Hello everyone! Quick introduction of myself. I am an Animal Service Officer and supervisor of a city owned and operated animal shelter, and I have been doing this for 1 month shy of 15 years. We are under the no kill philosophy and for the past 4 years have maintained 98-100% save rate.
About a year and a half ago DWR (Department of Wildlife Resources) caught a bird that was called into them for being "exotic." When DWR caught the bird it was brought to my shelter. Well, this exotic bird turned out to be a lilac-crowned Amazon. The poor thing was in rough shape. Beak needed a serious trim, long sharp as talon nails, dry flaky feet, and dull feathers.
After our legal stray hold plus an extra 2 weeks, and trying to find an owner sadly no luck. So I took the poor girl home (I had the vet run a DNA test about 5 months ago, it's a girl!) She loved my 22 year old son, it was sickening. lol She'd sit on his shoulder and look right into his eyes and that is when we found out she can talk (a little) she says “give me a kiss” in a man's voice (creepy) and whistles part of Jingle Bells, the wolf whistle and a come here type whistle. She makes some other noises too. I fed her, handled her, cleaned her cage and spent a lot of time with her. She was good with me, but I think she just tolerated me. lol Once she saw my son or heard his voice she was having no part of me.
Long story short my son got married and moved out and she had no choice but to deal with me. I'm happy to say she has bonded with me, and will not even talk to my son anymore. He can get her to step up, hold her, and she'll sit on is shoulder but that's it.
She will let me scratch her head, rub near her wings but of course on some occasions she doesn't want to be scratched. She is overdue for her nail, beak and wing trim so she can get a little distance when she flies. She can't gain altitude at all, but when she flies it's usually when I'm leaving the room and she flies right to me. I ask her all the time "what are you doing pretty girl?” and she now says "what are you doing?" If I whistle a small part of Jingle bells she finishes it, same with the wolf whistle.
Her beak, feet and nails are slowly coming along and getting better. Her feathers are looking great as well. I wish I had before pictures but I don't. She looks so much better than when she was brought in.
I will have a few questions I'm sure because she still has a long road ahead to be 100 %.
Anyways sorry to ramble but it's just like with the scared dogs and cats that come into the shelter. We build their trust and to see them come out of their shell is awesome, and it's been the same for Piccolo. My husband says she sometimes sounds like a Piccolo Pete firework, so she's Piccolo Parrot.
For some reason I cannot post a picture of her. Every time I try to from my computer it says perciselyparrots.com says: file upload failed.
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. I too would love to see some photos of her.
. Looking forward to seeing pics soon. 
