My perception of Amazons was wrong.

[AnarchoBoxer]

There's a liquor store in town that has an African Grey and a Blue-Fronted Amazon that live in the store during the day while it's open. I had handled and interacted with the grey before, and she's a big sweetheart as long as you take your time with her. However, I have always heard horror stories of Amazons being aggressive, territorial, etc. and this bird's body language seemed to communicate this to me (despite him saying hello to me), so I never did more that speaking to it gently. I just respected his space.

Last night, I dropped in to pick something up and one of the shopkeepers was talking about the birds. He told me the Amazon "wouldn't hurt a fly", that he's an extremely outgoing and loving bird, and that there's no need to fear him. Sure enough, he picked the bird up, and started to play with him, show off all his tricks, and give him scritches. What an amazing bird! He stepped up for me when I asked, told me "hello!", danced, let me give scritches and insisted on being in my face. This is one of the most immediately sweet birds I have ever met, and I could have spent all night playing and talking with him if it wasn't close to his bedtime.

There are always Amazons available for adoption at one of the two rescues here; maybe someday I'll give one of them a home.

[Wolf]

Amazons are no different than any other parrot in the respect that they are all individuals, there are no two of them the same. There are abused birds that are aggressive and territorial and there are abused birds that are total sweethearts. Even the worst of these birds can usually be rehabilitated so that they are excellent companions, though there are exceptions.

[Pajarita]

Weeeeelllll, I would not go as far as saying that amazons are like any other parrot... but, then, I wouldn't go as far as saying this for any other species, either. The thing with zons is the huge difference between males and females in terms of temperament. Females are almost always docile, you can get an abused, severely neglected or super hormonal one that bites but, as soon as you take care of the problems, she will turn sweet-tempered. Males are another story. Even well taken care of and well-loved males have their nasty moments. They are hugely sensitive to long days and a high protein diet which will not only mess up their liver big time but also make them super hormonal and, when you talk about male zons and hormones, you are talking about aggression. It's in their nature regardless of how imprinted they are to humans and how well treated they are. These are large, powerful, naturally assertive and almost fearless birds and, if they are cranky or you do something wrong, they will let you know it. I got bit yesterday by Zeus. It was nothing, actually, just a little cut in my right ear and entirely my fault because I decided to give SweetPea (male Senegal) a cup with his dinner seeds on a small platform that hangs off the cage placed under the amazons big platform (the little one is the kind they sell in birdstores in different sizes and hooks on the bars of the cage while the big ones are hanging from the ceiling -theirs is a custom made one 2.5 ft wide and 8 ft long). I've never done this before and shouldn't even have tried it because Precie, Zeus' mate, is sitting on her second clutch of the season in a cardboard on the big platform, but I wasn't thinking and, when I called SweetPea to get his dinner (he's a pain in the neck because he doesn't have a specific place to eat like the other birds do -well, with the except of his friend, the Jenday who does the same thing SweetPea does- so I put food down and call him to it by saying: "SweetPea, peanuts -all seeds are called peanuts- right here!" and he comes flying) but he didn't and kept on saying: "Right here! Right here!" (he wanted his dinner where he wanted it -LOL) so I accommodated him and got bit for getting too close to the 'forbidden zone' -LOL- Like I said, my fault 100% because I should have known better. But this is a reaction that you would never get from a hen, only from a male.

[Wolf]

Amazons are like any other parrot in the respect that they are all individuals.

That is what I said. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[cml]

Amazons are like any other parrot in the respect that they are all individuals.

That is what I said. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I agree with Wolf.

[Pajarita]

Well, of course all parrots are individuals but each species has certain characteristics that appear more often than not and that's what I am talking about. Sun conures and Jendays are loud and nippy, quakers are cage-aggressive, pionus are mild-mannered, cockatoos are needy, IRNs require daily handling, macaws are laid back and late risers, etc. etc. Are ALL sun conures and jendays loud and nippy? No, there are exceptions, I have a sun conure that is loud and nippy but I also have a jenday which doesn't vocalize often at all and has never, ever nipped me. I had a quaker which, even when she was sitting on eggs, would allow me to put my hand in her cage and lift her body to check her eggs without ever trying to bite me or showing any aggression whatsoever. I also have two cockatoos that are not needy at all (one used to be but no longer is). Of course there are exceptions! But one cannot say that because there was one encounter with one single sweet-tempered amazon (which was, most likely, a hen), the general consensus that amazons tend to be aggressive is not true.

[Wolf]

Pajarita; While what you are saying is right on, and I agree, my point was that the OP had heard of aggressive Amazons and thought that they were all aggressive, then he met a well socialized Amazon. I wanted to remind him that not every Amazon will be as well mannered. That you can't just go and say that all Amazons are mean ,or nice, or nuts. that each one will be different.

[AnarchoBoxer]

My point was to show that I saw first-hand that the generalizations about Amazons being aggressive are not necessarily true at all. This bird I met was a DNA sexed male.

[Wolf]

Precisely, what I also was saying.

[Pajarita]

How old is he? Because age makes a HUGE difference with male zons. Mind you, I am not arguing that there are mild-mannered male zons, I am sure there are although I've never met one that was not sick, scared, very young or very old, all I am saying is that most of them will show aggression (or display it -it doesn't necessarily mean the bird will actually fly out to attack you) when hormonal.