A couple of birds I saw in Baja..

[Mare]

This is Petunia, she's a Mollucan Cockatoo and she lives about 1/4 mile from our place in Baja. Her owner is Tarhecio, a lovely man who caretakes this property. He adopted Petunia from her previous owner who was having old age health issues, someone Tarhecio used to work for and Petunia loves him to pieces![Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

Tim was heading to town, for supplies, when I heard him drive back into our driveway and yell, "Mare!, "Mare, come here!!". I ran out of the house wondering what was up and he says, "get in, I want to show you something!" He drives me up the road to meet Petunia!! :). She was so sweet and friendly! She let me hold and cuddle on her. She's 14yrs. old and Tarhecio has had her for a few years.

Two days later, Tim and I are out by the garage in our yard and...OMG..we hear a cockatoo scream like it was right next door! Dang! These birds are LOUD!

[cdog]

Beautimus, I love the coloring on Mollucans.

[Mare]

Aren't they beautiful, Chris? I've always thought Mollucans were bigger than U2s but Petunia, I don't think was bigger than Amigo,,maybe because she is female?

[cdog]

Depends on the bird, the Mollucans I've seen were all slightly bigger than U2's. One of the biggest I've seen was substantially larger than a U2, but it all comes down to the individual bird I suppose.

I prefer the Mollucans, purely because of that beautiful salmon coloring(shhhh...don't tell Amigo)

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Two days later, Tim and I are out by the garage in our yard and...OMG..we hear a cockatoo scream like it was right next door! Dang! These birds are LOUD!

First thoughts: Amigo must have followed us?

[spiritbird]

I immediately think something is amiss when I hear my birds scream. I would be so rattled living with or near a bird that will scream out for what ever bird reason.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

The scream is very useful for communicating with all the other birds in the Amazon rainforest. Even from here!

[Mare]

It wasn't exactly a scream, Dianne..it was more of a contact call. Amigo will do this when he wants me to come running :)

My son's girlfriend, who hadn't met Petunia, and I, walked up the beach to where Petunia lives. Petunia was in a large outside cage covered with palm fronds for shade and Tarhecio was nowhere around, his car was gone. We went up to say hi to her. She's quite the talker! The sound of her voice is way different than Amigo's, louder, almost like you are standing in a surround sound room. She also does this static radio noise, very interesting. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our place. We could hear her off and on till Tarhecio came home :)

Here is a buzzard we saw on our way back, just chillin' :)[Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

[Pinkbirdy]

Isnt funny , how we act when we see another parrot [at least I do too] :) Nothing better than that !!

[jtbirds]

Mare the thing is in captivity it seems we are raising smaller and smaller cockatoos, Salmon crested Cockatoos should easily be larger in size then Amigo, but I have been told by quite a few breeders we do not breed cockatoos right in captivity thus making them smaller and smaller. she is beautiful though, not often do i see one thats perfect feather in the rescue. M2's usually have some kind of feather mutilation going on. They are such smart, great birds and people ether take to much of an advantage of that or not enough:/.

[Mare]

I KNOW, right, Terri!!? I was missing my birds while down there so, was literally drawn to them :). Justin, that's interesting info and sad,, :( Petunia is fully feathered, not clipped but according to Tarhecio..has never flown! The beak on Petunia is different than Amigo's, more rounded on the top. I'm not familiar, personally, with other birds than my own and am always fascinated by them :)

[jtbirds]

Differences in beaks is almost always a difference in diet or environment:). Sometimes in captivity we raise birds with scissor beaks though..

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Interesting point Justin, Casper's beak is much bigger than other blue fronted amazon pictures that I have seen. I know that it wasn't trimmed enough by his previous owner, in fact it was almost touching his chin. But it also seems generally bulkier.
I read the other day a very funny quote something along the lines of: parrots having a can-opener welded to the front of their face. Any idea where that came from?

[PlaxMacaws]

I read the other day a very funny quote something along the lines of: parrots having a can-opener welded to the front of their face. Any idea where that came from?I've seen variations of that. While it's not exactly the same, this one is similar: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

I think in function their beaks more or less equate to a swiss army knife. They tend to serve as a pair of vice-grips, an ice pick, a chisel, scissors, a finger or hook to hang from, a club or bat to bash things around with, a nutcracker and seed shelling device, a pry bar, a storage bucket for food pieces and other bits of matter, and an attack weapon! (And I'm sure that's only the beginning.) If we could market a parrot beak I think we'd blow Ron Popeil's Ronco company out of the water ;)

Here's another desciption of what it's like to live with a parrot: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Haha they both look like good potential t-shirt pics. I love the bits pecked out of the headline on the first one, a great touch.