Here is our new 'baby' - Peaches the Moluccan Cockatoo. She nestled in very well to our home last month and provides no end of snuggles and laughter to the household. Lately she's been experimenting with being 'batwoman' and hanging upside down (completely!) from her play top. She holds a fork with food on it and is many other ways quite the clown. She loves her sentinel perch, goes through toys like crazy (we should have named her 'Chewy') and thinks it's great fun to play 'catch' with our daughter. (She gives ball, Peaches hucks ball to ground with gusto. She picks up ball and game repeats while Peaches mimics her laughter.)
Peaches transitions in mood swings almost as much as she does in height (when 'compacting' herself she is at about a foot long but when she is animated and the crest goes up she grows to two feet!) She's loud and boisterous one moment, and 'melted butter' wanting to snuggle the next. The woman who hand fed her did a beautiful job in encouraging such a trusting creature.
My favorite vocalization of Peaches is her attempt to sing opera. They weren't kidding at the pet shop; she does get LOUD, but thankfully it's contained to 10-20 minutes of late morning and early evening vocalization.
She's still a babe - a one year old with a 75+ year life span, and not quite full grown. Her breed is the largest of the Cockatoo species and known more for being a good mimic of human behaviors (hence eating with fork) than for language imitation, though her breed does some talking, too. Her short stay in the pet shop next to a VERY vocal African Grey parrot seems to have made an impression on her and it's quite interesting to hear her now imitate another bird who's imitating humans (and everything else.)
I'm pleased to officially introduce her. She's a very special bird and very dear to me as my friendly companion.
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