"Bad" Seymour

Seymour the Geek

The Duets from ... Well, "Heck" at Least

Heidi, the Tool and Mess Maker

Felix the Educator (and Hunk the Student)


We'd had Seymour only a year or two when one February day shortly after Valentine's Day, our favorite Seymour story happened. Royan was holding him. For some reason, Seymour was in a foul (no pun intended) mood and gave her a nip. It wasn't a bite, but required punishment so he was put on his cage and she refused to talk to him or look at him.

Some minutes later, she felt Seymour climbing up her pants leg. She still refused to look at him or talk to him. Every few moments, he'd pause in his climbing as if looking around to see what she was doing. She thought he might be wondering if he'd be yelled at.

He continued his climb, slowly and with pauses, until he perched silently on her shoulder. During this entire time, she'd not talked to him or looked at him. Finally, she said "Is Seymour sorry?" and turned to face him.

When she did so, she realized why he'd been climbing as he had. He'd made the climb carrying a small candy heart in his beak, which had made it more difficult, requiring the pauses. When she turned to look at him, he said "Okay?" and pushed the candy heart between her lips.

The rascal got away with "murder" the rest of the day. We still have the candy heart, safely preserved in a small container. We'll probably keep it until it turns to dust. He has a real "sweet beak" so we will occasionally allow him small candies. He apparently stored this little heart away for future use.
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Seymour the Geek

Sometime during the autumn of 2004, Royan and I were sitting in the living room, reading and talking from time to time. At one point we heard a "beep" from her computer nearby. We didn't think much of it, figuring the computer was doing one of those mysterious tasks they sometimes do. A few minutes later we heard another "beep". Then another.

We looked at each other, then over towards the computer which was located in a sort of alcove off the living room. There we saw Seymour, standing on the back of her computer chair. The chair was pulled up tight against the computer desk. Seymour was looking up at the monitor screen, peering at a picture being diplayed by the screensaver software. After a moment, the screen went black as it was supposed to do. Seymour walked from the back of the chair to the computer desk, and poked the keyboard. He then walked back to his post on the chair and stared at the new picture until the screen went black again. Then it was over to the keyboard to poke up a new photo once again.

He did this several times, until he spotted Royan watching him, at which point he stopped. At first we thought that was the end of it, but we have since caught Seymour working with the computer many times. Sometimes when we're drifting off to sleep at night we can't help but wonder what the birds are plotting next in their cages downstairs ...
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The Duets from ... Well, "Heck" at Least

Sometime after Zeus, Umbrella Cockatoo cock, had joined us, we realized he had a particular call that is just about the most irritating and annoying "caw" noise imaginable. It's sort of like a cross between a crying baby and a banshee. He will often start making this noise when he's left alone, sometimes even for just a few minutes. We try to ignore the noise so as not to encourage it. We're not winning this struggle at the moment.

A while back our dog (Auviq, American Eskimo Dog) realized this gets attention for Zeus, even if negative, and decided to join in by howling along with Zeus's call. This certainly adds to the irritation factor, but Zeus loves the extra noise. Now, when he starts his "cawing" sound, he expects Auviq to join in. If Auviq doesn't, Zeus will often pause in his caterwauling and start saying "Auviq ... Auviq" clearly calling the dog by name until he starts "singing". Once they get going, both seem happy with the results. No one else in the house is.
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Heidi, the Tool and Mess Maker



We miss Heidi, Citron Cockatoo, very much. She's been gone some time but while she was with us, she often amazed us with some of the things she could do. Among other things, she was a toolmaker. While it's well known that birds can and do make and use tools, we've not had many who actually bother, but Heidi did. We'd rather she hadn't, considering the use she put them to, but it was very interesting to watch.

When the mood struck and an almond was available, Heidi would take the almond and split it open around the perimiter, giving her two half almond shells. (She split the shell so it was mostly flat.) She would then take one of the shell halves, wander over to her food dish, and begin using the shell as a shovel to help her fling food many times farther than she could using her beak alone. It was truly amazing to watch and no joy at all to clean up. She, however, had a very good time.

Watching her perform the work of making and using the "fling assister" was very informative. Most people who've observed a parrot manipulating objects are well aware that they can use their feet exactly as we use our hands. Heidi would pick up the almond in her left "hand" (almost all parrots are left handed) and very carefully split it in two with the most delicate beak manipulation. Then it was off to the food dish to make a mess, secure in the knowledge that her humans would fill it up again later.

The flinging did show the limits of her understanding. We've seen her use her home made scoop both with the hollow down and up, so she apparently didn't grasp the scoop concept quite completely. Either way she held it, the tool did greatly increase her throwing range, which was the main goal, after all.
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Felix the Educator (and Hunk the Student)

If you've read Felix's biographical sketch (Felix's bio) you'll recall it labels him the self-appointed tutor of lovebird chicks. He really seemed to like to teach the younger birds the tricks of the lovebird trade, at least as they apply here in the house and aviary. His tutoring of a young lovebird named Hunk was among the most entertaining.

Hunk was only a couple of months old at the time. (He's named Hunk since, almost as soon as he pulled himself out of the egg, he'd been a favorite of nearly all the hens in the aviary. We're not sure what he's got, but he's got lots, whatever it is.) Most lovebirds spend much of their time in the cages, except for Felix who usually had the run of the aviary. We had Hunk out free for a while too, as we were figuring out the best location for him long term.

Professor Felix

During this time, whenever Royan would come in the aviary to work with the chicks, or we were feeding the birds, or whatever brought her in, Felix would fly over and land on her as he had for years to see what she was up to. Hunk, however, would remain aloof. Realizing this, Felix launched into a program of education about the fact that "Mom" is not a danger and you can see some fun things, like checking on the babies, if you keep her company. He would sit on Royan's arm or shoulder and chatter at Hunk, while waving his little wings at him in a sort of "come over here!" call, Lovebird fashion. Gradually, Hunk got braver but still remained at a distance.

One day, after some progress had been made, Felix decided it was time to finish the lesson. He wandered up and down Royan's arm and back, chattering all the time. He reached up and gave her earlobe the most gentle of nips, then turned to Hunk and chattered loudly, apparently saying "See? I can even nibble on her and she doesn't hurt me!". At that point, Hunk finally flew over to Royan and landed on her shoulder, a bit nervous but apparently convinced this human was really okay. Felix, for his part, decided he'd done his job well and flew off to the nearest food dish. Hunk never became the companion Felix was, but he was on his way.

Some time after this training happened, Hunk found himself on an airplane on his way to a new home in someone else's aviary. His new human was very eager to have Hunk in his flock, and has kept us up to date with photos and stories of Hunk's new life. That includes several chicks that Hunk has fathered. It seems his name continued to be appropriate. Those chicks were crawling out of eggs in record time!
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