{"id":14169,"date":"2020-01-30T21:44:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T03:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/blog\/?p=14169"},"modified":"2020-01-30T21:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T03:44:54","slug":"why-is-it-so-critical-to-know-different-pet-bird-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=14169","title":{"rendered":"Why is It So Critical to Know Different Pet Bird Species?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Why is it so important to understand the differences between bird species?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">I&#8217;m not ashamed to say we get more deliveries from Amazon (like most Americans) then we care to talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">This week a new Amazon driver &#8220;Patrick&#8221; handed off an envelope then said &#8220;I&#8217;ve never been here before &#8211; this place looks cool.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">He went further to explain why the place looked so cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">&#8220;I&#8217;m thinking of getting a talking bird, one of those rainbow-colored ones, what are they called, macaws&#8221;?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">&#8220;Here&#8217;s my card Patrick reach out when you&#8217;re ready to have a discussion.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">And so it goes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Macaws are a good place to start a discussion about this conundrum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Macaws &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/13\/macaw-parrot-information-focusing-large-macaws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">we&#8217;ve identified at least 43 species<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1140\" height=\"642\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lFcpTYQFvTk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Hyacinth macaws are 44 inches long and have considerable weight like as much as 2500 g<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Hahn&#8217;s macaws are the size of a sun conure about 165 grams and 12 -14 inches in length.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1140\" height=\"642\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SQwGChNYKYo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">&#8220;I want a conure&#8221; someone blurts out from the studio audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">&#8220;Sure&#8221;, I say, &#8220;Would that be a 64 g longtail bird like a Green Cheek conure or a Patagonian conure, close to the size of a Timneh African Grey?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">I&#8217;ve heard it said far too often &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to get your first parrot, volunteer at a bird rescue.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">My response will be if you&#8217;re going to have a child volunteer in an orphanage.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">That concept is patently absurd.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">What makes more sense is to visit a bird rescue spending some time to understand the unique characteristics of 500 to 600 species of parrots and parakeets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Umbrella cockatoos generally speaking are loud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Major Mitchell cockatoos are not &#8211; generally speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">There&#8217;s no predicting a bird&#8217;s behavior in any given environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">They take in and process more visual information than some early supercomputers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Some species fly better than others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Cockatiels are aerial acrobats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Senegal&#8217;s will lumber across a room.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Ironically unlike dogs and cats, most pet birds within their species all look alike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">There&#8217;s no predicting that one bird in a particular bird species will act or react like another bird in the same species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">It&#8217;s important to not let your emotions get involved when choosing a bird.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">You may have a romantic notion that big birds like an Umbrella cockatoo or Greenwing macaw would be a beautiful accessory in your home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">This notion might get reversed after about three days when you realize the size of the poop in the mess on the floor around the cage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Editors note: you don&#8217;t like to vacuum don&#8217;t get a bird. Endnote<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Other species of birds in a home may or may not react well together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Conures are from South America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Cockatiels are from Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Ringnecks are from Africa and Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Think about three foreign exchange students coming from the same three continents and sharing a dorm room.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">How well will the three cohabitate?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">It&#8217;s anybody&#8217;s guess &#8211; much like three birds and three cages in a room.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Some African grays have selected bonding, others bond with everyone in the family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Senegals tend to be one-person birds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Ringnecks like to enjoy the company of anyone engaging them (in most cases).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The species of birds in your home can be driven by other lifestyle goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">A small aviary with a dozen finches will be a &#8220;living decorative accessory&#8221; while being low-maintenance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">You can replicate the same oral with 10 budgies but you are ramping up the mess exponentially.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Conures are noisy vocal birds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Meyers parrots are not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Housing (cages) is an entirely different issue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The common mantra on the Internet is &#8220;Buy the biggest cage you can afford.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">If I&#8217;m a billionaire I&#8217;ll buy a cage the size of Cleveland (exaggerated to make a point).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">We have an African Ringneck parrot with an upstairs 31 x 20 x 53-inch high cage where he lives with the doors open from 7:30 to 7:30 if I&#8217;m working upstairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">When I&#8217;m away he moves down to his 22 x 17 x 31-inch high cage in the store so he can greet customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">In an active household where people stay up late, you can put a big bird in a small cage at night for sleeping purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">If your bird travels with you as ours does you might want an additional cage for the car.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">There are no cage rules except for maybe bar spacing but that&#8217;s an entirely different discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Important to take into account the species when determining its nutrition program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Larger birds have higher caloric needs than small ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Editors note. Birds that have clipped wings and experience no flight are going to burn fewer calories than birds who are allowed to fly about the house or a particular room. Endnote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Get a dog buy a tennis ball and grab an old sock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">With birds, it&#8217;s nowhere near that easy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Some species are chillers others are not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Lovebirds like to play with toys hung on the side of the cage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Parrotlets although the same size as lovebirds require larger cages and more toys throughout the cage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">In many cases, budgies will warm up to people and naturally socialize.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Parrotlets and lovebirds, if not socialized daily become scissors with wings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">I hope this is enough to get the conversation rolling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Reach out if you have a species-specific question<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is it so important to understand the differences between bird species? &nbsp; I&#8217;m not ashamed to say we get more deliveries from Amazon (like most Americans) then we care to talk about. &nbsp; This week a new Amazon driver &#8220;Patrick&#8221; handed off an envelope then said &#8220;I&#8217;ve never been here before &#8211; this place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[206,239,205,256,262,200,229,231,250,254,261,258,260,245,214,232,242,222,257,243,248,249,190,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-grey","category-amazons","category-budgies","category-caique","category-canaries","category-cockatiels","category-cockatoo","category-conures","category-eclectus-parrots","category-finches","category-green-cheak-conure","category-hawkheaded-parrot","category-hybrid-macaws","category-indian-ringneck","category-large-macaws","category-lovebirds","category-macaw","category-parrotlet","category-pigeons","category-pionus-parrot","category-quaker-parrot","category-ringnecks","category-senegal-parrots","category-sun-conures"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/parrotlet-macaw-face-faceicat-1-1-6.jpg?resize=716%2C445&ssl=1",716,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/parrotlet-macaw-face-faceicat-1-1-6.jpg?resize=463%2C348&ssl=1",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/parrotlet-macaw-face-faceicat-1-1-6.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/parrotlet-macaw-face-faceicat-1-1-6.jpg?fit=716%2C716&ssl=1",716,716,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/parrotlet-macaw-face-faceicat-1-1-6.jpg?fit=716%2C716&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phcfkq-3Gx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}