Salty is an unusually quiet parrot, especially for an Amazon. Unlike a lot of pattots, he doesn't greet the morning sun with a lot of screaming or even chirping etc. He reserves that for the 4:00-5:30 period every day and even then most times its for 15-20 minutes and I can usually quiet him down by whispering to him, which BTW works great! And that amount of natural parrot behavior is 100% reasonable and even live-with-it-able ( a new word!). However, always a however, I have a new housemate since July and she has a 28yr old cockatiel, Churchill. He is pretty chill and only gets vocal when he hears his mistress in another room bustling about. When that happens , Churchie lets out a string of 'tiel peeps until she makes an appearance - but this is also natural and very live-with-it-able. But yesterday! 4:30 or so, I decide to play a bit of fiddle with an idea for a new tune. Salty sometimes listens quietly but occasionally gives me his opinion of my playing. Yesterday, that opinion was quite vociferous, with screams mixed with sarcastic laughter. THis set CHurchill off and the 2 of them started to feed off each other, louder and louder. No trick i tried would quiet them down and the overpowering noise level of just 2 very moderately sized parrots was truly awe inspiring. Salty even came up with some new ear piercing, one can only call them shrieks, in an octave reserved for mezzo sopranos and industrial glass cutters. Which only inspired Churchill to new heights of vocal excess. I never yell at Salty or even raise my voice but I added my own shouts to SHUt THE HELL UP to the now deafening mix. Didn't help. Defeated and deflated, head hung low, I ignominiously retired to a bedroom, closed the door and laughed at myself - being driven to self imposed seclusion by 2 birds who, together, would not even make up 1/2 an order of chicken nuggets, were one disposed to go that route. And to think I wanted a macaw at one point!
