Trick or 'Tiel wrote:That isn't true at all. The budgie at the store was with no other birds, and countless people enjoy their budgies' company and interaction, even when they are living with other birds. Are you saying that "aviary" species can't bond with humans if they are with a flock? Not true at all. What even defines an "aviary" species anyway? Is it their size? Then GCCs would be considered aviary birds too, as they are the same size as tiels. I've never heard of anyone calling small parrots aviary birds, and many small parrot owners agree that these birds are highly capable of being friendly with humans. How can you even tell if a bird is bonded with their human or not? Because both my birds show signs of being bonded to me. If I put my budgie with another bird, are you saying that she will suddenly forget about me and become untame? How do you know that they are never really happy with humans? If these are your views, then people shouldn't really be keeping these species as pets unless they can keep them in a flock cage-free. No matter how much you say, nothing will ever change my opinion on how much personality these little birds can have!
You keep on confusing terminology. I am not talking about personality (the little ones have as much as the medium or the large ones]. And there are all kinds of bonds between birds and between humans and birds - it's not a one size fits all because all parrot species are different and, even within a species, individuals responses to human interaction or to another bird or birds vary.
As I explained before, aviary and companion are not ornithological classifications, they are avicultural and it has to do, basically, with how a bird reacts as an adult to another bird of the same species versus its reaction toward its human. Aviary birds do bond with humans BUT the bond is not strong enough to make it disregard another bird of the same (or similar] species in favor of a human. And I think it has to do with size because the smaller the bird, the faster it matures and, as the deep bond of handfed species is, in reality, both an identity and a sexual bond, the larger ones end up thinking they are weird-looking humans who can have sex with a human whereas the little ones know they are birds and that they supposed to have sex with another bird. To understand how this determines the bird's outlook in what makes him happy, you need to start with the premise that parrots are all highly social (so they are never happy when alone] and that there is NOTHING more important to an animal than to procreate. This is not a matter of opinion, it's a fact of evolution because the survival of the species depends on it. Nature has a mechanism to ensure both these 'identifications': the filial and sexual imprinting (see this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)]. I think that, with the little species, by the time we take them out of the nest, they already had both imprints so they know they are birds, they know what their species looks like and they know they are supposed to have sex with another bird. THIS, in a nutshell, is what makes them an aviary species. Because, once they reach the age when they need to procreate, the company of a human won't be enough, they will need the company of another bird to feel completely happy.
When people talk about their birds being happy with them, it's not that they are lying - the bird does love them. It's only that it's not as happy as it would be if it had a mate of its own.