Ugh people like that make me SO mad!!! Most of my family/friends love my birds, so I don't have much of a problem with that, however, Popcorn and Muffin don't feel comfortable around new people, so they prefer to stay in their cage when we have guests over. A couple of times, some visitor's kids wanted to play with them, but whenever they took them out, Popcorn and Muffin ran back to the cage. They started fussing and saying the birds hate them and don't do anything, so I told them it was because they don't know them and are afraid of people they never saw. I told them to speak to them gently and maybe they'd decide they were nice enough to play with. Instead, those kids insisted that birds can't recognize people so it doesn't make a difference if they never saw them. I called Popcorn and Muffin, and they both ran to me, climbed up my shoulder and gave me kisses in front of those kids, of course proving them wrong. Birds can't recognize? LOL They know each and every person in the family and react differently to different people. The kids were so mad Popcorn and Muffin play with me but run from them, so they decided they were mean. I got mad of course but they would never understand. My birds love my friends who they see often though. People who don't understand will never understand. Parrots are known to be amongst the most intelligent animals and they LOVE to play and act clownish. Some people just think they are no different than wild sparrows etc. and they assume wrong things about them, as well as other animals they don't know about.