Birds For Dummies. Gina Spadafori

a minefield. Take our hands, and we can walk you through it, safe and sound.

      

DID WE HEAR A “YES, BUT”?

      For all we say about the best way to choose and buy a bird, we know people who did the opposite and everything worked out fine. These exceptions usually take the form of “Yes, buts,” if you will, as in “Yes, but we didn’t do that, and our bird is great.” And it’s true, some folks have bought birds from less-than-ideal sources, or bought them too young, or bought birds other people couldn’t handle, and the situation worked.

      For all those folks, we have a “Yes, but” of our own: “Yes, but you were lucky.” From a more critical point of view, what does a situation that “worked” look like? A bird who is not a problem for the family? How does that living situation look from the bird’s point of view? One key thing to keep in mind, given the sentient nature of these amazing animals, is that the relationship is not only about you and your perception of what works or doesn’t. It’s also about how well the relationship works for your avian buddy.

      Everything you read in this chapter is about minimizing risk, avoiding the most common ways people end up with birds who break their hearts and their budgets, and preventing birds from suffering the consequences of being in the wrong place with the wrong company at the wrong time Don’t rely on luck: Approach bird buying sensibly and get the healthiest and best companion-quality bird you can. There’s plenty of time afterward for falling deeply and irretrievably in love.

      WILD-CAUGHT VERSUS CAPTIVE-RAISED BIRDS

      The Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992 changed the pet bird landscape dramatically in the United States, virtually eliminating the flow of wild-caught birds into the country for the pet trade. Similar acts have been implemented in many countries as well, helping to keep wild birds where they belong — in their wild habitats — and domestically reared birds with humans. The bill was a huge victory for animal activists who documented problems in the import trade, where birds, at times, died before ever coming close to a caring home and their habitats, nesting sites, and family structures were damaged or destroyed during their capture.

      This shift toward captive breeding of pet birds has provided an unintended benefit: improved availability of better pet birds, from both a health and a temperament perspective. Caring, informed aviculturists (people who raise and care for birds) stepped up to the challenge to produce companion birds who are well raised, see humans as friends, and aren’t damaged by the stresses of being captured and removed from their natural environments.

      The reduction in the demand for wild-caught birds for the pet bird trade hasn’t ended threats to the survival of parrot species in the wild. Habitat destruction is proving to be just as damaging, if not more so, to many bird species. Organizations such as the World Parrot Trust (www.parrots.org) are fighting to preserve birds in the wild. We encourage you to support them.

Review Chapter 2 for our evaluation of each of the popular pet bird species — and some of the more unusual ones, too. If you’re just starting out, you may want to explore Chapter 19, which features our picks of the ten best birds for beginners. And no matter whether this is your first bird or you’re an experienced bird keeper, check out Chapter 17 for a quick rundown of the right questions to ask when you buy a bird.

Telling the Girls from the Guys

      Which do you prefer — a male bird or a female? Does gender really matter? How can you tell the males from the females, anyway?

      Selection of one sex or the other depends on the qualities you’re seeking in your new family member. If you’re buying a canary and you want a singer, a male is your choice. (And still, you should hear the bird sing before you buy him.) Male cockatiels are usually better whistlers than females, and the red and blue female Eclectus parrot is considered the real looker of her kind — much flashier than her green and red mate, although he’s not bad looking, either. In terms of health, females sometimes have obstetric problems, such as egg binding, where eggs get trapped inside, especially in smaller parrot species such as budgies, cockatiels, or lovebirds. And of course, the folks who breed birds have preferences: They don’t want to end up with all males or all females!

      In many cases, though, gender makes no difference in terms of pet potential. The basics of caring for, training, and feeding a bird, as well as the bird’s intelligence, will be the same, male or female.

The sex of a pet bird is most commonly determined by DNA evaluation (see the nearby sidebar), although birds can also be surgically sexed, a procedure in which a veterinarian examines the animal under anesthesia in order to determine gender.

      

The term for males and females who don’t look alike is sexual dimorphism. Many species of birds don’t exhibit any differences, at least not as far as we mere humans can tell. Birds themselves can tell the difference, of course, although we don’t always understand how. We do know, however, that many birds can see a larger color spectrum than humans do, and likely, they can much more easily see the differences between genders.

      Some species have gender identities that are obvious to human eyes. The Eclectus is certainly one of the more extreme examples — the male and female are so different that folks once believed the two genders were separate species — but other, more subtle differences exist in many species. An experienced seller can usually tell the girls from the boys in adult budgies, cockatiels, and some of the other parrot species where the colors are the same but the marking pattern is just a wee bit different, such as in the Senegal parrot.

      In their quest for birds with that something special, some aviculturists have created a number of color varieties, in the process adding another level of confusion to the identification of some species. The classic example is the cockatiel. The common normal gray cockatiel is easy to sex: Males are gray, with bright orange cheeks and no white on the underside of their wing feathers. Females have gray heads with duller-colored orange cheeks and cross bars underneath their outer tail feathers and wing feathers.

      DNA TESTING: WHEN YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW

      Do you really need to know whether any bird is a boy or a girl? In general, both males and females make equally fine pets, so determining gender is not a necessity — unless, of course, you plan to breed your bird. Give your pet a nice non-gender-specific name, like Avery or Flynn, and go on with your life. Some folks, though, can’t leave it at that. They have to know.

      Enter DNA testing, where a blood sample is sent off to a special lab for gender determination. The cost: Depending on the number of birds you’re testing and whether you’re sending in blood or feather samples, prices start at $17 and go up from there. Most services offer discounts for multiple birds. DNA testing may be a pricey investment for a $60 cockatiel, or a relative drop in the bucket when the bird is a $10,000 hyacinth macaw.

Simple? Sure, but thanks to new color mutations among cockatiels, it can be much more difficult to differentiate the sexes. In varieties such as the cinnamon, the white-faced, and the albino, telling male from female can be difficult, if not impossible.

      

The outcome of a sex determination test is usually documented in writing. If you’re considering buying a bird represented as either male or