Birds and Me

I'll start this post by saying I've never had a bird as a pet. Several other species of the mammal and fish variety, but never avian. So why my interest in them? I'm not sure where it came from. I guess just watching them in the wild or watching friend's pets ... or hearing about their various exploits. I knew they were smart, but after reading Alex and Me, I learned just how smart.

This photo is of an African Grey, which is what Alex was. This picture was taken in San Diego at Balboa Park where there was a temporary adoption stand set up. My mom had this parrot sit on her arm a bit and it contemplated the both of us.

I had heard about the book, Alex and Me, through my husband's brother years ago. I eventually checked it out from the library and was totally fascinating. I remember reading it during my lunch hour at work and being completely enamored with Alex. His math skills, his language skills, just all of it. One of my favorite parts of the book: his trainer read an article about a man who wanted to see if crows could figure out a complex pulley system to retrieve food. He set up a rig, and they in fact achieved getting the food to them. So Alex's trainer set up the same system. Then she let Griffin, Alex's companion, try it. He succeeded. Then she had Alex try it. He looked at the system, took it in, then told her to get the food for him. She said no, he could do it. So he again told her to get it for him. At first she thought maybe he couldn't do it - but then she realized he was even smarter than the crows or Griffin. He knew she could get it, and that that would be much easier than him doing the work. I love that. Why put effort into something when someone else can do it for you? Very smart.

I would love more opportunity to observe birds, but I just don't think I could get one (or two, since I wouldn't want them to be lonely). I'd rather have them free. I can always read about them anyway.