He really, really loves me!

[Pajarita]

Sweetpea is a male Senegal that came to me in 2006 at eleven years of age with the name of Sabu. He had not been out of his cage for the last 9 or 10 years due to his excessive aggression and it is the true that he was the Senegal from hell! To make things worse, he fell in love at first sight with Tobita (ex Toby) a female Senegal that loved me to pieces so it wasn't only that he hated all of humanity, he hated me even worse because his beloved loved me! I soon realized that although he had lived with the people who had brought him to me under the name of Sabu, his original name must have been Sweetpea because, when he started talking (and he is, by far, the best cognitive and proficient talker I've ever had!) he would ask: "What's your name?" and reply: "Sweetpeeeeeee!" - plus he also refers to himself as 'Sweet' so I started calling him that. Not that it helped any! This bird HATED me with a passion and would attack me every single day, relentlessly, several times to the point that I had scars all over my body from his bites and going into the birdroom became something I actually dreaded. He is also the only bird I've ever clipped -something done out of sheer desperation on his second breeding season with me and which I regretted immediately. Years went by and he slowly and very, very gradually started reducing his attacks until, one day, three and a half years later, he pretty much stopped attacking. It took another two years for him to be handeable and this with utmost care and forethought because I never trusted him 100%.

About two weeks ago, he flew out of the birdroom when I went out looking for something and perched on the top shelf of my dressing room so I walked up and putting out my arm (not my finger because, like I said, I don't trust him completely) for him to step up, I said something like: "Sweetpea, why did you do that?" to which he promptly replied: "Pica pica" and put his head down for me to scratch. Pica pica (it itches, it itches in Spanish) is what I use to ask them if they want me to scratch them and, although I knew he understood what it means (because, when I have asked him in the past, he had put down his head for me), he had never before said it and no other bird has used it as a request (the bird is a GENIUS at cognitive speech and actually communicates). And, this morning, he insisted on perching on my hand (something I don't like because I am always leery of his possible bite) and, once he was there (I will always give a bird the benefit of the doubt regardless how little confidence I might have on their 'good' behavior), he started dancing for me!!!! And round and round he went, first one way and then the other while I stood there like a booby for a full 5 minutes or more, watching him with tears in my eyes and singing for him "Round and round and round he goes - when he will stop, nobody knows!", the song I used to sing when he did it for Tobita only now he was doing it for ME!!!!

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[Wolf]

Excellent!! Absolutely wonderful !! Yay!!

Thank you very much for sharing this, I really, really needed that. Thank you!!

[Lizz]

WONDERFUL-YAY

[Pajarita]

And you know what? I SOOOOOO misjudged him! For the last three weeks or so, he had been coming after my feet, kind of touching them with his beak and, every time, I quickly moved away and kept my eyes on him to scurry away when he came near them thinking that he wanted to bite them (he used to bite them so much, so hard and so often that I had to explain to the girls that did my pedicures that I did not have some weird disease like pox or something like that, that those scars were bird bites) but, this morning, when he touched my foot, I thought about it and put my hand down to ask him to step up and he not only did it, he started dancing on my hand again! Poor little thing, he had been trying to show me his love and my distrust was preventing him from doing it! And me always saying you have to give them the benefit of the doubt! Shame on me!!!

[Harpmaker]

Congratulations, Pajarita! I don't know anyone who deserves their bird's love more. It's wonderful to hear that Sweetpea knows it too!

[Lizz]

He knew he had to get past what he did to your feet before. He understood your reaction and just tried harder.

Chuck, my son, used to dodge Rambo for good reason. When Rambo changed his mind and wanted to be friends he had to work at it to win him over. He did a lot of standing in the middle of the floor saying 'hello Chuck and what ya doin" before Chuck got brave.

[Pajarita]

I have been missing his clues, it seems - and that's entirely my fault, nearsightedness, distrust or whatever you wanna call it but regardless of the noun used, it rests squarely on my head because he has gotten, obviously, much tamer than I gave him credit for - this morning, I even cupped his body with my hand while he was hanging upside down from the front of my Tshirt (he does this the entire time I am cleaning cages or serving water and food - he likes to look at everything I do VERY closely ) and he never even moved! Now I feel terrible ! The poor, poor thing, trying to get a closer relationship with me and me dodging his attempts for Lord knows how long! I deserve a good kick in the behind!

[Periquita]

Oh my that's a wonderful story!! I really hope we get to see some pictures if you can, it really warmed my heart to see how much he changed with a bit of love and understanding..

[Pajarita]

Well, it was a bit more than 'a bit of love and understanding'! This bird was the bane of my existence for years! I was actually afraid of him, he was SOOOO mean! And he was so smart about it, too! He would fly around the birdroom following me when I cleaned cages and he would perch in front of me and leaning over to look into my eyes repeat over and over: "Good night, byebye, see you!" He was throwing me out of my own birdroom! He also used to fly straight at my face to bite me so I learned to keep my eyes on him and quickly bend over when I saw him adopting the posture to take off. This way, he would fly over my head and miss me. But, after a few days, he figured out what I was doing and started attacking me when I was giving him my back by flying at my head, grabbing my hair with his claws and bending over my forehead, bite my face. I've had this bird hanging on to my eyebrow with blood running down my face and me pulling his body off with both my hands and could not get him to let go! He was a holy terror! I don't think there is a single place on my body that he hasn't bit! But the poor thing had spent virtually his entire life in a small cage and had gone through three homes in 11 years so who could blame him for hating humans?!

But that's all water under the bridge now. He is now my friend and I hope I can get him to bond to another female so his life would be complete at last.

[Periquita]

Now THAT was a scary bird I can't get over the part where he throws you out of the birdroom! That part was hilarious! Is he completely changed now? I mean, doesn't he want to bite you -at least a bit- now?

I'm happy he is ok now, and anxious to hear about a possible parthner for him in the future! He is one lucky bird! Most people would have run away as fast as they could!