I recently moved in with a friend who has 3 Eclectus birds. Two are a matched pair of adult male (7 yrs) & female (8 yrs), while the third is a baby male (just a little over 2 years) that was hatched from them. Each of them have very different personalities.
The adult male is very well behaved, friendly, not afraid of new people. He is totally bond paired to the adult female. His total fixation is on her. He wants to feed her and copulate with her any chance he gets. He doesn't speak much at all. On rare occasion he'll say "hello," but the breadth of his vocabulary is just tweets & squawks. Overall, he's not noisy. He only gets obscenely loud when the female bathes in her water bowl. I guess it's a protective mechanism, as a bathing bird is vulnerable and a loud squawk might scare predators away.
The baby is a delight. He has a growing vocabulary that began to flourish after his 1st year. He has about 6 phrases memorized and a variety of words. What's funny is how he'll play with what he has learned. He's generally quiet, rarely squawks loudly.
Now, the female. :red: *SIGH*
Before she reached puberty, she was pretty quiet. She'd squawk occasionally, but not obscenely loud. Recently, that has changed. Ever since she had her first (and only) baby, her one preferred vocalization: an ear piercing loud squawk, enough to wake the dead. Sometimes she's silent. Then when there's a human nearby (e.g. kitchen) she starts her squawking. Sometimes its one per minute or few minutes, other times it's 2~3 per minute. Nothing wrong with her. If her water is dirty, it gets changed, she still squawks. The only thing that might divert her is to feed her, but even after she's done and still has ample fresh food, she squawks. There are times where she does it when nobody is around either. I'm in the next room and then the squawking starts. Is it to get attention? I come into the kitchen, I check on the bird cages, take care of some kitchen chores--SQUAWK!! I have also been at her cage, putting food into her dish standing right in front of her. SQUAWK!! in my ear.
What is so vexing is that we know she has a vocabulary. When she was isolated in my roommate's room (while healing from surgery to dislodge an egg obstruction), she would speak softly "hello" and "hi." Also, she would whistle. And if you whistled back out of sight, she'd go back and forth with you. Really nice! Wonderful interaction. But with her cage nestled between the other two, she NEVER whistles. All we get is that horrible, deafening SQUAWK!
So I'm guessing that despite having an implant to deal with the hormones, the breeding imperative is still very strong with her and she's simply frustrated. Her owner lets her out periodically. Not every day. But when out, she gets to "play on the couch" with a variety of toys, plus chew on paper & egg carton. She LOVES to shred things. I think the nesting imperative...
The adult male is very well behaved, friendly, not afraid of new people. He is totally bond paired to the adult female. His total fixation is on her. He wants to feed her and copulate with her any chance he gets. He doesn't speak much at all. On rare occasion he'll say "hello," but the breadth of his vocabulary is just tweets & squawks. Overall, he's not noisy. He only gets obscenely loud when the female bathes in her water bowl. I guess it's a protective mechanism, as a bathing bird is vulnerable and a loud squawk might scare predators away.
The baby is a delight. He has a growing vocabulary that began to flourish after his 1st year. He has about 6 phrases memorized and a variety of words. What's funny is how he'll play with what he has learned. He's generally quiet, rarely squawks loudly.
Now, the female. :red: *SIGH*
Before she reached puberty, she was pretty quiet. She'd squawk occasionally, but not obscenely loud. Recently, that has changed. Ever since she had her first (and only) baby, her one preferred vocalization: an ear piercing loud squawk, enough to wake the dead. Sometimes she's silent. Then when there's a human nearby (e.g. kitchen) she starts her squawking. Sometimes its one per minute or few minutes, other times it's 2~3 per minute. Nothing wrong with her. If her water is dirty, it gets changed, she still squawks. The only thing that might divert her is to feed her, but even after she's done and still has ample fresh food, she squawks. There are times where she does it when nobody is around either. I'm in the next room and then the squawking starts. Is it to get attention? I come into the kitchen, I check on the bird cages, take care of some kitchen chores--SQUAWK!! I have also been at her cage, putting food into her dish standing right in front of her. SQUAWK!! in my ear. What is so vexing is that we know she has a vocabulary. When she was isolated in my roommate's room (while healing from surgery to dislodge an egg obstruction), she would speak softly "hello" and "hi." Also, she would whistle. And if you whistled back out of sight, she'd go back and forth with you. Really nice! Wonderful interaction. But with her cage nestled between the other two, she NEVER whistles. All we get is that horrible, deafening SQUAWK!
So I'm guessing that despite having an implant to deal with the hormones, the breeding imperative is still very strong with her and she's simply frustrated. Her owner lets her out periodically. Not every day. But when out, she gets to "play on the couch" with a variety of toys, plus chew on paper & egg carton. She LOVES to shred things. I think the nesting imperative...
