By Sally Blanchard

I have had parrots for over 40 years and have tried my best to keep them calm and happy at least partly because I wanted to keep myself calm and happy. When I became really involved in the parrot world, I started to rescue parrots that needed new homes and worked to tame them, get them healthy, and to get them on a good diet with lots of veggies and other fresh foods. I also bird sat and had several birds of my own.

I remember one summer when I rolled an old couch out the front door to be able to accommodate more parrots in my small house, which I think the number that were ever in various areas of my home was 30. I set one absolute rule, no parrots in my bedroom.

It was the one calm parrot free area of my house. Taming wild-caught birds and bird sitting taught me a lot about parrots and how they interact with other parrots and people. It also made it very clear to me that the principle of “monkey see-monkey do” should be changed to “parrot see-parrot do.” Companion parrots not only learn our words and expressions, and use them appropriately, they also mimic our body language. The most important aspect I was learning about parrots was that they matched our energy.

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