NA: Happy Spring: Apple in the Tree!

terzap

terzap

Line Up and Wait
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Apr 9, 2005
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Tualatin OR
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terzap
Greetings...and I guess this is NA even though it relates to a spiffy multi-toned, green and silver hi-wing flying object.

It's full bore blooming spring in Portland, Oregon (although not warm at the moment) and last Sunday my sister and I went walking downtown along the river with my parrot, Apple. (Little Yellow Bird, my other parrot who resembles a chunky mini-Piper Cub with a red face, did not go with us. He's a bit antisocial and not as happy to sit quietly on my shoulder and look around.)

Anyhow, my little green flying buddy got his first taste of perching in a real tree (unless you count a moss-covered stump in the woods as a real perching tree) and I thought I would share the pic with y'all.

_apple_tree1.jpg
 
Are the wings clipped? Or how do you make sure he doesn't fly off?
 
I like that picture, thanks for sharing! :)
 
Apple's primaries were clipped when I got him in November, but they're growing back in. (If he were fully flighted the gorgeous royal blue primary feathers would be visible at his wingtips in the picture.) Little Yellow Bird is clipped, but he can take off, fly very well for short distances, and land. (They're only in trouble after they've been in the water bowl and soaking wet.)

Apple has been to a lot of places with me (car, hiking trails, petco, petsmart, several banks, two bookstores, and the local Hollywood Video where he's a favorite customer) and has never shown any inclination to fly off when we're out of his familiar environment (house). He knows he is safe and secure and the few times I put him down outdoors--even in the tree--he practically threw himself back onto my finger when I reached out with the "Step up" command. I let him down in the grass and he instantly climbed onto my boot and started back up my jeans to his safe spot on my shoulder. (Both my birds climb like monkeys. My sparrow flutter-climbed, but the two parrots use beak and claws and can climb up stuff you would think only a bug was capable of climbing.)

I imagine he might get a little braver when he is older, but I will also continue to train him (for the next 30 years, since he can live that long) and so even one day when he is fully flighted he will be trained enough to return when I call him back. He already comes when I call him in the house (but on foot, and it's very funny to watch him and Yellow Bird come running since parrots swagger like pirates on a pitching deck.)

Speaking of pirates, Apple does a most excellent "Arrgggh!"
 
LOL, that is an amazing story. I can picture the birds marching in.
 
Hehe, aww, that is cute terzap, you'd have to capture some of this stuff on video camera sometimes.
 
That is cool Terry. My roommate a long time ago was a big guy and I used to like to play with his parrots. They have great personalities. One of his liked me better than him and it really made him mad. I think the bird liked me better because I knew just where to scratch him on his neck. Ahh bird nirvanna
 
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