"If I recall right,Vada's your blue and gold? This is one of the species I know can co-conspire with other birds from personal experience. Think of them as oversized cute ringleaders, who never get blamed because they're cute. If the other bird's not cooperating, that's part of the crankiness right there – not all your fault, and probably to your advantage depending on what the bird was planning ;-) "
"Kumiko often combs her own "hair". She didn't do this at the pet store while I was there, so I didn't get why bird that was never handled had no pin feathers on the head. Believe me, I get it now! What she does is wrap one wing around a hanging cage ceiling toy, 1 foot grasping the cage ceiling, and uses her other foot to comb her hair. I've never seen this before. No one I've talked to has seen this before. There is no particular contortion involved--it's the movement that's strange, as it should be physically impossible without inherent hyper flexibility(one of my own diagnosis, which in the ER is called "connective tissue disorder, not otherwise specified"}. I'll bring it up with vet during the yearly(fortunately, her vet is my pre-existing avian vet; otherwise I would have dragged her there no matter what the pet store claimed her bill of health was – Dr. Kupersmith is ranked usually the top five avian vets in the country, so I'm not particularly worried.}
So there's that, and other uses of her wings as arms that grip {almost always from her back while she's facing front}."
^the hyperflexability has been since confirmed as a macaw thing--just not all of them.
"She's actually an incredibly quiet bird by the standards of any species. She's got the standard head shake for "no"going on, along with incredibly slow eye pinning(very rare), the aforementioned hand fed bird posturing, some macaw specific behaviors I was completely unfamiliar with until I met her {I'll get to those in the moment}, several different intonations of short quiet bursts of sound with consistent specific meaning, and two complete human sentences that I've heard – both context appropriate and demonstrating the use the proper pronouns {that last one really threw me for a loop, and I'm still having problems figuring out why she understands that particular area of speech}.
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"The aforementioned blue and gold, Hummus, is a parakeet eater and I had to pull him off the budgie cage myself-- unacceptable in the household that frequently has a budgie in it even if he and I did get along(we don't)"
^Kumiko wants amazons on the diner menu--so don't think this is a aspersion against your species a macaw. In the wild, the small animals on rare occasions. I personally heard about frogs from someone who had seen it.
"My friend Jackie spent some time with Kumiko, and actually experienced her first expression of typical macaw behavior: Kumiko lunged at her like she was going to take a chunk out of her, but deliberately stop short of actually touching her and went back to just sitting there and hanging out. We wrote it off as "traumatized bird"thing when my later research turned up it's actually a very macaw thing. Apparently all macaws do it. It's a test of sorts, to determine if your worth their time. If you flinch or jump back, they lose interest and write you off. It took me a while to dig up the information, so I'm guessing most people seeing this that aren't avian behaviorists write this off as aggression – so not what's going on, and I really hope nobody blames a perfectly good bird for expressing innate behavior like this. It's a one time only thing;but considering the size of the bird, I can see how it would be frightening to the uninitiated.
Macaws also blush. It's usually described as a sexualized behavior or a bonding one."
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Honestly, given these birds are one rung below cockatoos concerning the"me, me, me"thing, I don't think there's enough adequate hours in the day if you were personally interacting with the bird out of the cage the entire day to make up for that – if the bird can amuse themselves and be content with "flock calls"back and forth to you wherever you are in the home, just leave the bird out and check up occasionally or if you hear anything. BJ's wholesale sells cheap($50 US I think) black and white wireless surveillance cameras and you just take the monitor to what part of the house you're going to be in.... Assuming they still carry the item. Should keep your mind at ease and let your bird play unfettered at the same time."
"Because she has balance issues, Dr. Kupersmith has insisted on growing out her wings, and she's had flight for about four days now. That's a game changer. She's probably going to have to be harnessed indoors now when something's being cooked or she'll have to be caged. She seems trustworthy enough the few times I've passed out to stay out of trouble, but I've caught her wandering off onto furniture she knows she's not supposed to be on after coming out of the bathroom. If I already wasn't looking into moving, I would've started major bird proofing: as it is, I'm just going to pack up what I think she can get in trouble with for now.
^macaws are notorious for leaving their assigned spot you've left them and making a run for the nearest destructible human possession--not my problem....yet;-)
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The other thing you might be dealing with is the concept of whoever's nearest gets it. That's a very risk with pretty much all parrots – regardless of species. If they're perturbed they will lash out at the nearest person, even though that person may have had nothing to do with what they're upset about. I won't bother to tell you about the implications of allowing a macaw on your shoulder giving this is universal parrot behavior acknowledged by just about anyone who has experience on the subject {this because it never happened to you, doesn't mean it will never happen}
On the hormonal thing, look online for things that are suggested to encourage macaws to breed – then don't do them. There's also antidotal evidence that feeding them animal protein makes the problem hundred percent worse, so don't give your bird meat if you want a smoother transition.
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You need two free hands pick up bird who doesn't want to be picked up and a collection of birdie towels(which you wrap around your hand, not around the bird). One hand goes in front of the bird and the other goes to the back under the tail. Because the beak can't be in both places at once, and turning around is ineffective, this usually works. If it doesn't, get the birdie towel and wrapped it around the hand you expect to pick up the bird with. I use distinctly patterned dollar store washcloths myself, but anything that will wrap around the hand will do provided you only use that particular pattern of towel for that particular purpose. Just make sure you say you're going to get get the birdie towel right before you get it, simply because you want the bird to associate this as your last straw – as opposed to a punishment. It's just too dangerous not to have a bird step up immediately if something goes wrong – especially since you said you take them outside(me too, and the aforementioned birdie towel is always in my purse)."
"The cheaper way to deal with it is to understand that macaws have an inherent genetic fear of the ground(if you believe the science journals) and if the blue and gold is on the highest point, the natural instinct of the green wing is going to be to try to crowd to that same highest point. Also, you might want to take into consideration the green wing probably does want all the attention. Find some way to reward the green wing every time you are able to pick up the blue and gold without incident(I'm thinking treat). Which means, of course, you have to give the other bird the exact same treat as soon as your out of sight of the first bird , or else risking a whole other type of mess on your hands.
As a very last resort, mostly because I hate automaton parrots, buy a clicker and train what you actually want the birds do in day-to-day situations – they're not just for tricks. They are, however, an option."
