More introductions: Billet and Sooty

In addition to my own cockatiels, I wanted to introduce my parents' adorable birds. We've had them both since about 1990. Billet came to us from a neighbor, who found him outside when she was living in Florida. He just flew to her shoulder!

Billet is super-smart and if he hears my mom talking to me on the phone, he will come over and whistle a song into the phone or say "hello!" to me. He's probably close to 30 right now, which is really old for a cockatiel. He's still in great shape for his age--active and happy.

He loves towels and washcloths and potholders--if you shake a potholder at him, he will start whistling.

Billet loves to be petted and will come over and put his head down on your arm when you're not looking to try to get you to pet him. He also likes to nest in blankets and hide in my brother's shirt:

Sooty is about 21 and came to us as a young bird. Sooty likes to keep Billet company--they are usually in the same room. Even though they are both males, they are good friends and don't fight.

Sooty is a bit shy of people but will come ask for food or sit on my shoulder occasionally. If I'm sleeping, both birds will try to sit as close to my face as possible.

Sooty enjoys sitting in the sun and playing with mirrors (and other shiny things) a lot.

Sooty also likes to sleep next to this old record player, for some reason.

Sooty loves to hear Billet whistle and will come stand right next to him to listen. Over the years, their songs have gotten a lot more similar.

My parents let the birds fly around the house and do their own thing most of the time. They eat lots of people food and especially love scrambled eggs, noodles, bread, nuts (they shred them into dust), and potato pancakes.

When my parents lived nearby, I would sometimes bring Edy to visit. He LOVED to follow Billet around the house and cheerfully bother him. Billet was not very amused by this. Sooty would just hide--apparently Edy has way too much energy, haha.

Birdfriends at the ABQ zoo

While visiting New Mexico last week, I went to the Albuquerque zoo...I go there pretty much anytime I'm in town because of this:

There's a sulfur-crested cockatoo there that I love and it remembered me this time. I think it must have been raised around people since the first time I saw it, it came over and pushed through the bars to be petted! So smart! This time, my parents went up to the cage and it was just sitting calmly. However, when I came over it started dancing all over the place, said "Hello!" and waved, and ran to the front of the cage to whistle at me. It even made the same whistling noises I make.

Disclaimer--I would not recommend that you attempt to pet any birds in the zoo though...they have pretty large beaks and could certainly bite you if they wanted to.

I made a second bird friend this time...one of the zoo volunteers had a mini macaw sitting out with her in the Rainforest room.

Apparently I was the first person he said "Hello!" to all day. He did a lot of talking and dancing for me, and bonked on the perch like Edy does.

They also have a room with a ton of budgies there who fly around and do parakeet things, like nest in a log.

  

The flamingos at the zoo entrance are always quite colorful and loud!

  

There are also a bunch of peacocks who randomly wander the zoo and are not real shy. If you're eating french fries they usually want some.

If you can get up close to see, their tails are really amazing.