Macaw Moment

I LOVE THIS!! My Boss went on vacation last week to the Dominican Republic and sent this pic to me. Her oldest with a beautiful B&G Macaw! I love and want kids exposed to other animals. In this case yes the B&G IS trained to take pics, as you can see he's a plucker on his thighs. I got sad seeing that but didn't alert my Boss to that. I love that this was her daughter's first experience to a parrot, a BIG parrot!!! They are both beautiful. On the other hand, seeing the naked legs on the macaw made me sad and want to reach out and correct the issue. My question, we can't fix everything so when issues or opportunities come up like this what is the recommendation to address them? Am I being too anal about wanting to address them?

I don't have any answers, but I feel you. Everyone keeps showing me the viral video of the Moluccan cockatoo that imitates its owners arguing, and it makes me really sad. A) the bird is severely plucked, and B), I understand that humans arguing is a fact of life, but it makes me really sad that that's the "take home message" this bird got from the people it lived with. Know what I mean? Who knows, the bird could have picked those behaviors up in a former home and now be in a wonderful home, but...I look at the video and it just makes me sad. I always feel grateful that my Amazon who was adopted as an adult only knew "nice" things to say when he came to me. I feel like it's a good sign that he was treated well.

I think we always have to be careful about the assumptions we make from photos or videos. Sometimes those birds are being rehabbed in their new environments and are finally flourishing, despite still having plucked areas or "negative" behaviours. Just like when one of our members heard people "snickering" about the travel cage she was using for her bird, I think we often see the worst of others when we view any bird not in "perfect" conditions.

If we don't know the neurotic behaviour of the animal, of their past, or of what actually goes on in their care, it becomes a very dangerous game of pointing fingers... and there's always at least 3 pointing back. If you want to address them, I suggest taking an approach of, "oh! I see your bird has ______. Is he doing okay?" Rather than taking an attack-approach, where you say "Your bird has ____! Why aren't you doing anything?!"

Those are my thoughts, at least.

Excellent points and you are absolutely right about that. Thanks so much