Third eye-lid

I took a picture that captured Manzi's 3rd eye lid mid-close. Birds have regular top and bottom eye lids, but they also have a third one that normally is not visible. I once took a picture of it halfway closed, but I lost that photo.

I tried to zoom in, but the focus was slightly off.

Manzi was sick

Manzi really worried me. He wasn't doing so well. About a week after I returned from my vacation, I noticed his weight dropped (15% in two days!). He wasn't eating his pellets and even refused treats. The first day I didn't notice too much, but by the second day I was really worried. The second day he also became pretty aggressive. He wouldn't fly around or anything like normal, and when I tried to pick him up he bit me fairly hard. He also completely stopped talking/whistling. I decided that if he didn't eat by the following afternoon, I would take him in to the vet.

When I let Manzi and Maui out of their sleeping cages the following day, I noticed that Manzi had thrown up some really bad looking stuff (dark brown, very thick mush). It definitely wasn't feces as it was way too high up on the walls (gross, I know) and Manzi is not that talented.

That morning Manzi didn't eat his breakfast, but by the time I came home from work, I noticed that he did eat some and gained some of his weight back. Manzi was still pretty grouchy though. Also, his crop felt full when he finally had a bigger meal that evening and it stayed full for several hours. Maui's crop doesn't empty quickly, but that has never been a problem with Manzi. The fourth day, Manzi was back to his normal self, chatting away and eating a ton, with his crop emptying out like normal

After another couple of days he was really loving again too and has been just a darling since then. I'm not sure what was ailing Manzi, but he seemed to get over it really quickly. Maui is doing fine and didn't seem to pick up what Manzi had.

To the outdoor cage: It is going incredibly well. The first day I put the birds out together, I fed them and took them in as soon as they finished their food. The second day, I left them a bit longer, and separated them when Manzi wanted a drink of water, and Maui didn't think he really needed a drink from her side of the cage. I didn't want to chance anything. The third day was great. I left them for several hours. Both birds climbed around the cage a bit, but stayed away from each other. Today they were outside again from 5 - 9 pm and were chatting up a storm with all the neighbors going in and out. I am very pleased with this. I had thought that I might never be able to put them together again, but they seem to be just fine as long as they are outside with people to talk to, other birds to watch and toys to chew.

Amazon Clay Lick Video

Here is a video from a clay lick in the Peruvian Amazon, from a recent vacation (two weeks ago).

In order to arrive at the clay lick just after sunrise (when the parrots are present), we got up at 4:30am, took a short boat ride, then had an hour hike through the muddy rainforest. We arrived at a camouflaged hideout and watched the parrots for the next 2.5 hours. The sound does not come through so well on the video, but it was incredibly loud at the clay lick. All of the parrots were chatting/screaming very loudly. They were also fighting quite a bit (within the same species), until they went down to the clay lick, then the parrots were shoulder to shoulder with all their pride put aside.

Here are the four main parrots in the video: Mealy Amazon (largest of the Amazon species), Chestnut-fronted (aka: Severe) Macaw, Blue-headed parrot (one of these flies on at the end of the video) and the Scaly-headed parrot.

We also saw a toucan, some Scarlet Macaws, non-parrot birds and some marmosets (little monkeys that were jumping incredibly long distances).

A neighbor girl watched Manzi and Maui for me while I was gone, plus I had the webcam set up so I could check on them whenever I wanted. The girl watching them said they began to talk quite a bit the last week as they must have been lonely. Anyway, they were excited to see me back. I got out the big cage and have began to feed them inside the cage. Yesterday I put the cage on the patio and fed them in it. Surprisingly, after they finished eating, Manzi climbed around a bit, but stayed away from Maui, so they never fought. Then they both began chatting loudly having a great time.

Maui talking

I uploaded a short video of Maui saying her two phrases on voice command. It took a bit of effort to catch them on video. She was highly distracted by the camera.


I need to improve her repertoire, but I am happy with two phrases from very little training.

By the way, I do realize my whistling ability is quite sad. Ironic really.

Maui's bath

I often come home from work to see Maui's water dish nearly empty (I know she didn't drink that much water) and water covering the bottom of her cage and the four feet surrounding her cage. I don't often catch her in the act of bathing though.

A few days ago she began taking a bath, so I gave her the large water dish. She went to town in the water dish for an hour and a half. I never knew her baths lasted that longer. I went and got the camera after a few minutes. That disrupted her, but she started up again within a minute. Here are some fun photos.

Here she is completely in the dish except for her tail. She stands in it and splashes around like a madwoman.

She is looking back at me wondering why I find this so amusing.

You can actually see the water mid-fling. This is how she makes such a big mess. She uses her beak and flings water (hoping some will land on her back, which some does), over and over again.