Meet Corky-licious!

[Corky]

This is Corky, he is our orange winged amazon. He is about 26 years old and got left in the family when my partners mum passed away. He is quite a good boy, loves to have a head scratch but wont step-up or leave his cage. He occasional flies (but he isnt very good at it and tends to crash land) He is never shut in his cage and has lots of ropes and toys to encourage him to leave it, and he will occasionally be found wandering around the rope especially if a peanut is put at the end of it!
I would love to get him more confident, and for him to be happy to come onto the hand or even shoulder and be happy to move around the house.
Often when he has a new toy or perch it will take him 3 months to use it! He isnt a destructive parrot and is in beautiful feather condition, he loves his showers and is happy to take treats and fuss from me.
The only time he will sit on the hand is if he flies off his cage, he will step up onto the hand to get off the floor and then fly back to his cage.

 

[wenz2712]

Corky is adorable

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forum, and Corky looks REALLY sweet.

I hope he "opens" up to you some more. Does he talk, whistle, chatter, or make other noises?

 

[henpecked]

Welcome to the forum, I'm not sure Corky is a OWA, but it doesn't matter. How long have you been caring for Corky? It takes awhile. Does Corky have a favorite treat that only YOU give to him (by hand)? You should find something he really likes, and only you give it to him, Don't "free feed" it with his normal food. There's lots of other "tricks" you can find in some of the older threads. Loads of members here with amazons who'd love to help, you've found a great forum .

 

[Bird_Mom_to_Coby_the_GW]

Corky is a cutie. I love the suspended rope system you have so that he can wander around. I bet he loves that.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forum, I'm not sure Corky is a OWA, but it doesn't matter. .

Richard, were you thinking Blue Front? I think he is. ...but like you said, it doesn't really matter.

 

[henpecked]

Yeah Wendy, BFA IMO. There's several subspecies but he looks alot like a Blue Front. I thought he might have some Yellow Shoulder in him but the beak and feet are way too dark. Hey Corky, how much does he weigh?

 

[Birdlover11]

Corky is adorable ! Love his feathers, such a nice shade of green

 

[Corky]

Thankyou for all the replies
I had just been told, and through looking on pictures online that he was an orange winged. He doesnt really have much blue on him, he has red and orange shoulders if that helps. I havnt a clue how much he weighs, he has never been weighed

It is only me that gives him the treats, he does like cherry tomatoes and cheese (though im sure cheese isnt the best of treats!) Someone has just pointed in the direction of a good parrot food supplier to try some pellets with him, the local pet shops here sell terrible quality food

He is terrible with new foods and will take ages to try something new, it took him 2 months to try a cherry tomato now he looovvess them! And trying new fruit is a nightmare you have to give it 2 him daily and he has to see it for weeks before he will try it! I can try and find some pictures of that will help in his identification?

He does talk, and makes an excitable squeak noise and quivers his wings if there is a treat on the way he likes! He also makes an errrerrrerrr in a real gruff voice when he is chewing his rope, and he will occasional copulate with his buddle of socks! He doesnt say alot, whistles more but once he gets going there is no stopping him! He often shouts the dogs in and shouts 'get out!' followed by 'good boy corky' and he mumbles alot, says 'hello ba', 'how are you', 'what do you want' and sings neighbours occasionally and will shout 'phone!' when the microwave pings!

 

[Birdlover11]

If local pet stores sell bad quality food I would go online and order giant hulks of pellets such as zupreem, Harrison's . Maybe you could try MySafeBirdStore - DISCOUNTED Bird Products - Safe & Healthy from a Bird Free Environment. Best prices on the 'net. Same day shipping. . Have you tried nutriberries with him ? They have some pellets in it so it could help wean him into the pellet transition. It's also a mix of fruit , veggies, nuts.

 

[Corky]

I have been recomended harrisions, im just off to browse the forum for which pellets would be best. I havnt heard of nutriberries, off to have a look now.

 

[Birdlover11]

They are GREAT . Made from the Lafeber's company, here's a link ,

Nutri-Berries « LafeberVet.com

 

[Corky]

Thankyou for that link. I have just been having a scroll through and seen some people say you should only stroke the bird on the head, does touching the wings, back and tail send different signals to the bird like a mate??

 

[osnyder]

He looks really really healthy Some birds take forever and a day to warm up to things-- whether it's a toy or a food or a person. Patience is key.

 

[Birdlover11]

Thankyou for that link. I have just been having a scroll through and seen some people say you should only stroke the bird on the head, does touching the wings, back and tail send different signals to the bird like a mate??

You could do it once in a while, but it could stimulate mating behaviors. It is a VERY bad idea to do it in the upcoming months since its spring fever. Corky could get the wrong idea and think you are his mate

 

[Corky]

Ive been doing a bit more research on the orange winged and blue front to try and determine which breed Corky is. He has both orange and red on his shoulder, but with a pure green tail. I was reading that the blue front has a red base to his tail? Could he be a cross, are there any specific photos I could take that people on here could tell me which one he is?

 

[SandyBee]

I'm thinking blue fronted as well due to his beak colouring.

The Blue-fronted Amazon is a mainly green parrot about 38 cm (15 in) long. They have blue feathers on the forehead above the beak and yellow on the face and crown. Distribution of blue and yellow varies greatly among individuals. Unlike most other Amazona parrots, its beak is mostly black. There is no overt sexual dimorphism in plumage to the human eye, but analysis of the feathers using spectrometry, a method which allows the plumage to be seen as it would be by a parrot's tetrachromatic vision, shows clear differences between the plumage of the sexes

The Orange-winged Amazon is a mainly green parrot about 33 cm (13 in) long and weighing about 340 gm. It has blue and yellow feathers on its head which varies in extent between individuals. The upper mandible is partly horn coloured and partly dark-grey. It has orange feathers in the wings and tail, which can be seen when in flight. The male and female are identical in external appearance.[2]

 

[henpecked]

You could take some pictures of the head and nape areas, use good light. Here are some pictures of some of my OWAs and their babies.

Notice the orange cheek patches, lighter beak color and lack of large color patch at "bend of wing" . Here are some pics of a BFA , dark beak(black), Red/Yellow at "bend of wing", no orange cheek patch.

Yes, you could have a hybrid but he looks BFA , IMO All of these birds are wild caught,pure breed or babies from wild caught, no hybrids.

 

[MonicaMc]

Definitely not an Orange Wing, but could be an Orange Wing x Blue Front hybrid...

Here's a great shot of an orange wings tail feathers.
Orange-winged Parrot (Amazona amazonica) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

An orange wing in flight
Parrot ?species - flying with Ring-necked Parakeets | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Blue front with wings up some and tail spread'
May I sit here? NOOO Ok do I look like I care? | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A few of a blue front flying from the back
Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot (Amazona aestiva) (AD) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!



And... not to rule out the possibility, an OW x BF hybrid
Orange Wing x Blue Front Amazon Hybrid | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


I think Corky is probably a blue front hybrid of some sort. He's in great feather! I'm not a fan of his cage though, particularly the open top portion of it. Does the cage have clasps to keep those "doors" open?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Harrison's is a awesome pellet, I give my galah the fine sized pellets along with totally organic pellets.

Check chop mixes, bird tricks has a great recipe on their blog I use. If you google bird tricks chop mix it will be one of the first results.