That Bird Blog – Bird Care and History for Pet Birds

The concept of behavioral enrichment encompasses a number of techniques designed to encourage a captive animal to live, for lack of a better word, a “fuller” life. We do this by exploiting natural behaviors in a way that encourages the animal to stretch its mind and body by exploring, exercising, hunting, trying new foods and so on – activities outside of the basic necessities of captive life.

The Importance of Enrichment Opportunities
Parrots, with their limitless curiosity and energy levels, are ideal enrichment candidates. This is fortunate, as enrichment activities go beyond “nice to do” for such highly intelligent birds. Most animals that I have worked with in zoos, from fish to mammals, benefit from “BE”, as zoo keepers term it. However, active, inquisitive, social species – parrots, crows, primates, wolves and so many others – need physical and mental stimulation if they are to not just endure but thrive in captivity.

What’s more, opportunities to explore and think stave off boredom, and in parrots this often translates into a well-adjusted pet that does not pluck its feathers or scream.

Following is a review of the major categories of BE. You’ll notice that the various types overlap, and most stimulate parrots in more than one way. Please see our large selection of unique parrot toys, play pens, perches and CD’s – many will be useful in organizing a BE program for your pet.

Physical Enrichment
I really favor this with parrots – after watching several species in the wild, I’m convinced that physical movement should be a key component of any pet parrot’s BE program. Parrots, even those long confined to boring cages, take well to wing and leg-stretching opportunities.

Provide a complex cage, and remember that you can vastly increase the cage’s usable area by adding climbing surfaces. Birds that flit from perch to perch, such as finches, make good use of spacious cages. But caged parrots move about mainly by climbing – a huge cage is not much good if the bird can merely sit on a perch or two and stare into space.

Install vines and perches of varying widths and sizes, so that your pet can make full use of the space afforded to it. Wild grapevine is particularly useful as you can find nearly any shape and size needed – just be sure you can distinguish it from poison ivy! Parrots will also delight in using and shredding branches from fruit and other non-toxic trees (please see Pet Birds and Plants – Avoiding Toxic Species).

When adding toys to your parrots cage, don’t just attach them within reach – try making your pet work, by installing the toys in locations that can only be reached by hanging, climbing sideways, etc.

Social Enrichment
This category of BE includes interactions with other birds, people and (if safe!) other pets. When your parrot is left alone, a training CD, TV or radio may provide some diversion.

Mental Enrichment
Anything that stimulates your parrot to “figure some thing out” qualifies as mental stimulation. This can range from hiding its food, supplying a foraging toy within which a treat is secreted or simply introducing a safe, novel item into its environment (i.e. a pine cone or cardboard box).

Nutritional Enrichment
Hiding and varying the diet works well with any animal – just watch a group of guppies habituated to a fish flake diet react to a chunk of frozen prawn if you have any doubt as to the universality of the technique. Nutritionally based enrichment is also very easy to introduce, and the possibilities are limitless.

Please browse our parrot food selections for unique items to offer your pet, and consider using whole fruits and nuts as opposed to pre-cut pieces. Research your pet’s wild diet and then search for some foods it might appreciate – food markets in Asian, Latin American, African and Caribbean communities offer a wealth of nutritious fruits, nuts and vegetables, some of which might be part of your pet’s natural diet.

Time and time again, I have been surprised by the very noticeable change in an animal’s level of excitement when offered a new or natural food item. This applies whether the animal in question is a toad or a tiger – I’m sure you will be delighted at your parrot’s reactions.

Small meals spread over time and food items hid about the cage or, if safe, the house, are other tried and true methods of keeping your parrot on his or her toes.

Sensory Enrichment
Pay attention to those noises that stimulate your bird to call, display, bathe or just sit up and take notice. Play these and similar ones to rouse it to activity.

Of course, avoid using noises that might startle or instill fear in your pet – your macaw might not appreciate a recording of the scream of a harpy eagle, for example…then again, it would be interesting to see if a captive born macaw might respond to a predator’s call!

An excellent article on the natural foraging and social behaviors of the kea is posted on the web site of the University of Nebraska’s Avian Cognition Center:
http://www.biosci.unl.edu/avcog/research/kea.htm

Overview
Today I’d like to cover a bird that, while generally illegal to keep in the USA, is one of the largest and most impressive species that might reasonably be encountered anywhere within the USA, and beyond – the Great Horned Owl.

Their occasional propensity for living near people (until recently, a pair nested in Battery Park, Manhattan) results in a number being injured each year.  I have cared for several such birds, and suggest that anyone interested in doing likewise apply for the necessary state permits and seek training as a Wildlife Rehabilitator.  Hand-raised Great Horned Owls are gaining popularity with European aviculturists, and a few are even used, falconry style, to hunt game.

Physical Description
One of the largest of the world’s 135 owl species, in the Western Hemisphere the Great Horned is exceeded in size only by the Great Gray Owl (which it outweighs) and the Snowy Owl.  It reaches 25 inches in length, and the wings may span 5 feet (sizes vary greatly among various populations).

The eyes are bright yellow, the throat white and the head is topped with prominent ear tufts.  The color ranges from white in the Arctic to near black along the Pacific coast, but most individuals are varying shades of mottled tan, brown or dark gray.  Females may be up to 20% larger than males.
Range
The vast range encompasses nearly all of North and South America.  At least 13 subspecies are found from northern Alaska and Labrador through the southern 2/3 of Canada, in all 48 lower states and Mexico and south to the extreme southern tip of South America.  Only the Barn Owl, which lives on all continents except Antarctica, is more widespread.

Habitat
Extremely varied, including tundra, deserts, swamps, grasslands, agricultural areas, city parks, mixed and coniferous forest, salt marsh, rainforest edges and mountain slopes.

Densities can be quite high in prime habitat.  Suburban areas, with their mix of towns, fields, forests and parks, prove quite inviting to Great Horned Owls.  Wildlife rehabilitators on Long Island, NY rarely release birds there as nearly every suitable area has been claimed by a nesting pair.

I have found Great Horned Owls nesting in California desert caves and abandoned buildings in NYC, along a salt water bay in a NYC suburb, at a rainforest edge in Costa Rica and on farms in the Venezuelan llanos.

Diet
This is our most powerful owl, and one of the world’s most formidable avian predators.  Over 260 prey species have been recorded, including raccoons, opossums, muskrats, flying squirrels and other rodents, smaller owls and birds to the size of red-tailed hawks and great blue herons,  small alligators, snakes, turtles and frogs, large insects, fish (will wade in shallow water) and road-killed animals.

It is one of the few predators that regularly takes striped skunks and porcupines.  It will, in most “un owl-like” fashion, do battle on the ground – I still recall a striking series of photos from the 1960’s Time-Life Nature Library Series depicting a Great Horned Owl “wrestling” with (and nearly losing its life to) a large bullsnake.

Owls living near farms take ducks, turkeys, geese and other fowl, and have been observed walking into coops to snatch chickens.  In NYC and other urban areas, Great Horned Owls feed largely upon rats and roosting pigeons, but have been known to take domestic cats.

Reproduction
In the northeastern USA, mating occurs in January, and females are incubating eggs by February, when snows are still likely.  The owls often appropriate the nests of red-tailed hawks and other large birds – sometimes driving off or even killing the owners.  Depending upon the habitat, rock ledges, tree cavities, abandoned buildings, barns, large cactus plants or even the ground may serve as a nest site.

The female lays 1-5 eggs and incubates the clutch for 35-40 days (males in some populations may incubate as well).  The young are fed by both parents and fledge in 8-10 weeks.

Both parents are extremely aggressive in defending the nest, and quite literally will not cease their attacks until the intruder, human or otherwise, has been driven off.  A coworker of mine at the Bronx Zoo once entered a pair’s exhibit without a hard hat and landed in the hospital with severe scalp lacerations as a result.

Great Horned Owl pairs defend specific home territories for many years, but forage singly outside of the breeding season.

Miscellaneous
Owls are often referred to as “Birds of Prey”, along with hawks, falcons, eagles and vultures.  They are not, however, related to any of these birds.

Great Horned Owls are classified within the owl family Bubonidae (the Eagle Owls) and are the only representative of the group to dwell in the Americas.  Eleven other eagle owl species, all large, formidable predators (the massive European eagle owl occasionally takes deer fawns), are found in Europe, Africa and Asia.  In terms of their role in the environment, eagle owls are considered to be the nocturnal equivalent of the diurnal eagles and larger hawks.

Next time I’ll discuss Great Horned Owls in captivity, and relay a few personal experiences.

Further information on the Great Horned Owl, including photos and voice recordings, is posted at:
http://www.owling.com/Great_Horned.htm

Image originally posted by Billy Hunt and referenced from Wikipedia Commons.

Bird extinctions, especially those on islands, are usually caused by introduced mammalian predators – most often cats and rats – and hunting. The sad story of the virtual disappearance of all birds from Guam is unique in that a reptile, the Brown Tree Snake, is at its root.

The Brown Tree Snake arrived on Guam in the late 1940’s as a stowaway (from the Admiralty Islands) in supplies used to repair the damages wrought by World War II. Finding a paradise of ample food and no predators, populations of this unusually adaptable snake soon exploded. Today 8 of Guam’s 12 forest dwelling bird species are extinct, 2 survive only in captivity or semi-captivity, and 2 are on the brink of extinction.

The Guam Rail, Gallirallus owstoni, became extinct in the wild in 1987. In 1984, while working at the Bronx Zoo, I received several pairs from a group held in captivity on Guam. They were amazingly aggressive little birds, and bred readily. Today they thrive in zoos and have been released onto Guam’s neighboring island, Rota. The Micronesian Kingfisher, Halcyon cinnamomina, also holds on in captivity but is gone from the wild. These have proven more difficult than the rails – those I worked with fed well but remained edgy and usually failed to breed. Captives that do reproduce often make poor parents, and hand rearing of the chicks is sometimes necessary.

The bird extinctions have wrecked havoc on the ecology of local forests. Nearly 70% of Guam’s trees rely upon birds for seed dispersal or to aid in germination by removing seed coats via the action of their digestive systems. Recent tests reveal that all seeds of most trees on Guam fall directly below the parent, where lack of sunlight and high levels of seed-predators condemns them to certain death.

Lacking birds, the snakes have now turned their attention to fruit bats, rodents, shrews and lizards, with catastrophic consequences – Guam’s endemic fruit bat and 5 lizards species are gone, and introduced house mice and rats are the only rodents observed in recent years. People have been bitten while sleeping (it is theorized that the snakes strike at rapid eye movements – how’s that for a “rude awakening”!?) and bird owners sometimes find a stuffed snake in a cage that formerly held their pet.

The birds of mainland USA are not without problems – nearly 25% of our species are considered to be at risk, and the recent introduction of Burmese Pythons to south Florida does not bode well for birds there.

The Brown Tree Snake is considered a potential threat to Hawaii’s unique and already fragile bird populations as well. Read more about this story at:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D61239F937A25754C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

Guam Rail image is referenced from Wikipedia Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Guam_rail.gif and originally posted by Sabine’s Sunbird

Brown Tree Snake Image is referenced from Wikipedia Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brown_tree_snake_Boiga_irregularis_USGS_Photograph.sized.jpg and was originally posted by Onionhound

Looking much like out-sized crows, to which they are related, Common Ravens are considered by many ornithologists (biologists who study birds) to be the most intelligent of the world’s 9,000+ bird species. People have apparently held this view from the earliest of times, as the folktales and legends of many races are filled with tales attributing great powers and cunning ways to these impressive birds.

We now have many indications of just how smart birds can be – a number use tools, and some have adjusted to changing conditions and have passed along their newly-acquired knowledge to other birds (more on that in future articles, but please write in if you’d like details). And, of course, parrot owners can fill volumes with tales of their birds’ learning abilities.

One of the most startling observations I’ve run across involved Ravens. One winter not long ago, people ice-fishing in northern Europe (I believe it was in Finland) began to find their hooks, devoid of bait and fish, lying on the ice near the hole that had been cut to allow access to the water below (fishing on an ice-covered lake during Finland’s winter is a cold business to say the least, so the lines were left untended while the fisherman wisely defrosted in nearby huts).

At first, neighboring fishermen were blamed, but some spying uncovered the real culprits. Ravens, apparently after watching people bait their hooks, learned to lift the lines with their beaks.

Keep in mind first that the birds had to associate the end of the line, now well below water, with food. The lines were quite long but, amazingly, the Ravens learned to stand on the slack each time it was laid down on the ice, so that it would not slide back into the water – and they figured this all out in the time that people were warming up and not watching!

The bait-thieves were likely helped in their efforts by the cooperative bond that develops between paired Ravens. Those observing the birds noted that one always kept watch while the other hauled up the line. As Ravens sometimes feed together, without posting a sentry, one is tempted to wonder – did they “know” to expect trouble?!

I once kept an injured Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus), relative of the Raven, for a time. The bird took all of 20 minutes to learn how to open the latch on his cage’s door. Once I secured the latch with a lock, he would check the lock (once only) by rattling it, and no longer bothered with the latch itself. When I purposely left the lock unfastened, he immediately flipped it off and then lifted the latch.

Parrot owners are always great resources when it comes to “smart bird” stories.

You can learn a great deal about Raven natural history at:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Common_Raven_dtl.html

Image referenced from Wikipedia, uploaded by Franco Atirador in Feb. 2007, and using the GNU Free Documentation License. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raven_croak.jpg

Many know the sad story of the extinction of the USA’s only native breeding parrot, the Carolina Parakeet, Conuropsis carolinensis.  The last known specimen of this species died in 1918, in the Cincinnati Zoo.  However, a spectacular, pigeon-sized parrot once frequented the mountains of southern Arizona and New Mexico, gorging on pine cones before migrating south to breed.

Last observed in the USA around 1935, the Thick-Billed Parrot ranged from Mexico to Venezuela, but is now largely confined to the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in northern Mexico.  Brilliant green with a bright red forehead and wing curve, Thick-Billed Parrots dwell at elevations up to 11,500 feet above sea level, and often forage in snow-covered trees.

Pine tree seeds are their main food – so much so that breeding is timed to their availability – and it is for this resource that flocks of over 1,000 foraged for several months each year in our southwestern mountain ranges.  Journal entries of naturalists of the time reflect the shock experienced upon encountering a thousand large, gaudy “tropical-looking” parrots in the snows high in the mountains of Arizona.  Thick-Billed Parrots also rely heavily upon acorns, and take other seeds, fruits, vegetables and insects as well.

Now drastically reduced in numbers, Thick-Billed Parrots are the subject of a zoo-based Species Survival Plan – a cooperative breeding effort seeking to ensure their survival, and are kept in private aviculture as well.  NYC’s Queens Zoo has a nice group in a large, outdoor exhibit – their raucous calls and constant activity render them among the most popular of exhibits.

The USA, especially Florida, is now home to a number of introduced parrot species, many of which breed here (please see my article on Monk Parrots).

You can read about conservation efforts for wild Thick-Billed Parrots in Mexico at:
http://www.worldtwitch.com/thick-billed_parrot.htm

Image referenced from one taken by LTshears in Wikipedia Commons.