It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Liz Wilson has passed away. Liz Wilson was a dedicated advocate for parrots, writer, parrot behavior consultant, member of the Phoenix Landing Foundation’s board and a much-beloved member of our community. We had the pleasure of talking to her for this blog in 2009 and she’s been part of our online “flock” ever since.
She will be missed.
I’ve been watching the Netflix show “House of Cards” (great show, btw) and there’s an episode where the main character Frank Underwood visits a billionaire who happens to own a parrot. The parrot, you eventually see, is a sun conure. Which of course I point out to Stewie, who is sitting behind me. The screen has caught his interest because the sun conure is chirping away (cute little chirps, not Stewie-level squawking… because if the TV bird sounded like Stewie, everyone would just turn the show off. Seriously.)
In one scene, Underwood picks up an ornithology book, flips through it, looks at the caged bird and says “Carolina parakeet”. I kid you not, I turn around and say out loud to Stewie (with a tone dripping of condescension), “The Carolina Parakeet is extinct”, implying “duuuh”. As soon as that leaves my mouth, the billionaire says (voice dripping with condescension), “The Carolina Parakeet is extinct.”
Obviously I don’t expect everyone to be able to identify a sun conure after flipping through an ornithology book for 3 seconds — and it wouldn’t have been a terrible guess — but I’m sure that the very first thing a bird book would say about the Carolina Parakeet is that it is, sadly, an ex-parrot.
What do you think? Do they look alike?
The attention to detail to that show is pretty impressive. House of Cards has nothing to do with parrots and I think the whole point of the bird in that episode (minor spoiler alert!) is only to set up a scene where Underwood is wrong about something, so there’s no real point to quibbling about the lack of enrichment activities in the parrot’s cage or that the kitchen might not be the best place for an animal with a very delicate respiratory system. I just thought it’d be fun to point out what I bird nerd I am. Aside from that, House of Cards is a really great show and you should go watch it.
Happy New Year!
It’s been a light year on this blog, but WordPress ginned up a report for the site. According to the report, my most popular posts for the year were written in previous years:
Not so surprising, given that it’s not been a prolific writing year. But what was surprising was that my readers came from 166 countries!
My resolution for 2013 is to try to write a bit more, if I can. Leave a comment to let me know how you found this blog and what you’d like to see me write about.
Cheers!
Look what I got in the mail today! I’ll be doing a review of the film (and talking to some of the people involved in the making of this documentary) very soon. Watch this space for updates.
If you love parrots, and even if you don’t, you’ve probably heard of Alex the African Grey. The woman behind Alex’s accomplishments and the research that showed the world that parrots don’t just mimic but actually understand language was Dr. Irene Pepperberg, adjunct associate professor at Brandeis University. The main focus of her work with parrots is to determine the cognitive and communicative abilities of these birds, and compare their abilities with those of great apes, marine mammals, and young children. She studies the mechanisms of their learning as well as the outcomes.
In 2008, she published (and I reviewed) her memoir “Alex & Me.” This year, a new film about Alex was released called “Life with Alex“. Dr. Pepperberg was kind enough to participate in an interview for our blog.
Q: First of all, everyone wants to know: how are Griffin and Wart doing? Can you share what they’re working on?
Dr. Pepperberg: Both are doing quite well…we have one paper in press on their ability to work together to maximize payoff (Griff does to some extent; Arthur is selfish) and another paper accepted pending revision showing that they can both reason by exclusion–that is, choose location X when they know that a treat is not at location Y, and show they know exactly what is at X and Y. We are following up on the reciprocity research with both birds, and Griffin is almost done with a study on optical illusions.
Q: What’s a common misconception people seem to have about you and your work that you’d like to dispel?
That Alex was some kind of avian “Einstein”. He had the advantage of being an “only” bird for his first 15 yrs in the lab, with a small army of humans treating him like a toddler. Griffin always had to share this attention, and Alex interrupted all Grif’s sessions. Too, we tried out some training methods with Griffin that proved unsuccessful (audio and video tutoring), so he has had less overall effective tutoring that Alex. That said, Alex seemed more interested in solving problems, but more so later in life, so there’s still that possibility for Grif and Arthur.
Q: You’ve been known to say that parrots have the intelligence of a small child. Do you still feel this is an apt and useful comparison?
For the general public, yes. Not only to gauge parrot intelligence, but also to understand the type of enriched environment that is required to keep these birds happy and healthy.
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Watch a profile of Irene Pepperberg and Alex on NOVA ScienceNOW
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Q: My friends from Facebook want to know: Do you feel that African Greys are special or smarter than other types of parrots? Could you teach a different species the same things you taught Alex?
Have no idea! I could answer that question only by working with other species, and that isn’t going to happen at this point.
Q: What inspired you to share a more personal part of your own life in the book?
Actually, it was my publisher who pushed for those bits….although in retrospect, I can see how my story could inspire other young people.
Q: Please tell our readers about your new film. How is it different from the book and what would you like viewers to be get out of it?
“Life with Alex” is a memoir, told more from the standpoint of my lab manager, Arlene Levin Rowe, than from mine. It gives the public a feel for the birds’ daily lives and their personalities, how they play as well as work, how they interact with their human partners, things that come through more clearly in video than in the printed word.
Q: What was the hardest part of continuing your work after Alex died?
Primarily, simply missing him. Secondarily, realizing that many of the studies we planned may not be done, because Griffin and Arthur still need to learn a lot to be able to be tested in those ways.
Q: A really important part of science is for other people to be able to replicate findings. Are there currently other people doing similar work that will be able to carry the mantel moving forward?
Not exactly, although there’s a terrific group at the University of Vienna that is looking at cognition rather than communication in Greys, and making some outstanding progress, with keas as well as Greys; they also plan to work with cockatoos. Two other groups that were looking at communication did not replicate my training techniques or the environment of the birds, and thus could not replicate my findings.
Q: What is some of the most interesting animal research happening in the field right now?
Lots of work being done on a large number of different avian species–corvids and parrots–to determine their intelligence. Mostly being done in the UK and in Austria, however.
Q: Anything else you’d like my readers to know?
That funding for this type research is still close to nonexistent in the US, and that we are dependent right now exclusively upon The Alex Foundation to keep the lab open and running.
Photo by Mike Lovett. A big thanks to Dr. Pepperberg and Arlene Levin for their help with this interview. For more background and videos, check out my book review of Alex & Me.
Just want to make sure none of my readers missed Lafeber’s voluntary recall of some of its Nutri-Berries bird treats. The recall impacts some batches of the bird food. Don’t panic — the recall was voluntary, and not all of the products are affected.
Dr. Ted Lafeber, the company’s CEO and president, explains that some of the ingredients that go into the treats weren’t stored properly prior to arriving at their facility, which could result in unwanted moisture in some spots. Please visit the official website for information on which batches are being recalled.
I checked our unopened 3 lb bag of Sunny Orchard nutriberries and it is not part of the batch that’s impacted. But I did notice that my bag was going to expire sooner than I thought, so it was good I checked. I’ve been buying the 3 pound bags because I always ran out of the 10 ounce bags too fast, but this recall is a good reminder that we need to be careful about how we store bird food (making sure it stays fresh and doesn’t invite moisture!) and that maybe having several 10 oz bags is safer than a larger bag that just sits around opened… even though it’s much more expensive that way.
Tip: If you buy pre-packed pet food, be sure to try to stay aware of news from your brand’s manufacturers. You can “like” their Facebook pages if you’re on Facebook — where most responsible companies would post product safety news — or sign up for their newsletters so they know how to contact you.
There are two parrot-related fundraisers I want to share with you!
Lafeber Fundraiser for Phoenix Landing
Lafeber, maker of the Nutriberry treats my birds love so much, will be donating $1 worth of free bird food to Phoenix Landing for every new fan to the Lafeber/Nutriberries Facebook page through the end of June. It doesn’t cost you anything. Just click on the image below and click “Like” at the top of the page.
If you’re already a fan, be sure to share this fundraiser with your friends and fellow bird lovers and ask them to become Facebook fans of Lafeber also. Hurry, the fundraiser ends June 30. All likes above and beyond 1,734 is worth $1 to Phoenix Landing.
And, of course, if you’re not a fan of Phoenix Landing on Facebook yet, be sure to like them too!
The Alex Foundation Matching Gift Grant
Through July 5, all donations to The Alex Foundation up to $10,000 will be matched by a generous donor. Your donation, in other words, would go twice as far to support the Foundation and Dr. Irene Pepperberg’s research. Just visit their new website and donate, or learn more about their work and the African Greys picking up where Alex left off.
And please also read my review of Dr. Pepperberg’s memoir about her time with Alex: Alex and Me – How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence — and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process.
Welcome to my parrot blog, where I share insights with other and would-be parrot owners on ways to keep their pet birds happy. I'm not a professional trainer or avian expert; these are just my opinions, observations and insights based on my life with Stewie and Mika, and my efforts to do the very best for my birds. I also read voraciously and will share other cool stuff I find related to parrot ownership and training.
Enjoy the blog and please leave comments!
