OK, 2 years since anyone has offered up an Ekkie story...
Here's an amusing one about the juvenile Eclectus male in our household. He's the talkative one of the flock. And as it so happens, his cage is closest to the kitchen. Any time any of us come into the kitchen, he usually says "hello!" or "hello, lovebug!" and then he'll come up to his water dish to sit and watch (it's the left side of his cage, nearest the kitchen). He has an eagle-eye on everything, watching intently. And while he will talk to get attention, if there's noise or talking between the humans nearby, his way to get attention is to climb loops around his cage, going from his water dish, up and over, upside down, swinging a bit, then continuing on to the other side of his cage, to then scurry up the perches back to the water dish, where he'll pause... and then might go ahead and repeat the antic. Sometimes he'll stop on his cage "ceiling" and hang there like a bat, and then he'll maneuver himself to come down on the center perch. While he's doing this, he's always looking out to see if he has gotten some attention.
While there is a number of things he enjoys to eat, his top favorite is egg white. Now, we don't give this to him often, for health reasons. So it's really an occasional treat. I enjoy semi-soft boiled eggs and will prepare a batch, then eat one every other day with toast. My routine is to bring out my egg peeling "palette" (it's a painter's palette shaped squeegee made of silicone), a thin soup spoon, and a shaker of salt. I'll smack the cooked egg on the marble countertop, which makes a specific sound.
Immediately, the juvenile will hear it and be on high alert. He scurries over to his water dish "perch" and gaze into the kitchen, glancing side-to-side then locking in on my activity. As I begin peeling the egg, he starts to show some excitement, then launches into his crawling upside down routine. Sometimes I'll stop and attend to something else, like making coffee. And when I get back to the egg and start in with the spoon to extract the egg from the shell, the juvenile is back on high alert. He notices
everything!
Once I've peeled the egg, my next step is to cut it into sections with a knife and lay out the pieces on my toast (
which may have some butter or avocado on it). I save the narrow tip portion for last (
no yolk), which I then cut up into little chunks. As I approach the end of the kitchen near the cages, the juvenile is so excited he can barely contain himself.
He'll start his "lookie-lookie" move, darting his head from left to right (
a common Eclectus trait when preparing to feed), then he eagerly takes the egg piece from me. He'll let out a cheerful "beep" sound a few times. I then give one of the other birds an egg piece, and walk back... where the juvenile becomes almost frantic, anticipating more. Imagine the delight of a toddler getting a piece of delicious chocolate. This is what it's like. We call it "bird crack!"
Anyway, there have been times when it's the next day and I don't want to give them any egg (I try to make the tiny treat a twice a week thing), so I have to go into another room to do my preparation... because the juvenile knows exactly the egg peeling routine and will start getting so excited. And it doesn't matter if I put objects in the way of his sight. He hears
everything, and knows what's coming!
I can just imagine it. "Hey you! Come here! Let me out!" Actually, I wouldn't mind if Rosie would do that. Instead she has this really loud, unpleasant squawk instead. Ranger will imitate so many things we say. Sometimes he'll just say, "Wanna come out?" And we'll find that he doesn't really want to. He'll sometimes just roll through his vocabulary, like practicing it all.
