Actually it was probably a great post for you to dig up. Maybe it should even be stickied.
I think one problem is people don't realize they NEED to do research. They see birds in pet stores, on TV or at a bird show and think it's the same as any other pet sold in a pet store. You just buy it, a cage and supplies, and that's that. You play with it when you want to, and when you don't, it just sits in it's cage, right? Then they find out very quickly how wrong their assumptions were.
I think a lot of people also fall in love with baby bird personalities, and then it grows up and they decide they don't like it anymore. Or it doesn't turn out to talk like the bird they saw on America's Got Talent and they don't like it anymore. I can't tell you how many people have told me, angrily, that their bird doesn't talk. When I question them I find out it lives in a bedroom with little human interaction, and they look at me like I'm nuts when I ask if they talk to the bird. They say, no, I don't talk to it! Well, duh, how would it learn to talk if it's not talked to? If you feel silly talking to animals, you probably shouldn't have them.
They definitely aren't for everyone. They are noisy, demanding and messy. They require social activities and mentally stimulating activities. And if I had had a family I probably would have just stayed with budgies rather than gotten into the larger ones. Yes, budgies need attention as well, but they seem to be happy with an active family around them, provided the family pays attention to them and at least one gets it out to interact. My current flock would probably be very jealous of the attention human children need.
