  Hi! Thanks for visiting my birdie page! I love birds, and I would like to tell you all about my pet birds and share some pictures of other birds with you. My love affair with birds started 12 years ago with my first bird Petrie....don't laugh at the name now, my son named him when he was a little boy! Petrie was a green parrakeet, with tons of personality! He did not like to be held, but did enjoy sitting on your shoulder or going for a ride on top of your head! We did not clip his wings, and allowed him to fly around the family room at will. His favorite place to perch was on top of the curtain rods. Most of the time you would find Petrie in his cage chattering or yelling at and playing with his many toys. We had Petrie for five years before, sadly, he passed away. I think that a parrakeet is a great choice when buying your first bird. They are very cost effective, easy to take care of and require very little space. I will warn you though, birds can become an addiction! We started out with that one little green parrakeet and wound up with, at one time, a total of nine birds! Needless to say our house is a tad noisy at times! Our second bird was an Timneh African Grey parrot. His name is Timmy...I know, not very original, but the name suited him. Timmy was imported from Africa.( I do not recommend buying an imported bird because the practice of importing is very cruel, and is no longer legal in the United States.) We found him in a pet store and learned that he had had an previous owner who had mis-treated and neglected him, so we took pity on him and brought him home. Being an imported bird, Timmy is not very friendly. He will bite you if you try to handle him....I learned that fact the hard way....ouch!! None the less he is a really cool bird. African Grey parrots are excelent talkers (Congo's are the better talkers of the species). Timmy can talk, but prefers to make noises. His repertoire includes the sound of a phone being dialed, then of course the sound of it ringing, and yes, he answers it too! One day we had company and were sitting outside on the deck when Timmy began to "ring". After a few moments one of my guests looked at me and said " aren't you going to answer that?". I laughed and replied, " no, it's just the bird! " We all had a good laugh over it. I will admit that he does such a good job at imitating the phone that I have ran to answer it on several occasions! I no longer need to use an alarm clock because every morning at six he beeps exactly like my alarm clock, which by the way, is quite annoying on a saturday morning! Timmy also beeps like the microwave, makes the sound of the door squeeking, and hundreds of other, sometimes annoying, noises. Our third bird was a male grey cockatiel named Spike....does anyone recognize a theme starting here? ( The movie The Land Before Time was popular then!) Spike was a hand fed baby, which means he was handled and fed by a human as a baby rather than by his mother. He was a very pretty little bird, his head was bright yellow with beautiful patches of orange on his cheeks. His crest stood very tall and pretty. Only male cockatiels talk so I suggest that if you want a talker to go to a breeder and ask them to "sex" the bird for you before you buy it. This is a simple test and does not hurt the bird. You can not tell the difference between male and female cockatiels when they are babies, they look the same untill they are close to a year old. That is when the male developes his striking facial colors. Spike was a really cool bird and loved to sit on your shoulder and preen your hair. While in his cage he loved to play with all his toys and make lots of noise with his bells! He also loved to whistle. When anyone walked into the room he would say..." hello mate ". Cockatiels have a lot of personality, and like humans can develope an attitude towards people! We had gotton another bird,( Sam, who I will tell you about next ) and I had to pay a lot of attention to him because he was a baby. Well, Spike was not amused by me giving this " New " bird so much of my attention. He was very upset with me over it and when ever I would go near his cage he would hiss at me and turn his back to me! This went on for months! He loved everyone else but would have nothing to do with me. Finally, after a very long time he decided to forgive me and let me handle him again. Spike became ill shortly after that and passed away. We still miss him very much..  
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