I just felt like posting pictures of our feathered friends . . .

[ET Awful]

[Digit]

1. Lovely pictures

They really are incredible creatures.
I have an African Grey and she has given me an incredible appreciation for all birds.

[ET Awful]

4. Yup, the greys are super smart.

This one is one of three they have at Southwick's (a privately owned zoo in Mass.).

They're all very social and outgoing :).

[ChickMagic]

16. They are like toddlers

with wings! I love those guys. We have a friend that has a Grey named Dorian. He actually makes up sentences. They gave him a dried banana chip one day that he'd never seen before. He'd had bananas, tortillas, crackers, all that. He examined it, looked it over, tasted it and declared it a "banana cracker".

[ET Awful]

18. Yup, they're one of the only animals (and the only bird I know of)

that can freely associate words.

I've encountered one that new the difference between water (from the tap) and "cold water" (from the refrigerator).

[Ladyhawk]

23. Greys are the smartest, but other parrots can do that, too. n/t

[Darth_Kitten]

32. Yeah!!! so there...

great pictures though. :) :evilgrin:

[ET Awful]

35. LOL . . . So sue me, I thought only the greys were geniuses :) n/t

[Darth_Kitten]

36. Nah......all birdies are pretty darn smart....

:)

[Ladyhawk]

39. The really smart families are the parrots and corvids.

The intelligence of parrots is pretty well-documented. Greys are good with language, but other species are good at this, too. Some parrots can use tools or solve complex puzzles. There's a cool documentary called "Parrots: Look Who's Talking" that shows you all aspects of parrot intelligence. You can rent it from Netflix and it's a kick! The real title is Nature: Birds. "Parrots: Look Who's Talking" is the second feature on the DVD.

Corvids--ravens, crows, jays, etc.--are quite intelligent. Crows are especially good at tool use and have even been known to make their own tools.

[Kat45]

41. I have a video of that show that I bought from PBS.

It was on PBS a number of years ago. I've watched it so many times; I just love the talking birds in it.

[Ladyhawk]

42. LOL! That's a great story. :D n/t

[Magrittes Pipe]

2. That little wren is singing his heart out just above a huge hyacinth macaw

I dunno, maybe it's the fact that I just woke up -- but I find that juxtaposition hilarious.

[ET Awful]

3. Hehehe, yup, if that macaw opened his mouth and just let out one

squawk, it would blow that poor marsh wren right of his branch :)

I tell you though, that wren was a joy to listen to. That was a fun day . I wish it hadn't been so windy, he would have been in much sharper focus :)

[Ladyhawk]

22. Ever notice that the hyacinth macaw has yellow stripes on the sides

of its tongue? :D

[ET Awful]

33. I don't know if I noticed it, or someone told me or what, and I'm not even

sure I knew that, but it sound very familiar :) . . . like I think I might have known that at one time and never gave it much thought :P

[Ladyhawk]

40. I learned it when I played with a pair of 9-month-old hyacinths.

They were huge and clumsy and like most baby parrots, had to feel everything with their huge beaks and tongues. The tips of their tongues are shaped differently from the tongues of other parrots. Most parrots have a round "ball" on the tip of the tongue, but the hyacinths have a fat, arrow-shaped tip. I'm not sure why there is a difference. :shrug:

It's soothing to be "tongued" by a gentle parrot. It feels like a finger massage.

For those who have never seen this magnificent bird in person, they are the world's largest parrot. The yellow around the eyes and beak is bare skin. All macaws have bare skin somewhere on the face. Even skin under this macaw's feathers is yellowish in spots. In this pic, you can see the yellow stripe down each side of the tongue. Tres kewl, eh?



Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm under the influence of pain killers again.

[bertha katzenengel]

5. Did you shoot all of these? Did you shoot the Carolina Wren?

They're all fabulous, ET! I just LOVE the feathers between that Gray's eyes. Wow. What a piece of work is a bird. :)

[Magrittes Pipe]

6. You'd have to use a mighty small caliber rifle to shoot a wren.

;)

[bertha katzenengel]

7. Bah!

:bounce:

[Egalitariat]

29. LOL****

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[Egalitariat]

30. LOL****

nm

[ET Awful]

9. Yup, all mine. To my knowledge, it's not a Carolina Wren, just a typical

marsh wren :) Taken over at Great Meadow Wildlife Preserve back in August or so.

And thanks for the kind words :hi:

[bertha katzenengel]

10. I said "Carolina Wren" because it looks like the only kind of wren I can

identify!

Good for you! :bounce:

[ET Awful]

11. That was a tough shot to get :) . . he was on that little branch, and the

wind was blowing about 20 MPH . . . that branch was swinging back and forth like you wouldn't believe and he just held on and sang :).

[MissMillie]

8. I'm fond of penguins

www.waddleon.com

[u4ic]

12. That Hyacinth Macaw is magnificent

Here's my favourite looking bird, a Moustached Parakeet:

[ET Awful]

13. Another shot of the grey

[Ladyhawk]

24. That's a typical grey posture. I used to call mine "bat birds." n/t

[ET Awful]

34. This one would hang upside down and dance from foot to foot

:) He was a kick to watch.

[Ladyhawk]

38. Greys are silly. :) So are most parrots. :D n/t

[SOteric]

14. You're just trying to tempt Evita off of her diet program, aren't you?

[ET Awful]

15. LOL . . . I think that Hyacinth Macaw would kick her feline fanny

:evilgrin:

[SOteric]

17. Heh. Probably.

I recall once that some neighbourhood crows banded together to terrorise my StirFry. I had to keep him in until they moved on.

[Dr Fate]

19. I'll bet Quinn & Althea like them too.

Nice names too- I can guess what you did in the 1990's.

[ET Awful]

20. Hehehe, their names make it pretty obvious eh? :)

The cats have never seen birds except through the window :)

[wovenpaint]

21. I rescued one of these this past week!

He was hopping around the parking lot at work and was presented to me since I'm the "animal person". I had to find a wildlife rehabilitator to take him to, and at the time I had no idea of what kind of bird he was.
Thank you Al Gore for the internets-I was able to research it and now know what a Cedar Waxwing is. What a cool little bird!
To make a long story short, I found a woman about 20 miles away who's licensed to take in our injured wild feathered friends. She's taken care of over 500 birds over this past summer-amazing! The bird was apparently attacked by a cat and has a couple of puncture holes on his butt. He's now on antibiotics and I'll call back on Tues to see how he's doing. She has 3 other ones at the moment so he won't be lonely.
Big cheer for wildlife rehabilitators!!! :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Ladyhawk]

25. I recognized the pic, but I've never seen one in person.

They're beautiful birds, aren't they?

Wildlife rehabilitators are so busy and they don't get paid for the work they do. Our local rehabilitator is usually up to her armpits in deer that people decided were "lost." People don't know that does leave the fawns in hiding until they're old enough to keep up if danger approaches.

There was some kind of deer plague last year that killed all of the babies in the rehabilitator's care. Very sad. :( The deer population in this county plummeted. I've only seen a few this year and they're usually everywhere.

[wovenpaint]

26. I was told they're all around us!

They ARE very beautiful-but very shy. The woman I brought my little friend to told me that they stay in large flocks and we can see them flying by...but mistaken for sparrows. They love Chokecherry trees. I think I'll find one to plant in my yard so I can hopefully see some "up close and personal.

Yes, wildlife rehabilitators DON'T get paid! This woman specialized in birds-your story helps me to understand why.

I had 3 fawn in my yard a couple of years ago-the doe took off and they stayed all day alone, til dusk, and I was getting nervous-but left them alone and thankfully, she came back for them. They are soooooooo adorable, BUT NOT PETS! So sad about the deer decline-wonder if it's West Nile? There's worms that they get also...

[Ladyhawk]

27. The rehabilitator said the disease was specific to deer.

Only deer were affected. A young buck with the disease showed up at my mother's back porch, so she called the rehabilitator. That's how I learned about the deer plague.

We had so many deer, then hardly any. This makes me worry about our mountain lion population and what kind of food they will turn to if they are starving. I think we'll see more attacks on livestock. Maybe not. It depends upon what the lion population was like before the crash and whether or not the high country was affected. I just don't know.

We've always had plenty of mountain lions, but like the cedar waxwing, we don't see them very often. Or at all. They're very elusive.

[Flaxbee]

31. where do you have mountain lions?

I always worry so about the predators -- the big cats and the wolves and coyotes... people are so damn ignorant and hostile to them.

I know California has them, and many areas in the Smokies have big cats, too...

[Ladyhawk]

37. California. They live even in the low foothills. n/t

[Egalitariat]

28. Thanks for that****

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