My Bird Hector's Page

[La Casa Que Pasa]

Hector is a green-cheeked conure. I named him Hector because it was a name that comes from his roots in Central/South America (like the boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho), and my Greek roots (like Hektor, the hero of the Trojans in _The_Illiad_).

Hector is about 10 inches long, with a mostly primary green body. His head is black, and he has white rings around his eyes. His neck is an olive gray, and his stomach goes from this olive to green, with a wash of maroon. The tips of his wings are a navy blue, and his tail is maroon. He's a very exotic looking character:

<another picture of Hector>

 Here is somebody else's picture of a green-cheeked conure.



When Hector was younger (less than 2 years old or so), I said this about him:

He's a little too attached to me, and kind of bites other people (me, too, sometimes), but he's also a playful little clown that eats with his claws like they were hands, and likes to chew the erasers off my pencils, and plays tag with me by dropping things off my desk and watching me pick them back up, whereupon he drops them again.

Hector has learned to be a prodigious little communicator, as well as a twerp: he learned this hideous shriek from the crows outside (as far as I can tell) that he uses when I lock his cage. He can mimic my cough, and his vocabulary consists of the following phrases:


Now that Hector is around 7 years old, this is what I know:

First, the complaints. He's way too attached to me. In the last few years, he's managed to perfect two horrible shrieks. The first is probably the loudest, most piercing noise he can possibly make. It's short, almost like a whine, and he does it over and over again if I'm out of sight for too long. The second is sort of a crazy, loud bird call that he picked up from the birds outside the house. He can be pretty obnoxious. He mostly uses the first noise as a contact call. I can, if  I say "gimme a kiss" to him, have him temporarily change his contact call to "gimme a kiss", but if I'm, say, upstairs while he is downstairs, he gets frantic, and switches back to his shrieking. He can bite pretty hard, drawing blood, if he wants to.  I can't really grab him in my hand any more, and a lot of times I'm too scared to have him step up on my finger, so mostly I let him get on my (shirt-covered) arm to carry him around. When he's on me, he's pretty happy, and normally not  trouble, but he'll sometimes have a wild spasm and bite me, usually on the neck, which leaves a mark. *sigh*  He and I get along okay, but Hector definitely has his boundaries, and his little tantrums.

Hector is an avid climber, and he'll climb all over me while he's on my shoulder. He'll walk down my back and climb down my pants to the floor, and walk off and crawl around the floor (as in the picture). He's way too comfortable on the floor, and doesn't get intimidated if you step over or near him, though the little guy really should. I have to be pretty careful not to step on him.<Hector on his cage>

As for talking, he says most of the same stuff, and hasn't really learned any more words. He doesn't say peekaboo any more, and we DO NOT play the wrestling game any more, because he's a biter now, not a nipper. Sometimes he nips at my ears lightly when he's on my shoulder to get attention, but since I know what he's capable of with that little beak, I don't think it's fun or cute.

I don't hate the little guy, though. For all his many faults--some of which are probably my fault for not teaching him better--he's a pretty good companion. It's nice having a pet that you can talk to and have him at least sort of respond back (even if his vocabulary is dreadfully small, and he ends up repeating a lot of the same words). As for other noises, he laughs when other people laugh, which is amusing. He's perfectly happy hanging out near me, although I wish he wasn't so needy.

He loves to take showers (I tell him it's a "bath") in the sink. I set the water to look warm, and hold my hand under the flow so it's diverted into less-powerful drops, and he loves playing in the water. After a shower, he gets right on my finger no problem, and I wrap him in a towel, and hold him like that for awhile to dry off (my wife calls it "spa treatment". He's thankfully well-behaved for at least a little while after a bath. I guess it's a thing we've just established as a no-bite zone, which is nice.


What I should have done better, and what you should do if you just bought, or are about to buy, a green-cheeked conure:

When Hector was younger, I was more diligent about keeping his wings clipped. I think when he never knew how to fly, he was more dependent and less bossy and easier to manage.

Also, when Hector was younger, I could just grab him with my hand, and pet him and scritch him, without worry of him biting me. I consequently never really enforced good "step up" training for him getting on my finger, even when he was mad. This was a HUGE mistake. You should buy this book (it's cheap and has good advice), The Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot, and follow the instructions on the "step-up" command, and teach your bird that, no matter how cute and easy it is when you first get the bird.

I could take young Hector to the nearby market, just hold him against my chest with one hand, and walk outside, and just leave him on my shoulder at the store. If people came up to me, I could put him on their finger for a minute. Now, Hector can fly (because I don't stay on top of his wing clipping), and he's so nippy that I can't even really hold him without him biting me.


More on Talking Birds

Irene Pepperburg, a scientist at the University of Arizona at Tuscon, is experimenting with a very intelligent bird, an African Gray parrot named Alex (who can also be a pain to deal with, from what I've read), who has a large vocabulary, and can count, distinguish shapes, and color. It's truly amazing, and you should go to these web pages for more...

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