The Marvels of Riley-the-Bird

Many of you know that we have a Quaker parrot named Riley. For those of you unfamilar with Quaker Parrots, they are the smallest parrot and are considered one of the top 10 talking birds in the world. We adopted Riley in August of 2004 prior to us moving to Illinois. Quakers are known for being 'noisy' birds. They just don't stop talking, squaking or doing whatever they can to add a bit to the volume of your house. I figured that Riley got a double dose by spending his first couple of months with both me and my mother as companions. How could he not like to talk???

Riley's Illinois home is in our family room. He has quite a large vocabulary. He says "thank you" whenever he hears it on tv or in the room. He greets you each day with "good morning, Sunshine" and sends you off to bed with "Good night, Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." He is fond of mimicking me when I let the boxers out the back door and yells, "Out! Out! All the way out!" (the boxers have been known to try and do their business more conveniently on our deck). Once the boxers are out, Riley will yell "Good Bye!". If you're doing anything, he'll ask, "what cha doin'?" This really confused an electrician I had doing work on the kitchen. He explained what he was doing only to turn around and find himself face to face with a little green, gray-faced bird. He can do all the normal whistles. He is good to have on a diet as any rustling of bags causes him to confront you with, "Yum yum". He also tells you what a "pretty, pretty, pretty boy" he is and commonly tells you of his love for you. Occasionally, he'll say "I love you, Riley bird". A bit vane but he is a handsome fellow.

Parrots are very smart birds and they understand cause and effect. Riley demonstrates this by yelling across the house, "TAMARA .... Tamara" to which I'll reply, "hey Riley". Then he'll remind me, "Yum yum". Then, he puts his request again, "Tamara, yum-yum". And, of course,
if he's asking me for a yum-yum, then I have to give it to him. When I'm dancing around the living room to some cool tune, Riley will start bobbing up and down and yell, "DANCE! DANCE!" Sasha has actually learned "the Riley" and frequently bobs up and down when he hears a good song.

Riley's latest vocalization had me laughing today. I heard growling and barking downstairs but the boxers were hanging out with me. I went to the banister and loud as could be was our rare, barking Boxer-parrot.

The circus should be arriving any day to sign us up.