What is your favorite species, and why?

[LauraT]

Hi everyone,

Just curious to see what people's favorite species (or individual bird) is and why? And what about that same bird are your least favorite qualities?

For me, Brain, our Quaker was my soulmate. Charming, funny, communicated in context, and was truly an active member of the family. Least favorite trait were his cage issues.

Our new baby Senegal, Baxter, has only been here a month or so. He is our first Senegal. He is silly , bold, affectionate, and very quiet except when he "beeping" or trying to chat with me. So far, honestly...nothing I can say as a bad trait. He is a delight and quite a buddy

Look forward to hearing others experiences

Laura

 

[MacawGuy]

well mine is a macaw. why i just like them. they are clowns and very cool. least thing is prolly the nippy out of them is the least fav about them but it still does not really bother me

 

[evesta]

I'm new to birds so I don't have much to compare to but after meeting some other parrots I really am glad I chose Linnies. Besides being about the cutest little things with big black eyes and spotted butts, they are comical, friendly and amazingly forgiving and laid back. They are also very quiet and the noises they make are normally pleasant and they aren't very messy birds unless I give them millet. I'm also impressed with their ability to talk, I wasn't really expecting much but they are just a few months old and know several phrases, whistles and sounds. Although they went through a baby nippy phase it didn't last long and was not as bad as I imagined it.

I would say they are perfect except I wish they would let me give them scritches. I don't think that is a linnie thing just something we are working on gaining trust. They love kisses but not scritches, so yeah I wouldn't mind if they were a bit more cuddly.

 

[melissasparrots]

I have two that are equal favorites. Yellow Naped amazons and sulfur crested cockatoos(especially the galeritas.)
I love my amazons because they are easy if your willing to excuse their aggressive tendencies. They are affectionate, flamboyant, full of personality but otherwise easy to please with just enough spice and attitude thrown in to keep things interesting and sometimes a challenge. They eat great, and rarely pluck. I like amazons as a genus, but the yellow napes have always drawn me in. Even for my first 20 bird owning years when I thought amazons were nasty and didn't want one. I still liked to sit and watch the napes.

I love my sulfur because they have all the attitude and beauty of the large cockatoos with just a bit more independence. The galeritas especially have a very graceful profile and body proportions and unlike the recumbant crest species, you can always see they have a crest. They are super smart, great cuddle factor. They have the amazon tendency to go totally into overload mode which keeps me on my toes. They also force me to think about life from a different perspective that is beyond that of a typical pet/owner relationship. My amazons are my best friends with feathers. My cockatoos, especially the sulfur somehow transcends the animal human bond and takes it to a whole different level that doesn't even compare. I can't say cockatoos are necessarily my favorite all the time as trying to do right for them tends to inspire some self doubt and worry about doing the right thing for them. Sometimes cockatoo ownership is a rough and varied road full of potential for mistake. However Ariel is kind of like my soul mate in animal form. Like the amazons, I love the white cockatoos in general. But the sulfurs are my favorate of the genus.
Melissa

 

[Mare Miller]

Having a goffin's cockatoo, now, I can only compare her to Amigo, my U2. She is fun, funny, seems to enjoy every moment she is awake. She is easy going, super messy and we are loving having her in our life. But I guess, my heart belongs to Amigo, my umbrella cockatoo.

I love his courage, beauty and strong will. I've got to admire his tenacity. He's a pain in the a*s most of the time, for other people to be around him, but a loyal companion to me. I definitely had to grow to love him. He burrowed his way into my heart and took up permanent residency.

Sooo...I'll have to say an umbrella cockatoo

 

[cdog]

My female green cheek conure, Bella. Why? Because she is so funny the way she dances, she doesn't go up and down its more like poses. She always flys to me when I am eating because she insists on sharing with me. If I havnt let her ride on me in the last three hours she will keep flying to me, no matter how many times I put her back, until I take her for a ride. She doesn't talk after you, she talks over you and she has the funniest voice. She won't wait for me to give her her daily nitriberries, she will find the bag, knock it over and climb inside to get one. If her dish runs out of Harrison's, she will spin around as many times as it takes to get my attention and then will grab the dish with her beak and shake/lift it to let me know it's empty and she wants more. It I put something in the dish that's not to her liking, she will grab the dish, lift it out of the holder, shake it back and forth, then throw it on the ground and stare at me as if to say, how dare you!

I don't have a lot of hands on experience with a bunch of other birds but I do have 5 green cheeks plus Bella and Sully's babies, and Bella is my favorite along with my little fatso Scooter.

 

[wenz2712]

Mine has to be a Zon!! I picked Codie, as when I went to see her at 8 Weeks old she sat with me and kept looking up at me with those Big Brown eyes and then snuggling into my arm I then waited another 3 Weeks till she was weaned!

She is so comical... she understands everything I say and she is just so full of personality.. she is quite happy to amuse herself on her Playstand when I am busy and she chats away all day long

 

[caliopi]

I love Ekkies but that is all I really know for a hand reared experience as my king parrot is an aviary bird. I love so much about puffin from his amazing vocabulary which fascinates me especially how they say the right thing in context with what is around them. I love how affectionate they are,they are never happier than when they are snuggled up with you, I love how cheeky they can be.

My only not really happy about would be how messy he is with food and how smart he is in finding ways to get his bowl out of the holder and pitch the contents on the floor. We had to get someone in to weld notches in the holder to stop him lifting the bowl out, problem solved we thought but then he learnt to open the latch on the outside of the door by hammering it with his beak until it loosened up enough for him to slide it across!

If I could have any parrot I wanted I think it would be an amazon as they just fascinate me.

 

[KrazyBirdBoy]

Out of the many parrots that own me . I still have to say african gray! I love their smarts and sometimes cheeky moods. They are extremely independent and they always think they know better than we do . I love how my gray can be sweet and nasty at the same time . Maybe she has a multiple personality disorder LOL. She is extremelly messy , nippy, and also very cuddly . I don't know if that combo makes any sense to anyone but there you have it. My second fave is the Quaker.

 

[henpecked]

I'm not going to touch this one with a 10' pole, you can guess where i stand.

 

[cnyguy]

I like all kinds of parrots-- but I have a soft spot for the two types that have shared my life, Amazons and Quakers.

George was with me for 40 years. He was a Yellow-crowned Amazon, but my fondness for Amazons extends to the other kinds as well. George had a cheerful disposition, a great sense of humor, and was a good talker and singer. He really didn't have any bad qualities; like many parrots, he was often noisy, frequently messy and sometimes a little stubborn, but that's about it.

Ralph the Quaker is intelligent and playful, generally on the quiet side and sleeps late in the morning. He is very fussy about food and twice as messy as George was.

 

[aliray]

I don't have a lot of experience with larger parrots but I have a little green Quaker that I am crazy about. I love his playfullness nad cuddlyness. He amuses himself for hours on his playgym with his toys then climbs into his cage to play some more with the ones in his cage. He loves to give birdy kisses. he is just a lot of fun....Alison and sweetie pie

 

[ConureCrazy]

Well you can say I don't have experience with larger birds; just keets, tiels, and my two conures. I have to say, my two GCCs are the most playful little things! They do the cutest littke hop from perch to perch, swing on clothes hangers, and are pure nice.

 

[beck]

LOVE Quakers! Though sometimes I go to the pet store and I can't believe the little green gremlins they have are the same species as my little buddy... not that Moche isn't a Quaker through and through, I am just very biased I love my CAG, but there is something extremely endearing about my chatty little busybody that I wouldn't trade for the world.