Reno, the entertainer

Well, we've only had Reno for a few weeks (adopted as an 18-year-old bird), but his repertoire continues to amaze us. There is, seemingly, no end to his speech. Every day, he comes out with words, sentences, and songs we haven't heard from him before.

His speech is so clearly enunciated that it's startling. There has been no "parrot" voice...until this morning. He said "hello pretty birdie" in crystal clear speech...and then repeated it again, in classic guttural "parrot speech", complete with the "Awwk!" at the end.

It was hilarious - a parrot, mimicking a parrot's speech!

He's able to clearly repeat things he's only heard once, too. Yesterday, the dogs were driving us crazy, and I told them "That's enough, now go lie down!"...and this morning, Reno repeated the phrase, absolutely clear, in MY voice! I'm a double-bass, yet he was able to mimic me perfectly - even my enunciation.

He appears to be a VERY smart bird!

He sounds like a super fun bird!

Rescues are so much fun! It seems there is always something new to discover with them, they are like a treasure chest
Sounds like Reno is also picking up new things as well! He must be very smart - and very happy- to be picking up so quickly.

Well, last night Reno decided to show us his mating dance! We've seen little bits of it, here and there, but last night (sitting on my wife's knee and on the arm of the couch) he did the whole dance - over half an hour of it!

It went something like this: Fluff up head & neck feathers; regurgitate a little food & form a birdie-bread ball & show it to us; make cooing noises; turn slowly & deliberately in circles, doing little head-bobs; stop (facing away), put head down, raise one leg behind him & wiggle his toes at us; then, repeat the whole thing, waving his other leg this time.

It was simultaneously adorable, and hilarious. We didn't dare try to grab a camera, for fear of interrupting him, unfortunately. Seriously, 30 minutes of this!

Considering that his backside consists of a round little down-covered snowball of a bum with 3 stubby little red feathers (he was a feather-chewer for 10 years before we got him in December, and we're hoping this is coming to an end), it made it even funnier. He only had one tiny red feather when we got him a few weeks ago.

My wife is over the moon with little Reno - she considers she's really "won the lottery" getting him - his loveable & talkative nature is what she's always dreamed of in a parrot, and she loves him deeply!

The downside is that, as he's sooo talkative, my 'Zon "Sammy" doesn't talk any more - he just mumbles now, seemingly leaving the clear speech tasks to Reno.

How fun - he sounds like he is really enjoying it with you, which is fabulous!

ooh, hopefully we'll see him on video one day?