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BABY HYACINTH MACAW
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WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HYACINTCH MACAW "BABY"
I have been Baby's Caregiver and Trainer for 16 years. I have keenly observed his behavior over the years. 
Hyacinth Macaws are called the gentle giants. I would say Baby fits this description; however, it is important to note Baby has many fears not of humans themselves but of the things humans wear and carry on themselves when they visit our parrot sanctuary, or he is off property.
He is the most fearful parrot I have met. He is afraid of umbrellas, canes, walkers, wheelchairs, backpacks and large parcels.  Hats on heads are OK but the motion of hats being removed from heads is not OK especially hats with wide brims removed from heads and used to fan the air when it is hot. 
When a breeze carries off one of his small, molted feathers he panics and flees in the opposite direction as if his life depends on it! 
He has never flown. He has had his toenails and wing feather trimmed his entire life. He is fearful of restraint, being wrapped in a towel and fearful of having his wings and toenails trimmed. He is fearful of scissors and nail clippers and the aviator harness. For many years I managed to towel him, restrain him while someone else did the cutting of nails and wing feathers.  It was always difficult. Lots of struggling and screaming. Over the years it has become increasingly hard for me to capture him, it got to the point that when I did capture and restrain him our relationship suffered afterward for about a week.  He was afraid of my hands.  Being older and not as nimble I found it so difficult to capture him and so damaging to our relationship that I now arrange for others to clip him here at the Sanctuary. Sometimes he is so traumatized he has had to have sedating drops in the nose to ease the procedure. He is a bird who would greatly benefit if he was taught to fly and recall and learn to wear the aviator harness.

Baby likes rides in the car, bath time in the public shower and walking on the metal railings at Higgs Beach, runni​ng back and forth and bunny hopping on picnic benches at the beach. running around on the empty tennis courts, dancing to live music on Sundays at Salute, sharing dinner at Salute, Key West festivals, musical events, bird friendly restaurant's, bread and butter, eating ice cubes, drinking water from a plastic glass, cell phones, tablets, YouTube parrot TV videos and kids' apps. riding on two-wheel bike three-wheel bike or traveling on arm for a stroll around town.
Once, Baby met a miniature horse at Higgs Beach. He showed no fear of the horse and wanted physical contact. I took a photo of him and the pony touching noses.  He has always gravitated to dogs, all types, all sizes. When he sees any dog, he strains to get close.  He wants physical contact with dogs. "beak to tongue".
His favorite toys are heavy-duty stainless-steel bells, Nylabone puppy teething rings (he likes the yellow ring the best), pizza boxes, large paper bagels, bottle caps, empty plastic drink containers and soft cloth and rope to chew.  He is fond of finagling a piece of rope and a nylabone ring together so as to drive the soft rope with his bottom beak into the hard composite making the object inseparable.
He likes people.  Likes to be held on arm by everyone. Trusts most people to be held upside down and cradled like a baby.  Baby likes, dolls, children's toys and stuffed animals. These items are of more interest if they are held or played with by a child.  Seeing Children, their quick actions and holding their toys often overstimulates him to the point where his head feathers rise, and he starts repeated striking motions. I see this as more playful than aggressive, but I always redirect him as I want no striking motion towards humans ever encouraged. For safety sometimes redirecting requires him to Step Up onto a stick rather than my hand.  He complies.  He is then place on a nearby station where he can still see the stimuli or taken to a different area totally where he cannot see the stimuli. Creating a greater distance between him and stimuli calms him.
​He has many favorite activities with me, sharing breakfast with me and Mr. Peaches, bathing, playing games, cuddling, singing together in the house and in the car, growling together, dancing together, target training, higher level learning, off property excursions or just quietly hanging out together.
​Baby is not very vocal, He says Hi, Baby, and peek a boo in a high voice, He is the only bird that has named me. He calls me "oh ahh" ou-ahh! 
We sing together a lot. He sings in a high voice making a variety of sounds when singing.  We play growl together.  He occasionally screams for attention but not for long because I give that no attention.  He protests loudly crying like a baby every evening when I turn off the light in his room to put him in dark time for the night !  This loud crying lasts for a very short time and then he is totally quiet the rest of the night.  He has recently started to whimper very softly when our morning ED class ends, and the visitors stand up and begin walking to leave the property.  Seeing departing visitors, walking towards the exit causes him to whimper.  He whimpers a few times and then stops.  He understands many English words and phrases. He does not say them.
Baby does not like his morning meal breakfast chop and does not ingest healthy fruits and vegetables and leafy greens. Occasionally he eats fresh green peas and jarred green pea baby food and other baby foods.  I have seen him eat honeydew melon.   Baby likes his dried food bowl, he eats a variety of hard in the shell nuts, nutriberries and freeze dried unsulphurated unsweetened banana chips. His favorite food is Macadamia nuts. He understands the word Mac Nut. He is not fond of Tops pellets. He will eat breakfast with me, sharing my egg and cheese sandwich, cheerios and oatmeal. He likes bread and will fill up on is if allowed.


THE ANTICEDANT
His daily routine here is, lights on, wake up, step upon my arm or volunteers' arm, or stick for transport from cage in upstairs room to cage in downstairs room where his fresh chop awaits him in one of his daytime cages. He shows little interest in his fresh chop. At 10 AM when asked to Step Up, he eagerly comes out of his cage onto my arm and accompanies me as I walk outside to greet and educate our first visitors of the day.  He is eager to come out and goes outside with me.  I have been watching his interaction with people for the past 16 years.  At 10 AM, I walk out of the house into the garden with him on my arm. There is a tablecloth covering the wire mesh table to protect his toes and nails from the possibility of getting caught and the wrench of his toes is that were to happen. I place him on this table.  The table is ringed by seated visitors who are close but at enough of a distance that he cannot physically touch them. Possibly as many as 10 visitors all strangers to him.  Maybe others standing nearby to watch.  I ask them not to reach out to him. If they did, he would gladly come off the table unto their arm. He is trained to stay on the table and does. He has never come off the table onto a visitor because he is trained to stay on the table.  He mostly friendly and curious about the visitors, sometimes disinterested.  He walks around on this round table that is covered with a cloth often pausing to look seriously at looking at individuals and singling out favored people by revisiting them. He is trained to stay on the table. He does that!  I ask people to ring the table seated at an appropriate distance so he cannot touch them.  He is friendly to everyone does not exhibit fear.  He wants to be held by everyone. I feel once he comes off the table to a seated stranger, he is going to want this all the time.  I take him on an off the table as we do ED as do trusted volunteers.  We ask that people do not reach out to him. In earlier years for this ED event,  I would ask him or directed him to do many things that I have taught him to do. The last several years the ED is more free form, I let him decide the behaviors he want to exhibit. He understands many words, I ask him to do things. He is rewarded with a food treat by me and others if he does what I ask of him. He has choice. During this up-close 1-to-2-hour encounter,  Many interesting behaviors arise leading me to different topics, Chewing the hard metal indestructable hard metal edge that rinds the tabelthe metal table, chewing the table clothe, eating a hard nut, HE preens. He likes to  likes to cuddle, play games, and show off what he has learned from me.  About six months ago he pulled something new. He decided to be the teacher and we become his learners. He iniates bouncing until everyone is bouncing up and down. (he understands that motion is called bounce) then he sways back and forth getting everyone to sway (the word for that motion is dance) then he waves until he gets everyone waving (he understands that motion is Wave). After that he insists on sitting on my lap and stretching his wings out one at a time. I capture his wing behavior by saying Stretch and delivering treats. 
I noticed a change in his behavior when it comes to meeting new people in the last two years. I call it chemistry. Chemistry happened in the last two years with about five strangers.   Right away, he becomes overly interested in a visiting person in the circle and stays as as close to them as possible.  I jokingly say to that person, he is in love with you. I am out of the picture "he is smitten". I say to them "He would be happy to go home with you right now.  He seems to lose his mind like he is in love.  He is then aggressive towards me and I will defiantly get hurt if I offer my arm.  I have to educate the viewers as to what is going on I remove him from the table on a long stick. He makes a loud flailing scene by verbally protesting and striking at the stick with his beak.  I succeed in removing him. I bring him indoors and place him in his indoor cage. After a short while he forgets this person and returns to his sweet open trusting self twith me again. Most Recently in Feb. he has called after this "potential lover" with a sort of faint whimper. 

CAGE BOUND FOR 6 WEEKS. WOULD NOT COME OUT.  AGGRESSIVE TO ME AND MY TRUSTED VOLUNTEER WHEN WE APPROACHED TO CLEAN OR SERVICE THE CAGE, 
This past November he became cage bound in his upstairs sleeping cage for a month. He would not come out, striking at anyone coming near him in this cage. He would not come out and his aggressive striking was long lasting and alarming.  I got him out one day after about a month, once out of the cage his aggression stopped, and I carried him downstairs where I put him into his downstairs cage. He stayed in that enclosure cage bound and striking for another several weeks. He displayed the same aggression to anyone approaching the cage. It is easier to get him out of his downstairs cage because we could lay it down on its side and still with dificulty  maneuver him out.  Once out of cage his aggression stopped.

He is circled by me and visitors. We are seated around the table during my educational presentation.  He usually chews the edge of the metal table and the tablecloth. He makes the rounds looking and engaging with our guests. He exhibits more curiosity towards some people than others.  He is friendly. About six months ago, he decided to become our teacher.  He bounces, dances and waves getting everyone to follow his moves. He sits on my lap and stretches his wings, his idea! I capture this behavior saying the word "stretch" and deliver a pinenut.
Before Covid 19 lockdown Baby was eager to sit on strangers' arms every day.  He was comfortable being cradled like a baby in children's arms.  He did these actions thousands of times. He was not forced or commanded to comply!  He was given a prompt by me, either an audible sound or a visible sign via sign language requesting these actions by me!  He could choose to comply or not!  Nearly 100% of the time he complied!!  My understanding was that he enjoyed these interactions because they offered him out of cage time, socialization, the physical closeness that handling provides, human smiling faces, human sparkling eyes, human vocalizations directed at him etc. 

​I have observed what I believe to be two different categories of aggressive behavior changes in Baby towards me and others in the last several years.  I am grateful that this behavior is rare.  99% of the time I have a big trust account with Baby and he is eager to do all sorts of activities with me! 


HISTORY OF BABY'S RECENT AGGRESIVE BEHAVIOR
I will attempt to describing what I think are two different categories of targeted aggression by Baby, both aimed towards me.  I suspect they are related, stemming from his recent arrival of sexual maturity, the desire for a mate and hormones raging in the bloodstream during mating season.  I do not have videos of these incidents which I know are really helpful for professional diagnosis.  Because these incidents were spontaneous infrequent surprises, I was caught off guard with no way to record what was happening and I admit I was slow to process or interpret these encounters at the time because they were so out of character for my Sweet Easy Going Friendly "Baby". I am glad they have been few and far between and I want to keep it that way.  The repetition and escalation were not apparent to me until this Feb 2023.   It was then, I became alarmed because his behavior was so alarmingly aggressive towards me that it remined me of two other parrots here that have exhibited targeted aggression towards me.  I was not as educated on the subject as I am now and could have helped these birds in their habits towards me if I had intervened sooner.  I knew Baby as an adolescent and a slow maturing adult. He is now an adult.  I view these aggressive behaviors that appear to be strengthening as a result of hormones and breeding behavior in this ever increasing sexually motivated bird.
​
BEHAVIOR ISSUE 1   Aggressive Behavior towards me, and other volunteers trusted by him and handled by him
​First time this aggression happened was November of 2022. 
Baby is about 16 years old has been and adult bird for awhile but never until Nov 22 exihibited any hormal changes that I could detect.  His alarming six week aggressive behavior to anyone approaching his cage is due to what I what I believe to be seasonal hormonal behavior. (Nov is when Hyacinth Macaws breed in Brazil)
First time this happened was November 2022.  Baby resource guarded his upstairs cage and then his downstairs cage  cages, making vigorous striking motions with his beak and body. Hitting the cage bars resoundingly with his beak.  He resource guarded his cages towards me and volunteers he normally accepts. He was cage bound in his upstairs cage for a month. Nothing I had to offered him brought him out, by sheer luck he came out one day, I quickly shut the door so he could not retreat back in and I was able to transport him to his downstairs cage, which he then resource guarded for another two weeks. Sean and I had to force him out because the building next door was being fumigated and we had to take all birds off property for their safety.  Sean was able to turn the cage on its side and together we were able ro get him out.  Once out he was handable.  He has three cages one upstairs for sleeping, one downstairs for daytime and a third one in the garden outside.

BEHAVIOR ISSUE 2:  The antecedent that triggers this aggressive behavior is a rare human dynamic (a threesome between me Baby and another person a complete stranger or now in recent years with Michele a volunteer who has been coming to Key West for over 10 years about three times a year to volunteer about 10 days at a time.  
He has exhibited excessive aggression towards me when a just a few people (perhaps three times at most) come to visit us and increassed aggression towards me as Michele come to visit over the last two years.. 


The ABC's of Behavior
Anticedent
Under what circumstances does this behavior occur
environment, things, people, other animals in the space that can influence behavior
time of day, year, age

Behavior
Anything the bird does that is observable.
describe the behavior in observable terms

​Consequence
Antededent 
underwht conditions does the behavioroccur/
Immediate antecedents and distant antecedents
What else is going on in the room at the same time?

Behavior
Describe the behavior in observable terms
Behavior = anything an animal does that is observable
Record: playback, start, stop, slow motion, review

Labels What labels do I use to describe my bird not wanting to participate in normal activities or routine.
nervous, sassy, obstinate, moody, hormonal, neurotic, phobic
What does that look like

Labels 
What Does it look like?
Labels describe what an animal IS
We don.t know what an animal IS.... but we do know what an animal IS DOING
We DON'T know what an animal thinks or feels
We DO know what an animal DOES.

How do we know if they WANT to know to do the behavior we are requesting of them.
Body Language (universal language)
What does it look like when they WANT to?
What does it look like when they DON'T WANT TO?

Consequence
What is increasing, what is decreasing, or maintaining the behavior?
Is the consequence something the bird moves towards/enjoys?
Is the consequrnce something the bird avoids/dislikes

Consequence
Probable future behavior
Will the behavior likely maintain increase or decrease?
in the future under similar circumstance?
How can I modify the environment? (A) and/or the concequence
(C) so I can influence a behavior change?

Consequence
Is the behavior repeating?
If the behavior is repeating, from the birds perspective there is something in the environment
maintaining that behavior. From the bird's perspective the consequence of doing the behavior is valuable enough to repeat the behavior in the future in the future.
Proactive (Antecedent) Reactive (Consequence)

Consequence
Desirable consequences from the birds perspective.
treats
attention
personal space
choice and control the power or right to say NO
Choice: I choose whether or not I approach
Control:  My body language controls your body language which controls my body language=
​two way communication


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  • Home
  • NANCY
  • OUR PARROTS
    • OUR MAGNIFICENT MACAWS >
      • ARA
      • LARRYBIRD
      • BAILEY
      • TANGO
    • OUR CRAZY COCKATOOS >
      • MR. PEACHES
      • MOLLY
    • PIERRE
  • NUTRITION
  • CONTACT