Z Blog

Another Bird

We added another bird to our managerie. He is an African Grey Congo Parrot and his name is Ozzy or Ozzie, I'm not sure how we are spelling it. African Greys are great imitators and are considered to be the best talkers and among the smartest birds. They can even learn to use their words in context to ask for things. Ozzy is still a little young, he's about 8 months old and they generally start talking around a year but he is doing what babies do and making all kinds of different sounds and noises. He is already a pretty good whistle imitator and he even does a different whistle when imitating me then he does when imitating Ian. He also laughs kind of like Popeye or a pirate. He is still a little shy about being petted but he is getting better as he gets used to his surroundings. The other birds are doing good. Basil has learned to spin and wave on command and I'm working on shaking his head no and yes. Gromit has been a little slower but I think its because he doesn't like sunflower seeds like Basil so we have to give him larger treats so he only gets one or 2 repititions while Basil gets 10-20. We haven't started trying to teach Ozzy any tricks. We want him to get more used to us first. Basil and Gromit also seem to be interested in immitating Ozzy more than they do us, so he may end up teaching them to talk eventually.

Here are a couple of pictures of Ozzy.

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