Suki, my first and new white capped Pionus

I am thrilled to have my first pet parrot in my life. She is a white capped Pionus and her name is Suki. She is such a sweet heart, although she is only 1 year old, things could change but I hope not.

Suki is like velcro. She follows me everywhere, always wants to be with me. I never experienced that before. All new to me. I don't let her get her way with little things such as when she is on my shoulder and she does not want to come down I don't give her a choice, she gets grumpy and tries and bite but she applies no pressure. I have read a lot of articles concerning Pionus to get an overall idea of what they are about, while every bird has its own personality, I am looking forward to discovering Suki's personality as time goes on.

I would love to hear from other Pionus owners about your experience with your beloved pet!

Hi Welcome! White Capped are beautiful birds! I've had experience with 2 Bronze Winged Pionus. The first was a female, and she passed away about 10 years ago. Now, I have a male named Raven.

Individual personality notwithstanding, I can see some basic differences in my male and female. Just as I read about others who have had Pi's for a long time, it is more 'typical' generally speaking, for females to be a bit more tolerant of handling and easy going in temperament. It is not uncommon for male Pionus to be a little (or a lot in Raven's case lol) more moody and aggressive than females, especially when hormonal. They are close relatives of the Amazons, and will display in quite a similar fashion.

I give Raven boundaries to observe, and he knows good from bad, so his attitude is kept in check pretty well . Other than that, he is pretty sedate for a parrot. He's not exactly a perch potato (though he can be), but he is not hyper like some birds or species, and I don't have to worry about him "exploring" and damaging stuff. Knock on wood, but he is not real adventurous lol, so I can call him easy in that way. He loves playing with his toys though, and he has tons. He especially loves foot toys which are on top of his playtop cage in a toy box. Sometimes he'll actually put a toy back in the box and get another one, but most of the time they're dropped on the floor of course!

I don't think Raven was crazy about me when he was shipped to me and we met. He is warming up to me more after a couple years finally. He is a VERY independent bird though. He is more about entertaining himself, or getting ambient attention, or attention from his bird buddy Griffin. The attention he likes from humans is hands off, but he likes "conversation" with him. He likes when we stand there and talk to him, and VERY occasionally will lean over like he wants to be picked up. He "tolerates" but doesn't really like when I hold him close and pet him lol. His daddy has been grabbing him (gently) with both hands and cuddling him from day one, and he has accepted this handling from him, and is now relaxed with it. I can't do that to Raven though, he makes exception for daddy.
That sort of 'smothering with hands' or real touchy sort of cuddling is NOT typical of Pionus, especially the males, but Don had conditioned him from the beginning when he was only several months old, and didn't really give him a choice lol.

Overall he's getting to be a really good bird. If you set ground rules and keep aggression in check, they really are about the 'easiest' parrots to live with, especially for their size!

Congrats! I love pionus and find them to be a pleasure to live with. My maxi will allow anyone to feed him treats and he'll step up away from his cage onto anyone but isn't snuggly. My new BW pi on the other hand steps up inside, outside on top of the cage or anywhere for anyone and is a love sponge so far. I also think he might be "emotionally stunted" because of how he acts very babyish at 19 yrs.... but for a pet, its fine. I hope you have many many years with your new bird.

Thank you so much for your reply. I am always excited to hear from other pionus owners and their experience with their beloved friend. Happy to hear from you. Thanks again.

A warm welcome to you and your flock.

Welcome to the forum! I have a White Capped Pi named Pisces, who is 13, and a Blue headed Pi named Talli, who is almost 4.
Talli is quite a character, talks up a storm, loves to laugh, and loves to cuddle.
He likes most people and will let almost anyone hold him. He does like to scream sometimes, but thankfully it doesn't last long.
Pisces doesn't talk, but she doesn't scream either She is very picky about who can interact with her. She came from a rescue, where she had been for 18 months. We went to meet her and were the first people she didn't bite...I think it was meant to be She likes to snuggle with my hubby, but not so much with me.

Pisces and Talli do not like each other at all. Sometimes Pisces will fly over to Talli's cage and scare him off it, and he will fly to the floor and run, screaming HEY!HEY!HEY!

I so love Pis, I think they are awesome birds, and I look forward to hearing more about Suki!

Thank you so much for your reply. I just love to hear stories about their beloved Pionus. I truely enjoyed reading about Talli and Pisces. Feel free to share anytime. Looking forward to hearing from you again.