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| Name: |
Rodan
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Age: |
27 years old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Golden Yellow, Naped Amazon
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| Home: |
Suffolk County, New York, USA
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What
makes our feisty, Amazonian parrot Rodan a special bird is his
amazing ability to repeat the things he has heard. Rodan can speak in
three languages: English, German, and Chinese. He can say a myriad of
nonsensical phrases, and other things, including:
"Geronimo: Most notorious of the Apache Warriors. Scalp many long knives."
"Auf wiederhesen, mein Fräulein!" (Good-bye, my lady!)
"Where's your badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"
"E equals MC squared."
"Rodan want a peanut? Rodan want a cracker?"
"Wake up, Fred! Go to work, Fred!"
"Radar! Radar! Pretty girl."
"Three blind mice. Hah-ha-ha-ha-ha-hah!"
"Hello, how are you?"
It takes continuous time and effort to teach Rodan to speak, but if he
says something one time, he'll never forget it. We usually put him in a
dark room and repeat a phrase many times on a tape recorder and play it
back for him on a tape recorder until he gets it. Rodan has been with us
every time we've moved our home, and will continue to be with us a long
time coming, since his species has been known to live up to 80 years.
Although his feathers only seem to be mostly green and yellow, Rodan
hides a rainbow of iridescent feathers underneath his wings. Most people
don't ever see them, but when he's feeling especially happy, he displays
to the world his wings, the feathers of which cover the entire spectrum
of colors.
Rodan has a mostly quiet, suspicious personality when he's by himself.
But when he meets new people, he is very outgoing and friendly. He's
quite gregarious and can be a bit of a show-off when he's the center of
attention amongst a crowd of strangers.
He actually prefers human food to the regular parrot food. His favorite
foods include cherries, blackberries, corn, sweet potato, cheddar cheese
squares, peanuts, and Brazilian nuts. He really dislikes pellets,
especially the healthy kind that's good for parrots.
Our bird tries to be very independent by scratching himself on the head
with his claws, but he loves it when someone else does him the favor of
relieving his itch. He enjoys leans his head against the cage and
closing his eyes while he is being scratched.
When Rodan is feeling pensive, he raises the short feathers at the top
of his head and walks back and forth on his perch in a curious manner.
As if he is thinking over a major decision in his head, he looks up and
down at the ground, only stopping occasionally. Then, he usually gives
up, and goes to have a drink of water from his bowl and some food.
Rodan can get very cranky if he's not given the food he wants. He can
bite very hard with his powerful beak and can inflict quite painful
damage. This is why we treat him as a fellow human and give him the food
that we eat instead of the food he's supposed to be eating as a bird.
He's also easily excitable and can scream louder than a Banshee when two
people in the house are arguing. His screams are so loud that both
people will get distracted by his noise such that they will stop being
mad at each other. Instead, they will both get mad at the bird and work
together desperately to calm and quiet him down.
But it goes without saying, that it is hard to stay mad at such a
lovable bird as Rodan. For even though he can administer a most painful,
agonizing bite when he's not happy, we still know to treat him with only
the utmost respect that such a regal, majestic bird as the Golden
Yellow-Naped Amazon deserves.
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