The good the bad the ugly Brown Headed Parrots

[Ducci]

Hello! So I’ve noticed there are no threads specifically about brown heads so I wanted to start one, in hopes many otherwill join in.
My little girl is still very young (not even 6 moths yet) so this will be updated as she ages. As of now, she sure does have a personality!
Oh! Her name is Olive!

The Good: She is very quiet! Probably one of the biggest assets for me as I live in an apartment, in the city so everyone is super close. I couldn’t have a loud bird. Now, her being “quiet” doesn’t mean she doesn’t squeak, squawk, sometimes call with a high pitch beep and she is already talking. The high pitch beeps are her morning calls, she only does it when I don’t get up soon enough to feed her. She does it a couple times and that’s it. She just barley stopped her baby beeping, she did it aalll the time! Now she’s trying to say words. It’s so cute! Olive loves to be on my head, it’s her favorite spot. She falls asleep every night on my head (before I put her in bed. Not ever sleep with your bird!). She allows me to kiss her and give her head scratches. She’s VERY gentle with her beak. She is also extremely intelligent. I do target training with her, she already knows a few tricks from just a couple sessions! She’s always wants to chew on foot toys, or whatever toys she has. Lots of soft/medium wood for her! She doesn’t scare easily at all. If anything, she has no fear!

The Bad: The only “bad” I can think of is she’s not (and I don’t believe most BHs are) cuddly like a green cheek or cockatoo and is more independent. However, she is very sweet and allows me to kiss and pet as much as I want. I don’t consider it a bad thing, as I didn’t want a clingy bird. She is definitely independent but will want her momma a few times a day for scratches and kisses.

The Ugly: Nothing! I don’t have anything ugly to say, she is a perfect Angel!!!

I love this little BH sooo much. She is with out a doubt the best bird I’ve ever had!

 

[Lynsey]

Hi there! I will join in, but don't have a lot to add yet...as I am the owner of Olive's sister. Yep, we met on this forum (I had purchased mine, and Ducci saw my post and bought the sibling.....although at the time we didn't know the sexes yet). Mine's name is Betty! I have to agree with Ducci, these little gals are great. Quiet, just a few little calls in the morning and that's about it. She does make sounds throughout the day, but nothing very loud. I also have a White Capped Pionus and he is much louder, but is also pretty quiet. Betty is pretty fearless as well. She likes head scratches and even lets me flip her on her back. She likes to hangout on my chest and snuggle under my chin. She is very friendly to my White Cap, although he is not so sure about her yet. Betty is pretty much a goofball and loves hanging upside down. I put a ball on top of her cage, and she played forever just rolling it back and forth while hanging upside down from the inside. She is very independent, which is a "good" in my book. Can't wait to see how these gals grow up. I am curious to see what happens with their "terrible twos", which is usually about 10 to 18 months in. I will post back with more of an update as she gets older. But for now she is just the sweetest. Here are a few pics. Including two of Betty & Olive before they went to their homes!

 

[SunTruth]

Hello!

My family has a senegalese parrot but we got him when he was 4 years old. He is very quiet except in the morning and in the evening. He is also very friendly, maybe too much. He tends to stay forever on the shoulder of people so at one point I was worried he was not enough independant. He rarely plays with his toys and just like to hang around people.
One important thing is that he is very curious. Anytime something happens in the house or someone do something he is the first one flying to see what is happening. He loves almond and his pellets not so much.

 

[kaherzig0]

My little BH darling is Gandhi . Extremely quiet, sweet and cuddly. He is 8 yrs and I am his 3rd home. Lucky for me, he liked me right away and he seemed friendly to everyone else too but now that he loves me, he doesn't socialize with others anymore. Ughhh. He doesn't play with his toys but loves to chew wood and he is a plucker. I'm suspecting this will not be easy to change this behavior. He is missing 3 talons to the first knuckle and I was told another bird took them off, so I'm really not sure how it happened. He's very sweet, somewhat scared, somewhat brave. He has one annoying alarm like a smoke detector but he's not successful with getting his way when he uses it. I'm crazy about the little darling even with his minor irritants.

 

[SunTruth]

My little BH darling is Gandhi . Extremely quiet, sweet and cuddly. He is 8 yrs and I am his 3rd home. Lucky for me, he liked me right away and he seemed friendly to everyone else too but now that he loves me, he doesn't socialize with others anymore. Ughhh. He doesn't play with his toys but loves to chew wood and he is a plucker. I'm suspecting this will not be easy to change this behavior. He is missing 3 talons to the first knuckle and I was told another bird took them off, so I'm really not sure how it happened. He's very sweet, somewhat scared, somewhat brave. He has one annoying alarm like a smoke detector but he's not successful with getting his way when he uses it. I'm crazy about the little darling even with his minor irritants.

Oh my senegal also has this alarm like scream when we leave the room and he knows we are next. I am still new with parrots so I can only say that behavior can change a lot and sometime it is difficult to understand what is wrong.
For instance we noticed that for some reason my parrot is afraid of people wearing glasses, and strangely he absolutely hates bottles like he can become very agressive if he see anyone with a bottle. So I think that learning to read the behavior is really important and not easy.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

@Ducci
@Lynsey
Its time for and update on your babies!

 

[Lynsey]

Hi there. My baby Betty will be 1 year old next week! She is doing great. She is such a sweet little goofball. She doesn't bite (unlike my Pionus) and pretty much is upside down almost as much as she is right side up. She is really quiet, but does start screaming when her treat bowl is empty on her play gym. She talks too! I think she learned it from my Pionus, Fonzie. Her first words were "Woody, No!". Fonzie picked that up after I got my labradoodle puppy, Woody. It's pretty funny. As I am typing they are both asking "What are you doing?" It's in stereo now.

@Ducci is in town and we are gonna try to get the sisters together. I'm so curious to see what they do when they see each other. I wonder if they will know or remember that they are sisters.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Hi there. My baby Betty will be 1 year old next week! She is doing great. She is such a sweet little goofball. She doesn't bite (unlike my Pionus) and pretty much is upside down almost as much as she is right side up. She is really quiet, but does start screaming when her treat bowl is empty on her play gym. She talks too! I think she learned it from my Pionus, Fonzie. Her first words were "Woody, No!". Fonzie picked that up after I got my labradoodle puppy, Woody. It's pretty funny. As I am typing they are both asking "What are you doing?" It's in stereo now.

@Ducci is in town and we are gonna try to get the sisters together. I'm so curious to see what they do when they see each other. I wonder if they will know or remember that they are sisters.

Awesome update!!
Can't wait to hear about reunion!!

 

[Ducci]

Hello! Yes! Next week Olive will be 1 years old! She is the BEST Parrot I’ve ever had. Even as a baby (I’ve had other baby parrots). Olive is very talkative, she talks up a storm. She too is very sweet, loves me to death(I’m her person), I can do anything to her. Olive and I have been on a lot of adventures as well. I love the outdoors and so does she! She’s even been camping! She too doesn’t bite or scream much at all. She’s the quietest out of all my birds, even the pigeon makes far more noise than she. Unfortunately they were clipped pretty severely so it seems, almost a year and no flight feathers, but once they grow in she will be free flighted! We do a lot of training, she loves learning tricks. She has also learned to use what she has to fly short distances A & B flights. I can’t say enough about this little smart, cuddly, feisty little girl.

 

[Ducci]

A couple more pictures… just cause