Congratulations on the appointment & welcome to the forums.....
Up until early last year, I travelled a pretty good bit for work, being gone sometimes six months at a clip, although I didn't have any relatives I could depend on, I had a very nice neighbor who became my bird sitter & would feed & water my birds twice a day. I made a couple of video tapes, then DVDs and a couple of CDs of myself alone and with all of the birds as a flock and individually, just for the same reason you posted.....
It worked, my bird sitter would play them occasionally and when I'd come home, I'd sit with 8-10 birds on me at the same time, listening to their gripes about my not being around, maybe a nip or two, but not always...nine, maybe 10 years ago, after Katrina tore up New Orleans, a friend & her family got flooded out of Slidell, LA & moved to Houston, then the following year her doctor told her she'd have to give up her birds.....she found homes for most of them, but had a nanday rooster & sun conure hen who'd been an item for some six years already & she was afraid someone would get them & split them up, so I offered to take them if push came to shove & the following spring I flew to Houston on one of my return home trips, picked up Fenix & Jimi, spent two days & three nights driving the eight hundred miles home, so we could quickly get acquainted, then when we got home, I had a little over two weeks & I had to go back to work (overseas again)
After I'd left, maybe 2 or three weeks, my bird sitter played one of the CDs and Fenix walked all around both speakers that the CD was playing through, apparently looking for me or at least my voice.....so that might be something you could try, though your brother being there all the time and interacting with her will be a bit different than someone coming in to feed, water & clean cages twice a day, but if you've got a good bond with her, I think it could work, but you'll want to take some time apart...several days, then work into a week or two apart, so she doesn't think you've abandoned her.....
Good luck.....
When you come home on leave, be sure to change into your bird shirt before meeting her again...bird poop & class As don't get along very well.....
The last one ended up staying with me a little longer due to a family emergency on the part of the new owner. Anyway years later (one of them it was over 2 yrs) that I saw these babies again, they knew me right away! Warmed my heart, especially when I was told that one of them had become quite the one person bird and wouldn't really tolerate anyone else. That was not the case when he heard my voice and saw me, he climbed right up and made kissy noises.
