of miles during certain times of the year, such as during breeding season or before the onset of winter. Almost all parrots are sedentary, that is, they reside in an established range throughout the year. There are two parrot species, however, that do migrate in the truest sense of the word — the swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) and the orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster).

Swiftest Fliers

Swift parrots, which are about the size of a lory but have a longer tail, breed in Tasmania in the autumn, and then migrate to mainland Australia in February and March. This journey takes them across the Bass Strait, a shallow channel of water approximately 150 miles wide that separates Victoria, Australia, from the island of Tasmania on the south. As their name suggests, swift parrots are fast fliers, and they travel the furthest of any parrot —reported to be as many as 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers) a year.

The swift parrot’s migration follows the available abundance of food sources. They are nectar feeders, and like lories and lorikeets, they have a brush-like tongue. According to the Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Services Department, swift parrots arrive in Tasmania in August/September to nest in eucalyptus tree hollows. There is also an abundance of blue gums eucalyptus, which flower in September to December (springtime in Tasmania); these are the months when swift parrots lay their eggs, which take a little over three weeks to hatch. The parrots and their fledglings have a plentiful supply of nectar from the flowering blue gums. Around March or April, swift parrots return to mainland Australia.

Orange-Bellied Parrot

Orange-bellied parrot
(photo by JJ Harrison)

The orange-bellied parrot, which is slightly larger than a budgie, also migrates from Australia to Tasmania, arriving around October and staying until the end of March before crossing the Bass Strait back to Australia at the start of winter (June, July, August). According to the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population & Communities , orange-bellied parrots migrate yearly from their  breeding site in south-western Tasmania, in a northward direction, along the western and north-western coast of Tasmania and through western Bass Strait to spend the non-breeding period on the Australian mainland. They return using the same route.

The orange-bellied parrot’s range in Tasmania is in coastal southwest, Tasmania, while the swift parrot’s is mostly in southeast Tasmania, but with a wider overall range. Unlike swift parrots, orange-bellied parrots are not nectar eaters; they eat regional seeds and grasses.

Critically Endangered

The swift parrot is currently listed as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List category; orange-bellied parrots are IUCN Red Listed as critically endangered. Unfortunately, both the swift parrot and the orange-bellied parrot face the same challenges many migratory bird species face — namely diminishing and/or changing habitats. Agricultural land clearing of blue gum eucalypts and suitable nest sites are main threats to swift parrots. BirdLife International lists their population as between 1,000 and fewer than 2,500 mature individuals.

BirdLife cites the clearance of more than 50 percent of the original grassy blue gum eucalyptus forest in the swift parrot’s breeding habitat and the selective logging of larger trees from the remaining forest patches as main threats to the species, as well as collisions with windows, vehicles, fences and other man-made obstacles. On the Australian mainland, agriculture, residential and commercial development is said to have had a significant impact on the swift parrot populations.

Orange-bellied parrots face even more challenges, especially since their breeding grounds are limited to a narrow stretch of land in Tasmania. A report by the Orange-Bellied Parrot Recovery team listed their population to be around 50 mature individuals as of June 2010.

According to BirdLife International, the primary threat to the orange-bellied parrot is fragmentation and degradation of overwintering habitat by grazing, agriculture and urban and industrial development. Competition for winter food availability with introduced seed-eating finches, and portions of its former breeding habitat being vacated because of a change in the fire regime are other possible threats.

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust (www.tct.org.au) has information for ways to help support the swift parrot and other native species. The orange-bellied parrot has a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/savetheobp) dedicated to helping its survival, as well as regularly updated photos of orange-bellied parrots in the wild.

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Many of us who share our homes with pet bird are pros at repurposing items. From using newspaper as cage liner, cardboard as chew toys, to wadded-up paper to hide foraging treats, we bird owners can be quite creative in our thriftiness.

Here are a few other items that can get a second life before going into the recycle bin.

Little Spoon/Big Help

Like to occasionally indulge in a Haagen-Dazs mini-cup ice cream treat or sample some of the 31 flavors at your local Baskin Robins ice creamery? Don’t toss the cute little plastic “spoon stick,” as it can come in handy when you need to scrape bird poop off of the cage surface and off of your bird’s toys or to break up dried poop from non-carpeted floors.  The little spoon’s design is compact enough so as not to break when you press down hard on it — it’s strong enough to handle the pressure needed to scrape away at droppings — and the blunted, hard-plastic edge is less likely to leave scratch.

A Perfect Place For A Placemat

When I came across this laminated placemat with a bull’s eye design, I knew exactly what to use it for … perfect for the poop drop zone beneath the cage.

Hold on to your old placemats if you buy new ones. A plastic or vinyl placemat can come in handy when placed under the spot your bird likes to perch while it is outside the cage. Many birds, for instance, enjoy perching on their opened cage door. Instead of a towel or rug to catch your bird’s droppings, try a plastic, laminated or vinyl placemat, which can be cleaned using less water and in less time. Simply rinse it down with warm water; no washing machine needed. While a newspaper also offers ease of use in this capacity, a placemat is more likely to stay in place if your bird flaps its wings or a breeze blows in from an open window or door. And a placemat will blend in better with your décor than yesterday’s news.

Another Reason To Stock Up On Nutri-Berries

Save your Lafeber Nutri-Berries, Premium Daily Diet, or Pellet Berries tubs to store toys, treats and your bird’s accessories. The 12-ounce tubs are a perfect place to stash foot toys and treats like millet spray. The 4- and 5-pound bucket tubs are big enough to store larger toys and other accessories like food cups, hidie huts/tents, flight harnesses and grooming supplies. Better yet, the tubs have flat tops, which makes them stackable to help you save on space. Use a Sharpie on the lid to write what’s inside the tub to keep them organized.

“Egg-Cellent” Forage Fun 

Use a clean, empty cardboard egg carton to create a fun foraging playground for your bird. An added bonus … the carton’s cup shape is a perfect fit for holding Nutri-Berries!  If your bird is an expert forager, you can close the lid for it to chew through to reach the treat-filled cups inside; for rookies, leave the lid open and cover the cups with shredded paper or tissue.

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I had the pleasure of working with many avian experts throughout my years as editor of Bird Talk magazine, but none was quite like avian behavioral consultant Liz Wilson. What made Liz stand out was her candid approach to teaching us the nuances of parrot behavior. Liz’s writing rarely needed editing because she always cut right to the chase; she didn’t inflate her words to come across as more scholarly. Instead, she gave us her common-sense approach to understanding our birds’ motivations. She often emphasized the cons more than the pros of opening our homes to a pet parrot because she felt obligated to discourage those who couldn’t deal with not having a “perfect parrot,” reminding us that people aren’t perfect, so why on earth would we put such unattainable expectations on any other living thing?

Liz was not shy about talking people down from buying or adopting a parrot if their reasons for doing so would likely end on a sour note for both the person and the parrot. According to Liz, if you wanted a parrot that talks, you’re better off buying a radio to listen to because not every parrot chooses to talk and you have to be OK with that (Liz liked to emphasize certain words with italics so we wouldn’t gloss over them.). If you wanted a bird because they are pretty, Liz suggested you buy a beautiful stuffed animal of a bird to look at because birds are so much more than eye candy. Make no mistake, however; Liz did not have a “holier-than-thou” mentality. She was as self-depreciating as they come, and she freely admitted each and every mistake she made during the four decades she shared with her beloved female blue-and-gold macaw, Sam. Liz was OK with bird owners making mistakes; she just didn’t want us repeating them.

In the more than 10 years I worked with Liz, I can’t recall her missing a single deadline; in fact, she usually turned her assignment in a few days early. She infused enough wit and charm into her writing to keep us wanting more.

Liz once mentioned that she always bought one new item while out grocery shopping — a new vegetable, spice, tea condiment, etc. — even if it was something she’d likely not buy again, just to broaden her horizons. She said she loved the fact that life is full of endless possibilities. I can’t think of a better way to honor Liz than to make it our mission to see what life has to offer and to extend that opportunity to our pets.

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