The Avian Behavior Podcast

Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the International Owl Center in Houston, Minnesota, and Hillary have a fascinating conversation about owl vocalizations and Karla's journey with Great Horned Owl behavior. They discuss owl behavior observation influences, species differences, reinforcement strategies and all things owl. This conversation will fascinate any professional or amateur owl enthusiast.

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For more information on ABI's Advanced Animal Behavior Workshop, check out our few spots left here.

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Hillary answers more questions from a workshop regarding how to prepare a bird for a program, are we friends with our birds, how to know when you are doing more harm than good and much more. We get philosophical on this one!

For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for registration and details

Welcome to the Avian Behavior Podcast, where we bring innovative approaches to progressive animal training and behavior, wildlife conservation, bird nutrition, and all things avian. We appreciate all of the supporters who have helped us fund our collaboration in South Africa with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project coming up in August.

You can still get your trouble-making hornbill merch and much more! You can make the most impact with a small donation to GoFundMe You can get your Hornbill swag here Caracara shirts are one of the most popular The full page is here.

Hillary answers questions from a workshop regarding do's and don'ts on building relationships with birds of prey, what to do about a kestrel that attacks the bait bag, weight managing owls, and more. For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for registration and details

Welcome to the Avian Behavior Podcast, where we bring innovative approaches to progressive animal training and behavior, wildlife conservation, bird nutrition, and all things avian. We appreciate all of the supporters who have helped us fund our collaboration in South Africa with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project coming up in August.

You can still get your trouble-making hornbill merch and much more! You can make the most impact with a small donation to GoFundMe You can get your Hornbill swag here Caracara shirts are one of the most popular The full page is here.

We sit down with good friend and well known aviculturist Dick Schroeder to talk about what we can learn about working with the Southern ground hornbill in a variety of different ways. Dick is a celebrated member of the avicultural community, he has raised numerous hornbill species, including over a dozen Southern Ground Hornbills (baby Kipling was his eighth!). He has boards seats, first time breeding awards, speakerships, and other accolades all over the world in aviculture. We talk about community and the importance of working together.

This conversation kicks off our fundraising campaign for our efforts to work with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project this coming August. Help us reach our $4000 goal and enhance the release and monitoring program.

The website is https://avian-behavior.org/hornbill/

Our Patreon is https://Patreon.com/avianbehavior.

Our two favorite subjects, owls and raising ambassadors. Owls are considered flagship species, which means that while they may not necessarily be directly endangered, they are species chosen to raise support for biodiversity conservation in a given place or social context. This means that due to their widespread appeal, they have the capacity to draw in an audience to more complex issues related to their ecosystems and less charismatic components. What this also means is that they can act as flagship individuals for education programs. We often say people come for the owls and stay for the vultures.

But raising an owl for life as ambassador is challenging, even to be a glove bird. We want the bird's presence to reflect the care and expertise that the organization requires. In this episode we discuss what this looks like in the beginning stages and how the many mistakes we made led us to our mission of raising ambassadors over ten species of native and non-native owls.

You can sign up for the Masterclass of How to Raise an Ambassador Owl

and you can also find our exclusive, limited seats only 4 week live mentorship, Train with Me - Owl Ambassador Training and learn the ins and outs of this intricate and incredibly important process.

Join us with a free 14 day trial in the Avian Behavior Lab with the code AVIAN

We are going to be talking about how LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and the humane hierarchy structure stopped serving me in my animal behavior progress, what got me there, and how I help my clients instead. We take a HUGE look at how it's not uncommon in science for us to wittingly or unwittingly select the results that we want to move our hypothesis along, and this can have enormous results in health, nutrition, and yes, animal behavior.

To purchase the entire conference of AvOCET on demand: https://avianbehaviorlab.com/avocet-conference-recording/

The full video is here

► Having issues with your bird not stepping up on your glove or approaching you? Take the free 7 day fearful and aggressive Challenge https://avianbehaviorlab.com/fear-and-aggressive-behavior-challenge/

► Learn the Fundamentals Of Animal Training https://avian-behavior.org/39-2/

►Shop our Amazon Store for bird supplies https://bit.ly/3QWjjJR

► Join a community of passionate bird owners and learn from hundreds of hours of science and behavior based on demand courses and live trainings - FREE for 2 weeks!

Subscribe to Avian Behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/avianbehavior

Our mission at Avian Behavior is to strengthen the connection between animals and the humans that care for them with the most progressive and positive reinforcement techniques.

Sources

Scientific Method

Monsanto study with Stanford University

https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0518p38.shtml

P hacking:

Maintenance Phase School Lunches, P Hacking, and the Original "Pizzagate"

Buzzfeed News article

In this session of our Behavior Makeover Series, we work with a rehabilitated non-releasable raven that is showing a lot of avoidance behavior around his trainer. We create a behavior shaping plan using non-coercive negative reinforcement instead of counter conditioning or systematic desensitization to build the raven's trust. This works on all species, from parrots to eagles and mammals too. As always, follow your local and federal laws when working with native and exotic species and we do not condone rescuing wild birds without proper permits.

For more bird training and behavior tips:

► Having issues with your bird not stepping up on your glove or approaching you? Take the free 7 day fearful and aggressive Challenge https://avianbehaviorlab.com/fear-and-aggressive-behavior-challenge/

► Learn the Fundamentals Of Animal Training https://avian-behavior.org/39-2/

►Shop our Amazon Store for bird supplies https://bit.ly/3QWjjJR

► Join a community of passionate bird owners and learn from hundreds of hours of science and behavior based on demand courses and live trainings - FREE for 2 weeks! https://avianbehaviorlab.com

Connect with Hillary on Social Media Instagram: https://instagram.com/avianbehavior Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avianbehavior Podcast: https://avian-behavior.org/podcast Subscribe to Avian Behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/avianbehavior Our mission at Avian Behavior is to strengthen the connection between animals and the humans that care for them with the most progressive and positive reinforcement techniques.

In this final part of our series with Dr. Scott Echols, board certified avian veterinarian, we cover A LOT of ground in terms of avian health and welfare. If you want the straight science about how to get your bird exercising, even in terms of rehabilitated wildlife, diet management, and osteoporosis, we talk about it all. Dr. Echols is as always, so generous with his time and information, and we are forever grateful.

To sign up for AvOCET 2023, the Avian Online Conference in Education and Training and learn more from Dr. Echols and other incredible minds in avian science, check out our conference page.

Join the Avian Behavior Lab with a Premium Membership with all of our features, including a bottomless library of courses, a private forum for expert feedback, and live classes with a free trial using the coupon code AVIAN.

If you want to discover more of our courses and challenges, you can find them here

Working with rehabilitated birds of prey as education ambassadors is rewarding work, but it can be fraught with challenges as well. From working with unruly (and opinionated!) audiences to dealing with heartbreaking avian losses and health issues, it can feel thankless at times. In this episode, we focus on two big issues: working with a volunteer staff and sensitive birds coming from a place of trauma. Volunteers are the backbone of many wildlife rehabilitation centers, and their work is crucial to the survival of so many birds. But managing a volunteer staff can have unique obstacles when it comes to working with sensitive education birds as well.

We still have spots in our Bird of Prey workshop at the beginning of March 2023

Our virtual conference AvOCET is at the end of March '23 and is filled with incredible speakers!

Join the Avian Behavior Lab with a free 14 day trial with the coupon code AVIAN

The Problem Solving Paradigm teaches you how to manage really complex and sometimes uncontrollable variables when trying to train your bird, so you actually can realize real change. Because let's just be honest here - trying to train new skills in a busy household or work environment is REALLY hard. Life happens! Uncontrollable variables like family members, other trainers, and outside influences - like the mailman, construction, random crows flying above - can get in the way of your progress. We go through three specific phases as well as how and when we apply them. Ready to solve your toughest bird behavior problems? Want a deeper dive? ►The course! For more bird training and behavior tips: ►Try out our free Bird Behavior Toolkit! Loads of videos for free! ► Take the free 5-day Go Home Challenge and teach your bird to go home voluntarily!