wow, mac has already been in our home 3 weeks and i have only written ONE blog entry for her? tsk tsk!

okay, well, mac is probably THE MOST friendliest bird i have yet encountered. she is the ONLY amazon parrot - so far - that i have allowed on my shoulder. she is a playful, happy-go-lucky spirit that would probably not hurt anything except the wood she LOVES to chew.

i can do pretty much anything with her. scratch under her wings, flip her on her back (still kinda getting used to that), touch her toes, just hang out. she has never bitten me, nor my husband, very hard. its more like a VERY LIGHT beaking. as long as we do not show her that her beaking backs us off, this will not grow into a full on bite attack, so we are watching this.

she LOVES attacking her bell. i hung a few bells in her cage and she charges it, it rings and she makes her own noises in reply. she can do this for a few minutes and she is off somewhere else. i think she likes her bell, instead of hates it, because she can also calmly be in her cage, near the bell, and not be phased by having to attack the bell. and its a great thing to watch. i will have to try and capture this on my camera!

mac has also been expanding her vocal abilities...she does say "hello" in a few different tones, she makes the "beep...beep" noise of a truck backing up, she does a really good wolf whistle, and she has some other noises that i have not yet identified yet. she is a great mimicker...sometimes when i make a noise, she tries to imitate it. she hasn't yet tried other words yet, but i think the other noises she makes are cuter.

the only time she actually becomes loud is when i provoke her into being loud - like i speak louder or raise my energy levels and speak quicker. other than that, she is generally a really quiet girl (i like to expend some of her energy in vocalizing - i do not teach her that her vocalizations bring her anything).

mac did have some potential adopters come to visit her. we found out that she is not comfortable around young children. the potential adopter had a 2yr-old with her and mac never lost sight of where that little girl was or what she was doing.

mac also is a bird that has a "bark bigger than her bite". she can do a mean growl and open up her beak to bite. she sometimes does this when i try to take her off of my shoulder or when my husband tries to step her up on his hand. BUT, this is just her test. if you DO NOT flinch away and stay confident, keeping your hand calmly and firmly in place, she will just lightly beak you and then step up on to your hand.

for strangers, it may be a good thing to respect her growl and not push her to step up in the beginning - you DO want to give her the opportunity to make her own decisions. maybe luring her on a hand/arm with a nut will make her happily step up. with me, she knows i won't hurt her and if she is on my shoulder and i need her to get off, i will either try to get her to step up on my hand (tickling her toes first usually avoids her growl) or just put my shoulder next to her cage. when i say step up, she just goes on to the cage without a fuss.

mac will also eat and try anything. for pellets, however, she seems to like harrison's best, although i also put zupreem fruit blend pellets in her bowl as well.