 Hello my fellow parrot lovers and sniffers. My name is Marlene MacCohen and this is Leo. Well that's kind of my temporary name for him. And we want to welcome you to Parrot Tip Tuesday. Today we're going to talk about none other than Amazon Parrots. What do you think about that? I thought that since I have Leo with me, and I'll tell you why in a second, that I would go over some characteristics and personality traits of the Amazon. Of course all birds have their own personality, right baby? But before we get to that, if you're just tuning in and didn't see my previous video, let me give you a little background on Leo. Leo is not my bird, although I wish he was. I'm really trying to prevent myself from keeping him. I met Leo at the bird store and Leo was put there because his owner died very suddenly. And all of him and his companions had nowhere to go so they are now at the bird store looking for homes. But I fell in love with him and the owner at Birds Plus, that's where he is in case you guys are looking for a wonderful little birdie, knows that I'm very good with birds and let me borrow him for this video. So me and him have a sleepover. He also does not have a name. So I named him Leo because Leo is a fire sign. I'm a Leo and he looks gorgeous like fire. So I thought it would be perfect. In fact, I just named him in my last video. And for those of you wondering, I also was using that name to kind of play some emotional strings on George a little bit. But the thing is, most of our birds come to us and they're rescues. So I would argue that he is a rescue. He has every opportunity to find a very good home. But the only thing is he's so, so loving and it's just like, ugh. And right now you guys know that he's the best-behaved bird in my videos so far except for Picasso. But Picasso has been acting out as of late and he matches my favorite color red. Because I've been doing a lot of pink lately and I even put my nails to be pink and then you came in and suddenly it's like, I don't know. Anyhow, today I thought it would be such a cute idea to talk about the common personality traits and some information about Amazons. For those of you who have Amazons and love looking at Amazons and are excited to see one in my video. And also for those of you who have never had an Amazon and don't know anything about Amazons. In my last video, I told you guys that I had a yellow-headed Amazon. Much different personality than this guy. But again, that doesn't mean that all yellow-headed Amazons have that personality. Birds personalities have so much to do with how you bring them up and how they're tamed and how they're trained and how their behavioral issues are contained. However, they do have a temperament that I would argue is a little bit underlying across all of their different species. So, let's talk specifically about Leo. Leo is definitely a hybrid. I know what you're talking. You can see that he definitely is a red-lord Amazon. The lores refer to the colors in between the eyes and the nostrils. As you may know, most birds are named for their colorings. Well, somebody's very excited. He just puked banana all over me. How am I going to return you? Oh, you like me that much already? Hey, puking. Well, we can't reinforce this behavior. No, but you're so cute. We must go on with this video. I'm going to keep this in because for those of you who are wondering, sometimes you wonder about the sounds of your birds. I see it on Parrot Station. You post videos like this and ask if your bird is sick and what's happening. This is very much so mating behavior. Do you see this? The bird is not sick. He has decided that he is, in fact, in love with me. I love that. This is the kind of behavior that normally you would not want to reinforce. So when your bird behaves like this, you generally want to make sure that you're not reinforcing these behaviors. I do have videos about this. One other thing, he has just eaten a banana. Mushy foods really reinforce this behavior. So that would be one thing that you would try to eliminate during these seasons or these periods in their life. Reinforcing this behavior can make them so attached to you. And one major problem with a bird being this attached to you, if I was to reinforce this and keep cuddling him and hugging him, would be that he may not be interested in toys and such. And birds, especially like this one, who you could see has a history of hugging, need to be able to be engaged with other activities because they'll become very hypersensitive when they don't have you around. So for this video, this is going to continue to happen, I think. But I'm happy that you're getting to see it live exactly what this regurgitation is. And let me clarify for those of you who don't know, this is how birds feed their young. This is how they take care of their babies. This is what he is doing because he loves me. Some people get very alarmed. They think their bird is sick. They think their bird is choking. But this is firsthand what it looks like. He hasn't done this to me at all until now. He's eaten a bunch of mushy foods and he is now puking them all over me. Just for you guys to see. Yeah. So I've only had him under 24 hours and he's already behaving like this towards me. So you would want to, if this happens and you just got a bird, you want to make sure that you give them a little bit of a long time to engage with toys. Because toys and foraging is going to be so important for a bird like this, especially one that you can see had some history of plucking and some tattered feathers. It means that this bird is highly sensitive, but needs to learn how to engage a little bit on his own and become less dependent on the love and cuddles of humans. By the way, that is something very important to note because when you get cockatoos, it's so tempting or any bird that is over cuddly to give them all of that love, but that can in turn create this. So you want to make sure you're giving them an even amount of time with you, with other people to socialize them, as well as toys and lots of things to shred and lots of things to forage. Not what I thought this video was going to be about, but you have definitely surprised me. I was going to get into behavior, but he has beaten me to it. So while we're on it, let's talk a little bit more about it. Sometimes in Amazon's moods are the easiest to read if you get to know them. Let's see if he can get his eyes to pin. I haven't had him very long, but let's just see. Do you see that little pinning of his eyes when they go smaller? Yeah, like that. That is what you call eye pinning. It's so obvious on an Amazon. They do it a lot. Rocky does it a lot, but this guy has been doing it since the moment he met me. Now, what does eye pinning mean? Eye pinning means that the bird is basically excitable. Sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way. For example, when I give Rocky something new to eat and he gets excited, he pins his eyes. When this guy first saw me, his eyes pinned right away, but I knew it wasn't anything to be alarmed about because he was so responsive to me. But eye pinning can also be a negative thing. You just have to learn to read the bird's body language. For example, if the bird is hissing or head bobbing or maybe he raised his feathers up in alert and his eyes are pinning, it might not be the best time to approach. But if he's looking all cuddly and wants to step up and his eyes are pinning or you're giving him a treat and you could tell that he likes it, then you'll start to learn what your bird's eye pinning means. Sometimes if Rocky pins his eyes at me, I'm like, ooh, I think I'm gonna stay away because it's associated with another behavior that is negative. So you just have to learn how to read your bird's moods, which makes it very easy with an Amazon because he seems to pin his eyes all the time. Another thing that Amazons will do and he did as soon as he saw me, which was so cute, is they'll fan their tail. You see his tail? If he gets excited? Let's see if he can get him to fan his tail. Can you fan your tail? What happened is his tail will fan out and again, you want to see what kind of behavior this is associated with. So if you're cuddling your bird, if he permits you to and he fans his tail, then you're like, oh, that is what he associates fanning his tail with. Because remember, birds make some of the same behavioral gestures. There he goes with his tail. Can you do that? When they're angry and when they're in alert as they do when they're happy, it just means that they're generally aware in that moment. When I sing to this guy, he tends to fan his tail. Let's see if he'll do it. Don't judge my singing right now. I'm just doing it to entertain the bird. Look at this stuff. Isn't it the thing my collection's got? Start talking just like Vinny, so we know that that's a positive thing because he seems excited about it. These are just things that you need to learn about your bird. Birds are extremely individual, so you want to analyze your bird and see what he is doing and when he is doing it and then remember that as a cue for next time. Amazons in general are great talkers and great singers. Not all Amazons will talk. Red Lord Amazons have some of the best temperaments out of all of the Amazons, and they have such a sweet nature. I wouldn't say they are some of the best talkers. I haven't heard him say a word. Doesn't mean he won't. He's only been here 24 hours, right, baby? Generally, yellow-headed Amazons are much better talkers or more prone to talking. Amazons love to eat. They're extremely food-driven. I can tell you that in the short amount of time that I've had him. He's a little bit shy, but he definitely, when he eats, he doesn't stop. He likes bananas. I know that so far. He really enjoyed his banana today and then he decided to throw it all up over me, right? Yeah, that's a thing. It's very important to make sure that these birds have exercise. They can be very excitable and love to play. You want to have all the right areas for them to play and hang upside down and flap their wings. These are the type of birds that are great to have flighted in general because they can be prone to fatty liver disease. They can be prone to obesity. So it's always beneficial if you can to have your bird fly. Once you get used to understanding birds, of course, if you have any questions on to clip or not clip wings, watch my video on clipping a parrot's wings. And if you remember from one of my past videos, I explained that Amazons use their vocal skills to socialize. That's why right now I'm talking. So he's talking a little different than African greys that talk. These guys talk just as well, maybe not specifically him, but you see how I'm vocal, he's vocal, he's socially vocal. That's why a lot of them are on talk shows and very responsive to treats because they're food-driven and they're social talkers. Whereas I'm also babysitting in African great right now and I know he talks, but he hasn't talked for the last 24 hours that he's been here because he's in alert, right? By the way, this bird has let me give him head scratches, cuddles, everything. I'm so surprised at the nature of this bird. So that is Leo in a nutshell. I want to tell you guys one very weird thing. I was having my coffee today and George and I were discussing all the reasons why we do not need another bird. And to be funny, I was like, we can't have another birdie because then I would have to add him to my parrot station logo. If you guys don't know, this is my parrot station logo. It's got my birds on it and my argument was going to be, well, you're not on it. So I can't change it. Like, you know, just coming up with excuses to not keep him because he's just so cute. And then I go through the mug and here are my birds, okay? Jersey, Vinny, Rocky. This is supposed to symbolize Dooley, my first cockatiel. Picasso, George. This one is Firmango. And then look what's here. A red Lord Amazon. Are you kidding me? How is this bird here? These birds were already here when Sheen made the logo for me. So Sheen and Larry, they are the moderators on Parrot Station. Well, Sheen is. She's amazing, but Sheen and Larry made this for me. And one day I was just like, oh, can you have an Amazon right there? Because a lot of people have Amazons and I want an Amazon right there. And then like, here he is. Here he is. Like, he's there close enough that didn't help that argument. I can't. Yeah. When I met him, it was like love at first sight. I don't even know what to tell you guys. We just love at first sight. Who's that? Do you hear somebody downstairs? And he loves my sister. He lets my sister like cuddle in and everything. It's the cutest little thing. I really hope that you enjoyed learning a little bit about the red Lord Amazon and Amazons in general and some behavioral cues about Amazons. Honestly, I was going to make that like many different videos. I was going to do one video on eyes pinning and one video on like hormonal things, which I do often. And then one video on Amazons and one on the red Lord Amazon. And then he just like puked on me and pinned his eyes. And then we just got into it. And now this video is basically empty. I love him. Thank you guys so much for watching. Please follow me on social media at Marlene McCohen. If you already follow me on my story time on Instagram, then you probably already knew that you were going to get a video with this guy. So if you want to be in the loop, come check out my socials. I'll put them down below. If you just got a bird or you're thinking about getting a bird, check out products I love, the link below. It's an Amazon link to all of the products that I love using for my birds. I update it often and put in descriptions. Bookmark it. So check those out if you can. And also check out the Jersey and Sniffers merch. Thank you guys so much for watching. I love you. Bye.