The Avian Behavior Podcast

What is a husbandry behavior and why train it? I think of it as the difference between fighting with your cohabitants over little behaviors and coming to an agreement over mutually beneficial behaviors. These behaviors are important whether we are talking to companion parrot lovers or professional animal caregivers. What's on your list of top five?

The concept of leaving your parrot flighted or clipping its wings is a huge topic with much debate. There are many opinions going both ways based on health, safety, welfare, and psychological benefits.

It shouldn't be any surprise that here at Avian Behavior International, we are very much pro-flight when it comes to all birds. But our ethos is that of using science based methodologies to inform our decisions and suggestions. This means that rarely is there a one-size-fits-all solution or recommendation and that many variables impact the quality of choices that we make. So it may or may not be surprise that when it comes to being pro-flight or pro-clip, the answer from us is, "it depends."

In this far ranging conversation with Paige Davis, curator of bird training from World Bird Sanctuary, we talk about many aspects of training birds of prey, as well as training in general. We touch back upon weight management, as well as going into our mutual love of falconry. We also go into social media, why the Avian Behavior Lab began, and what made each of us change our tactics when it comes to negativity in the comments section.

In part 2, we take on a few of the prevailing ideas in raptor training that either defy science or are contradictory. From early relationship building to raptor housing, let's take a look at how nuance is lost and we open the door for uninformed, outside criticism when we take an always or never approach to raptor training.

We take on some of the common and pervasive myths in companion parrot care, what makes them attractive, and why they are harmful. We are going to talk about dominance, heavy petting, wearing gloves, diet, exercise, and more. Why do we listen to these myths, what gives them staying power, and what do we do instead?

Why is that owl grumpy? Anthropomorphism means assigning human qualities to non human things, such as animals and even our computers. We do it all of the time. Where it becomes important to assess is how it influences our relationship with animals in our homes, conservation measures, and even environmental policy. We go broad, talking about our dogs faces all the way to the California Condor Recovery Project.

Losing an animal can be a horrific experience, and a lot of research has gone into understanding the human-animal connection as well as how we grieve over animal loss. In this episode, we speak frankly about death and loss. We also broaden the lens to look at how understanding emotional pain can help us be better in our professional, personal, and online lives.

Behavior management techniques are not all created equal. Some methods may look like they are working, but either have to be used over and over again or actually contribute to larger problems down the road. How do we know if behavior advice that we receive from other animal trainers, social media forums, and even veterinarians will help or hurt our relationship with the animal we are working with? Three important questions to ask in this podcast!

Owl conservation ambassadors can make a huge impact on an audience for wildlife educators. As iconic and instantly recognizable, they foster important connections with the natural world that have been ingrained in human culture for centuries. However, there are many reasons why an owl is a challenging training prospect and takes experience and keen observations. Here we explore some of these concepts.

From our Companion and Ambassador Parrot Webinar series at the beginning of the Coronavirus stay at home mandates, we hosted a 4 webinar series for parrots addressing a variety of topics. These questions stemmed directly from that, honing in on how to get through disruptions on routine. However, we also worked through some very serious issues of biting and trust building. Issues that could easily lead to adopting out a parrot, rehoming it, or at least, a stressful household. Join us in this densely packed episode for practical tips on how to stop a biting parrot.