True or False: Parrots are flock animals and in the wild need a large flock to feel really secure.

Not entirely true!

I'm reading the chapters in the "Parrot Behavior Manual" a bit less selectively this time around (I skimmed and read the sections that appealed before, but I'm trying to become more educated). The first chapter is pretty dry -- I think the main thing I took away from that is that parrots have two distinct feeding apparatus, with a small subset of cockatoos using the lower beak more laterally. And that that particular author cites their own work almost exclusively. The main point seemed to be to try to come up with a reclassification of parrots based on proximity to the "ancestral parrot" and trying to recreate the characteristics of that ancestral critter. But the author makes the argument that small birds have more margin for error in flight than those with larger bodies and therefore are likely to be "more ancestral", going on to propose that cockatiels are "more ancestral" than cockatoos. I'm not sure I'm buying that one offhand.

The second article I'm not yet done with, but it talks about observational studies of Amazona parrots from various locations and Rhynchopsitta parrots from Mexico. In fact, only those species which lived in areas where raptors that prey on parrots are prevalent showed significant flock behavior. Some of these would even have multiple pairs nesting in the same tree. For the others, the birds mostly moved and foraged in pairs, family groups or solo. In some cases parents went foraging to feed the chicks independently. Not at all what I expected. So perhaps we aren't depriving our companion birds of a flock life as much as we tend to think -- it is true they have this pair bonding thing we can't totally provide, but they don't necessarily live in large groups, and the species that do seem to have learned to express that behavior as a way to deal with a specific security problem.

Hope I'm not boring everyone to tears...

You didn't bore ME to tears.. I believe flocking behaviour is quite species specific, or sometimes genus specific. Birds like Poicephalus parrots aren't nearly as flock oriented as Budgies, and often do better without a friend.

In this case it was species specific with difference noted between very similar species. In fact, I think it was in one case between subspecies of the same species. To me that suggests it is more learned than innate and that a hand-raised baby might not have a programmed "need" to flock. I wonder if there is a difference between flocking behavior in hand-raised and parent-raised budgies? Most pet budgies actually aren't hand-raised.

I can attest a little to this as Sputnik is a hand-raised baby and I brought him home at 6 weeks. Sorry, no, that's wrong - he's not hand-raised. He was raised by his parents but there was lots of human interaction with the flock and the babies.

Sputnik has bonded with me entirely. So much so that when I tried to bring home a friend for him when he was about 8 months old, he didn't want anything to do with that budgie. I tried with two different babies and the result was the same each time.

I don't know if Sputnik really knows he's a bird? He still does things like regurgitate to his favorite toy, but he definitely is my little buddy and sticks close to me.

But my sister brought home a budgie from the same breeder, and didn't interact with her as much as I had with Sputnik, and after a month or so brought home another baby. The birds have totally bonded with each other. It would have been interesting to wait to see if the bird would bond as quickly to another bird after waiting 8 months like I had.

It's an interesting concept for sure!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

So perhaps we aren't depriving our companion birds of a flock life as much as we tend to think -- it is true they have this pair bonding thing we can't totally provide, but they don't necessarily live in large groups, and the that do seem to have learned to express that behavior as a way to deal with a specific security problem.

Hope I'm not boring everyone to tears...

I think we are their surrogate flock/partners. That's why I do think we can influence their attitudes and security by how we behave. That's also why I think they develop "undesirable" behaviors like excessive screaming. It seems to me, living with both tame and untame parrots, the untame ones (even if kept alone) don't develop excessive screaming; again, my thinking is that they're not bonded/flock associating with humans. Whereas the tame ones (even if kept with another avian companion) do (not all) develop excessive screaming; my thinking is that the tame ones are bonded/flock associated with humans. That's my view on it.

No, you don't bore us!

There's also this idea that those of us who work outside the home should have other birds "because they are flock animals". If some species forage even independently of their mates, it suggests to me that it isn't perhaps such a big deal. But of course every "answer" brings up a million questions, such as what happens with bachelor/bachelorette and widowed birds in both very social and relatively asocial species.

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and most of them stink.

I got seriously pissed off on the other site when someone got preachy with me for wanting to wait until my kids were older, ie, me being in my early 30s to get a big/long-lived bird. It made me see red.

That's the difference between a well-researched result and an opinion. You can't argue with an observation, although you can certainly speculate about what it means. Opinion, by definition, is individual and not necessarily fact-based. But on to the opinon expressed about getting a bird "later in life"... (early 30s as later in life has me ).

i let people get me wrapped around the spindle a bit about getting a bigger bird as an older person. But you know? It does increase the odds of the bird outliving you, but it is by no means a guarantee the bird will outlive you. Birds die young a lot more often than people do... And on the flip side, anyone can experience a life-changing event that prohibits keeping a bird or can get sick or killed in an accident. So I think the community should worry a heck of a lot more about facilitating homes for birds that outlive their people rather than concentrating on telling people not to get a bird if they are "too old". And early 30s being "too old"? Give me a break!!!!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

That's the difference between a well-researched result and an opinion. You can't argue with an observation, although you can certainly speculate about what it means. Opinion, by definition, is individual and not necessarily fact-based. But on to the opinon expressed about getting a bird "later in life"... (early 30s as later in life has me ).

i let people get me wrapped around the spindle a bit about getting a bigger bird as an older person. But you know? It does increase the odds of the bird outliving you, but it is by no means a guarantee the bird will outlive you. Birds die young a lot more often than people do... And on the flip side, anyone can experience a life-changing event that prohibits keeping a bird or can get sick or killed in an accident. So I think the community should worry a heck of a lot more about facilitating homes for birds that outlive their people rather than concentrating on telling people not to get a bird if they are "too old". And early 30s being "too old"? Give me a break!!!!

My "opinion" is you and your family sound like a perfect home for another cockatoo. Your hubs knows what to expect and you both have a concern for, and awareness of, the animal's needs. You CAN work full time and own a cockatoo and it's not automatically get crazy and neurotic. I've seen toos in households where there was someone home 24/7 and the bird's neurotic because the people don't understand meeting it's emotional needs is more than having a person in the house all the time.

I think the Jan's Sputnik and her sister's budgie is perfect example to say: every bird is different. And even with the same species they can act and need different things. Sometimes I think, that it was us- people, who give them "stickers".
Unfortunately I tend to generalize too