The Evil Blue Towel Must Die!!! (Parrot Pics)

[Ladyhawk]

Every once in awhile my parrot does something I really don't understand. Today he got all pushed out of shape over a royal blue towel. I spilled some water and when I walked into the room with the royal blue towel, Gabby immediately went into "Amazon Overload."

THE EVIL BLUE TOWEL MUST DIE!!! (A Picture Essay on Inexplicable Parrot Behavior )
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Gabby spies the evil blue towel:



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Gabby decides that perhaps fanning his tail and pinning his eyes will show the evil blue towel who's boss:



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When I put the evil blue towel on the stove, Gabby immediately attacked it!







Let this be a lesson to evil blue towels everywhere!

Evil blue towels: Enter this residence at your own risk!

[Godhumor]

1. Heh, great pictures

I wonder what about the blue towel set the bird off. I always find pet behavior amusing.

[Ladyhawk]

2. I have no idea. His reaction was immediate and unmistakable, though.

It was hysterically funny. I knew he'd go after the towel, so I had my camera ready.

[Mojorabbit]

35. My african grey is the same about anything red. Goes crazy! eom

[Ladyhawk]

42. How does your African grey feel about his/her own tail? :D

I used to breed African greys. Here are some of my babies:

[Mojorabbit]

52. Awwww, adorable!

He tells me sometimes that he is a red tailed hawk. He also tells me sometimes that his name is cornholio which it is not.. butI made the mistake of letting him watch beavis and butthead years ago.

His tail does not seem to phase him but let anyone walk in wearing red and he squawks( you know what I mean) and falls to the bottom of his cage freaking out. Only for things colored red. I have no idea what his problem with it is.

Here he is.

[rocktivity]

56. Hmm, maybe you parrot sees anything red as a rival

Are parrots territorial creatures?


rocknation

[Ladyhawk]

58. Maybe. :) That's a pretty good guess.

The red tail is probably some kind of signal to other parrots.

It's as good an explanation as any, but AlienGirl is right. Parrots are weird.

Why would my bird hate a blue towel more than, say, a pink one? He does have some navy blue and red in his wings as well as red and a tiny bit of yellow in his tail. While displaying, he opens his wings slightly and fans his tail, displaying the colors. Maybe something about the blue on the towel is similar to the blue on his wings? There is very little blue, so perhaps it's an important color?

Parrots are weird.

[Ladyhawk]

57. That is one handsome grey!

He also looks inordinately pleased with himself...what had he just destroyed?

Have you had him sexed? He does have a masculine look. It's hard to make a good guess from one picture, but I'd guess "male." I guessed the sexes of my babies fairly accurately. The males tended to have larger bones and beaks and to have darker feathers and darker skin tone. Of course, the skin gets covered by feathers and the face turns white in both sexes.

Once again: what a handsome bird!

I'm always amused by what greys pick up. You can try to get them to say something until you're blue in the face and if they don't want to learn it, too bad. Then they can hear something else ONCE and it's committed to memory. So, he's the great Cornholio? Do you give him TP for his bunghole? Bungholio!

A red-tailed hawk? I used to say the same thing about my babies. When they were little, they all loved for me to cover their heads with my hand and gentle stroke their red tail feathers in a pulling motion. They'd be clustered in my lap with their little butts in the air, waiting for their turn. I wish I'd taken pictures of that, now. My Amazon HATES having his tail touched, so I was surprised to learn that little greys love it. I never met a baby grey that didn't like to have his tail gently pulled. My little red-tailed hawks...sigh.

[Mojorabbit]

63. Thank you, I think he is pretty handsome myself

I think he is a male as he is 9 years old and has never laid an egg. The vet said he was one of the biggest greys he has ever seen.
He changed his name from the one I had given him when he was a baby when he was four years old. He decided his name should be Chuck. I would call him by his given name and he would answer me, "My name(insert dramatic pause) is CHUCK!". So we gave in. Chuck it is.

And you are so right about how they pick up language. I have tried for nine years to get him to say I love you. No going. But one episode of Beavis and Butthead and he learns "my name is cornholio".
He has taken to calling me Chester and I am a female. I have no idea where he heard THAT name.
Endless entertainment they are. Those baby pics are so sweet! I remember when mine was that big.

[Ladyhawk]

65. Your bird changed his own name? :) That's a great story!

I wonder what possessed him to decide his name was "Chuck"? African greys are so complex and so sensitive and so intelligent. All parrots are intelligent, but greys take really take it up to the next level.

My friend's grey wouldn't learn some things she tried to teach him, but learned how to swear from the roofers very quickly. Apparently, every time one of them dropped a tool, he would say, "Shit!" So Earl Grey started saying, "Shit!" every time he dropped a toy. He also said, "Chirp!" in a very deep voice. My friend would say, "Earl, you are NOT the kind of bird that chirps." There was of course the requisite one-sided telephone conversation complete with sound effects: "Ring! Ring! Ring! Hello? Oh hi, Sifu! How are you? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. No way! Really? You're kidding! Well, I'll have to talk to Murdell about that. Okay? Okay. All right. I'll talk to you later! Bye. Click!" He could also do a mean impersonation of a modem.

Your guy looks big in the pic. The father of the babies in the pic was big, too. His wife was almost as large as he, but smaller-boned and lighter in color. I had a few big babies that resembled your guy. One, a big clumsy youngster, was named Gilligan. Another big youngster named Odo nearly killed himself by flying into the plate glass window before he was clipped. Scared the crap out of me.

[hunter]

69. Modem impersonations! I forgot about that.

It's been so long since I had one. I haven't heard our parrot do modem sounds for a long time.

The one parrot sound that drives me crazy is the fire alarm low battery alert. We have nine fire alarms. I always try to replace the batteries before they get low, but sometimes a battery will fail for no reason, and I have to wander around the house trying to figure out which one it is.

Most often it's the bird.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

3. LMFAO! now this, this is a great story

I could feel the emotion, anger, and ultimate triumph of Gabby. Pure Genius



Baby is kinda afraid of towels, LOL, so he only kills when hes surrounded!

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. Great pics, LH!

I always loves me some Gabby pictures!

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Thank God for Gabby...Somebody might have been dried to death!!!

Adorable...simply adorable.

[Ladyhawk]

44. Bwahahahahaha!

((((((MrsGrumpy)))))

[Blue_Tires]

6. wow...that bird looks crazy enough to peck your fingers off!

[Ladyhawk]

45. Parrots have really strong bites. The maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible

(lower jaw) can move independently, giving them incredible bite pressure. I believe it's 500 lb. per square inch. The strongest jaws in the bird world belong to the hyacinth macaw. Here's a look at the anatomy. Note that the upper jaw can be moved independently. Also note the long cheek bone for attachment of muscles:



Here's a hyacinth in life:

[marzipanni]

53. LOL! I found a photo of a hyacinth, too

because I was thinking perhaps the color of that towel might have reminded Gabby of a strong-jawed, nasty, blue parrot who was mean to him when he was a little bird.

[Blue_Tires]

60. is this the first time the bird went after the towel?

[Ladyhawk]

61. Yeah. Of course, I've never had occasion to carry any bath towel

into the kitchen with him there before. He showers with me occasionally, so he sees me use towels on myself all the time. Still, he isn't a fan of towels because they've been used to restrain him for physical examinations and grooming. He's never had that fierce of a reaction toward a towel before. I should try walking into the kitchen with another towel and see what happens. Maybe it's a combination of towel and territory. He feels territorial about his little play area next to the stove. Perhaps he's designated it as a "no-towel" zone.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. OK, that stove is WAAAAY

too clean. I hate you!

Oh yeah, cute pics.

[Ladyhawk]

28. Don't hate me. You should see the rest of the apartment.

Seriously.

I've had chronic health issues, so I've never quite properly moved in. Every day I'm doing a little bit to make the place more livable and it just so happens I started in the kitchen.

[Aiptasia]

8. Heh, my amazon used to snap like that

But Paco hated brooms. I guess he was beaten with a broom as a young imported amazon parrot, but he'd go after anyone sweeping around the house with a vengance. They get very vocal and angry, don't they?


Maybe a vet used a blue towel during a beak/nail/wing trim, and therefore blue towels must die.

[unpossibles]

10. My sun conure HATES the broom (and the TV remote)

I think part of it is the noise it makes - he's never been beaten (we've had him since he was a wee chick), but he will attack the crap out of it (or you if you're holding it). It's pretty funny to see a fairly small bird almost pick up an object many times his size.

The worst part is that every once in a while, you forget and pick up the broom while he's on your shoulder. OUCH!

The remote (and some other things, like dark colored bowls and mugs) seem to have a milder enemy status, as he doesn't go out of his way to kill them.

[AlienGirl]

21. My cockatoo fights brooms, mops, scouring pads, and dustpans!

Anything with a long stick-like handle *must* be attacked viciously until conquered. Dustpans and scouring pads (the green plasticy kind) are also enemies and need to be shredded. Occasionally, other things will become objects of aggression, like a Homer Simpson oven mit that led to a generalized aggression against both images of Homer on anything else, and all other oven mits and hotpads.

Birds are weird.

Tucker

[Ladyhawk]

23. Your bird hates Homer Simpson? :)

I would like to see some pictures of that.

[Ladyhawk]

24. Small birds can be even more aggressive than bigger ones. :)

So, has your sunny trained you not to pick up brooms when he's within reach?

[unpossibles]

33. oh yeah, although sometimes I forget he's on my shoulder

and I pick up the broom. Only happens once every few years, but it happens. OUCH! he also likes to destroy my shirts, pluck out my whiskers, and preen my chest hair (OWW!!), but I still love him.

He's pretty aggressive, even compared to other conures I've known. We get along well (he loves music, and I sing and dance with him, which he loves), but he's been known to attack people/things, usually men.

My cats and my dog are all deathly afraid of him - I'm sure he must have bitten them at some point, since the cats originally wanted to eat him and now go nowhere near him, and will actually run away if I get him out. It's great - reversed pecking order. The dog is afraid of the cats too, so it's all mixed up.

[Ladyhawk]

47. I used to have a Senegal and she had Gabby totally buffaloed.

She was small for a Senegal, but she had a HUGE personality to make up for it. I gave her up for adoption due to my chronic health issues.

Do you have a pic of your sunny?

[unpossibles]

54. yes

the rest of the fambly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unpossibles/

[Ladyhawk]

66. Wow, that is a very orange sunny!

Very attractive. I also like that pic on your site of the two cats going at it. I like your upside-down household. So, the sun conure is boss of everyone including the dogs?

[unpossibles]

68. oh yeah. Icarus is loud and bossy to all of the animals

(including the people... lol)

If the cats or dog come near his cage, he leans toward them with his mouth open and they run away. The other animals really have no interest in him any more - I only let them mingle when I am closely supervising them, but they are VERY weary of him. having been bitten, I can attest to how much it can hurt, so I don't blame them.

thanks for the kind comments! Those cats are great - the grey one (Gus) is about 18 pounds, and the tabby (Tybalt) is young but possibly larger. They both are big guys - they can stretch up on their back legs and feel around on the kitchen counter with their front paws, although I generally discourage that....

[xchrom]

9. i agree with abby! why i've been known to yank evil blue towels

off of cute dudes and throw them on the floor just to make my point!

[Lilith Velkor]

11. Blue towels are bad, mmmk?

[Ladyhawk]

25. ROTFLMAO! I forgot about Towelie.

Maybe Gabby saw the danger and protected me from buying weed from that towel.

On edit: why do I always leave the "F" out of "ROTLMAO"? Damn! Did it again.

[Atmashine]

12. Aww....

lol, funny!

[Deep13]

13. Glad someone had the guts to put his beak down!

You're either with us or with the towels.

[In_The_Wind]

14. Gabby had a wonderful time teaching the blue towel it's place!

I love parrots!

[ChickMagic]

15. I'm in love with Gabby!

All we have now is our 'tiel. Our parrot friends
have a yellow nape named Ernie. Ernie's dad says,
"If anyone doesn't think birds evolved from
dinosaurs, they've never seen Ernie with a peanut."

I could say the same about Gabby and the evil
blue towel.

[Ladyhawk]

48. Yup. One of Gabby's nicknames is "Gabby the Velociraptor."

He definitely has a mean streak.

[Sanity Claws]

16. My theory

Isn't there a huge macaw that is kind of that color? Do they naturely share the same territory? Just wondering whether he has an instinct to hate big blue macaws and was taking it out on the same-colored towel.

[ChickMagic]

19. It's a Hyacinth Macaw

They are endangered - probably only 4000 left in the wild.
I don't think they share habitat with Amazons. Hyacinths
are huge birds - I don't think an Amazon would take it on.
Good theory though.

[Ladyhawk]

26. There are species of Amazons that share the same range with the

hyacinth macaw, but I don't think Gabby's species is one of them. Amazona ochrecephala oratrix (Gabby's species) is from the Yucutan Peninsula in Mexico. The range of the hyacinth is concentrated in Brazil and Bolivia.

I actually thought about hyacinth macaws while Gabby was killing the towel. I'm very glad it wasn't a hyacinth macaw for Gabby's sake. The hyacinth has the most powerful beak of all birds!

[ChickMagic]

34. It's the Brazil nuts

But I've had Hyacinths snuggle with me.
I love, love, love parrots!

[Ladyhawk]

50. Yeah, hyacinths are usually rather sweet birds...sweeter than Amazons. :)

It's a good thing.

I played with a couple of 9-month-old hyacinth youngsters once. They both kept flying to land on my shirt. They were heavy and their feet were like skis.

[maxsolomon]

17. you have COVERS for your heating elements?

what are you, german?

[Ladyhawk]

27. LOL...the covers are there because Gabby has a play area next

to the stove and seeds and other debris would end up in hard-to-clean areas. I have to monitor Gabby when he's on that play area so he doesn't get into things he shouldn't. As you can see he has no fear of traipsing across the stove to fight evil blue towels.

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. "Number one is off...number two is off...

All the elements are OFF!"

Gabby is adorable.
fsc

[ronnykmarshall]

18. Guess she told you ...

NO BLUE TOWELS EVER!!

[NV Whino]

20. Question...

I know from nothing about parrots--are they able to distinguish between colors?

[AlienGirl]

22. Parrots see all the colors humans see, plus a few others

Bird eyesight is amazing.

Tucker

[Ladyhawk]

30. Yes. They can see into the ultraviolet.

Once my mother was wearing a wig that was--to me--indistinguishable from her real hair. Gabby was so frightened he fell backward off his perch screaming bloody murder. The wig must have had something undetectable to the human eye. That's the only thing that makes sense.

Why he hates this particular towel above others is a mystery, too. It might be the color...or even something I can't see.

[unpossibles]

31. I saw this cool show about birds and their eyesight

it discussed how they can sense not only ultraviolet and visible light, but there was also discussion of perhaps being aware of electromagnetic fields, and how they can navigate very well.

I love birds. Have you ever seen/heard of Alex at MIT?

http://www.123compute.net/dreaming/knocking/alex.html

Dr. Pepperberg, listing Alex's accomplishments, said he could identify 50 different objects and recognize quantities up to 6; that he could distinguish 7 colors and 5 shapes, and understand "bigger," "smaller," "same" and "different," and that he was learning the concepts of "over" and "under." Hold a tray of different shapes and colored objects in front of him, as Dr. Pepperberg was doing the other day as a reporter watched, and he can distinguish an object by its color, shape and the material it is made of. (Dr. Pepperberg said she frequently changed objects to make sure Alex wasn't just memorizing things and that she structured experiments to avoid involuntary cues from his examiner).

http://web.mit.edu/giving/spectrum/winter01/smart-talk....

He's amazing. There used to be some movies of him online; totally worth watching.

[AlienGirl]

36. You know how our retinas have rods and cones?

Birds' retinas have a third photoreceptor, a double cone. It's thought to detect polarization of light, giving another entire dimension to their eyesight--like another set of colors.

Tucker

[Ladyhawk]

39. Woah, too cool! I wasn't aware of that.

It makes me wonder what Gabby sees that I don't. There must be something about that towel--and about my mother's old wig--that is beyond human perception.

[Ladyhawk]

38. Yes, I once talked to Dr. Pepperberg on the phone.

Some educators were applying her work with Alex to autistic kids and getting pretty good results. This was some time ago. I lost the resulting notes, her phone number and my paper. Oh well. Maybe it will turn up somewhere. You never know.

Dr. Pepperberg was very nice.

Check out this video with Alex, Dr. Pepperberg and Alan Alda: Entertaining Parrots. It's a great video.

[AlienGirl]

46. I think some of the neurological differences in autism are birdlike

Birds don't seem to have as much sensory integration as mammals, and (in my experience) birds, like many autistic people, don't self-calm well.

Tucker

[Ladyhawk]

49. Parrots, unlike dogs and cats, are prey animals. I think this is part

of the reason they're more high-strung than more familiar pets. Rabbits also don't do self-calming very well because they're #1 on most predators' dinner lists...and they're mammals. I've seen rabbits out of their minds with fear. The author of Watership Down even gave it a name: "tharn."

But you're right. To calm my bird after a fright, I say, "It's okay...it's okay...it's okay...you're okay...you're okay." It usually does the trick pretty quickly. If I just left him alone, it would take longer. When he's angry, I divert his attention to something else. It would have been a mistake to try picking him up right after he finished with "Towelie." I had to talk about something else and get his mind off the defunct blue towel.

[Digit]

51. I tell my bird, "It's okay, it won't hurt you", and she understands.

Possibly part of it is the soothing voice.

When she goes to sleep at night, she will repeat many of the soothing phrases I tell her.

She has a phobia of fiberglass filters, and the sweeper...or rather I should say she GROWLS when she sees these items.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

[NV Whino]

40. Thanks for the info

Better change your towels LH.

[wildhorses]

32. could I "borrow" Gabby...I know some evil

people in purple who SHOULD die...

[Arugula Latte]

37. BWAAAAK! ATTACK! ATTACK!

I guess she taught that damn towel a lesson!

[unpossibles]

41. Can't we all just get along?

[Ladyhawk]

43. No, I don't want to get high. Drugs are bad, mmm-kay? n/t

[Ladyhawk]

67. Oh god...what would Gabby think of an evil blue towel with EYES?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

55. KILL IT!! KILL IT!!!!!!!!

KILL THAT SON' BITCH!!!

[Sequoia]

59. Poor Towelie

Great story, so much for animals only seeing in black and white. We have a parakeet and he rules the house. He always wants to be on our shoulder or in the Easter basket with paper grass hanging from a plant hook. He just loves it. Then in the early morning or before the sun sets he demands we take himm outside so he can churp at his buddies.

[Ladyhawk]

62. The towel is still draped over the step stool...and the bird is still mad

at it. He's trying to climb down the stove to get it.

[Ladyhawk]

64. Gabby tries to climb down the stove to get to the Evil Blue Towel (tm).

He's obsessed.