Yellow Collar Macaw

[RodeoCowboy]

so I am interested in getting a YCM this fall I have a Green Cheek Conure I have owned a white bellied caique , quakers, African greys, and sun conures. but have always wanted a Macaw so what is your opinion on them any personality traits ? talking ability? intelligence? I also have noticed them seem to mix well with other parrots such as other hahns macaws and conures any opinions on that? I have a 66" tall 40" wide and 32" long cage and was wondering if he could be eventually housed with my GCC if raised with him my GCC lived with Quakers Love Birds and a Congo so he is used to other parrots with him and I adopted him and he is alone now he isn't nippy or mean. if not the YCM any other Mini Macaw Suggestions that could potentially fit my description would be great. Im home a lot and have tons of time to care for them and play with them as well

 

[PanZon]

i have a 5 year old YCM male and the only thing i can say for mine is he is a non-stop, never ending, even in his sleep, chatter box spider monkey of a bird.

i am only slightly kidding. from sun up to sun down he does not stop playing and talking and yelling for attention. or hopping from shoulder to shoulder to play stand to hand to shoulder.

he loves to snuggle up into my neck, but if you try to skritch him (petting) he chirps and snaps. only wants love on his terms. he can be beaky but not hard and has never drawn blood.

he is like a spider monkey, always swinging and moving very fast while he plays. upside down running in his cage or playstand. will fly across the house just to ring his bell like crazy for 5 seconds then fly right back to me to land and say "whats up"

 

[BirdyMomma]

Hi! I have a 14 month old YCM female named Loki. She is by far our most intelligent bird (we have 5). She is the most amenable to training, and my relationship with her makes my life so happy. She is so very loving and cuddly. She wants to cuddle with me ALL the time. She would be happy to sit on my chest allllll day, and just chill out with me. She can be noisy if she wants to, but she usually isn't. I am very sensitive to loud, repetitive noise, so I would have an issue if she was unacceptably noisy (we have a bird who is). At about a year, she really showed an interest in talking. She loves to say hello, and make fun of my laugh, and she will purr like a cat.
Although she is perfectly fine in our aviary with our Amazon, I don't think I would ever put her in a regular sized cage with another bird. She has recently developed an animosity toward our cockatoo (who returns the favor), also, she is FEARLESS, and will take on any other bird. Considering her small size, this isn't so smart. So I would worry about a YCM bullying a conure.
I really can't say enough good things about YCMs. I know there are other YCM people who don't have cuddly ones, but ours is, and I met some YCM babies just yesterday that seem like they are already super sweet. Good luck!

 

[noblemacaw]

A YCM would be my next mini macaw. Depending how I do and where I will be living I just might look harder for one. I have read so many good things about them that I am very interested. As for the negative (and as well all know every species can have them) I am experienced enough with mini macaw to handle those.

Personally I would not recommend a mini macaw as a first parrot. Only the Noble macaw and Hahn's if you are experienced with having parrots like cockatiels or budgies for example. The two smallest of the macaws really like people so it is not so much of a stretch to graduate to one of those.

Okay..all macaws like people. LOL.

I so also recommend a Illiger's macaw. I am not sure the price between an Illiger's vrs a YCM but I can't end my post without mentioning them. I loved my Illliger's Diego and he was a very affectionate and very smart parrot. One thing I experienced with Diego was he did become very bonded to me and tolerated everyone else. Experienced bird people were able to get him out of his cage while I was there so he was never a biter like some one bird person parrots can be. I did understand his "black beak" intimidated people not use to parrots but Diego was able to be handled by other people. I put in a lot of work since he was a baby to socialize him and that is very important.

I also learned black beak nips hurt more than horn or light colored beaks. Never understood why but its true. The beak "material" must be harder in black beaks. LOL.