Why are some of us good "bird people"?

[Pajarita]

Why wouldn't animals have emotions? They have glands that produce hormones so they have emotions, same as us.

As to 'birdpeople', I agree with Marie, you can be a dog person, a cat person, a bird person, a mouse person and all other kinds of persons. All you need is to love and feel empathy for animals. But although everybody who has a bird might qualify as a bird person not everybody who has a bird is a bird lover, the same that not everybody how has a dog is a dog lover.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Birds are some of the most emotional animals

I've had birds my whole life as have my partners and my family so I've always had birds around me. They all have their own personalities as well, which we grow to understand like a child you learn their likes, dislikes, what scares them, what makes them calm. When you have that affinity with them they have something so human about them... I think when you have that it helps to make you a good bird person.

[DustyTheGrey]

Our homes become a sort of rain forest, we decide the weather using the steam from our showers, we create rain for baths, we are the ants that carry away the mess, we search for their foraging obstacles, wabusive ld the trees out of pvc and we are their mates for life.

And we do all this, knowing that we will have to do it all again tomorrow.

I was just reading back and just love this quote! It's so true!

Thank you KimberlyAnn!

[marie83]

To add to my post earlier in the thread I do agree with what someone said in that emotion leads to a whole host of actions. I think emotion has to go hand in hand with both an action, plus the response. I have not studied this, this is just my individual perspective on it and this isn't a very good example but...

The action could be anything, say a bird with a bird mate recieves a head scratch from a human, the bird does not need a head scratch, we scratch in a different way to how its mate would preen it. It could still be used to bond with its flock mates so in that way you can argue that its an instinctive thing. The bird leans in further which indicates it feels good, if it felt bad but was instinctive my feeling is it would toletare the head scratch but not lean in further, so in my opinion it must feel good. If you feel something good which isn't an emotion in itself you usually do have an emotion thats creating that "good" feeling, usually happiness, contentment etc which are emotions.

Of course tactile things are actually sending signals through your nervous system which we would say is a completely seperate system to emotion but to be honest I do believe they are interlinked very closely. If you stub your toe it hurts like hell then you instantly feel angry and lash out whether that be yelling out loud (not just saying ouch) or pushing or throwing something etc, most people do anyway but some will hop about just saying ouch that hurt. The act of yelling and pushing something is aggressive but the angry feeling is emotive which is the trigger for the lashing out. Its the pain that triggers the anger and the anger that triggers the action and I believe all that is linked by instinct. The only bit Of that chain that I believe to differ is the end action- basicly the flight or fight response, some animals will flee and try to escape and others will fight.
All living creatures have things in common, I struggle with the concept that animals dont have similar links regarding emotion because I don't feel instincts are actually that simple.

[Strawfrawg]

Kenny...sounds like you and I had roughly the same childhood. How nice. Peace, Brother.

I agree with more or less everything others have said here, and like Michael said it all starts with "a fundamental love and admiration" for birds, including, as others have mentioned, an appreciation for birds as creatures with emotions.

Animals aren't just a collection of species, they are nations and cultures and unique individuals...I think people who "get" birds know what that means and regard them with the respect, dignity, curiosity, and care that any intelligent creature deserves. We don't try to bend them to our will without a healthy consideration for their own, and we don't anthropomorphise them or underestimate them. That's where people go wrong with pets, I think, and it's particularly problematic with feathered ones because they just don't play along. Cats are nothing compared to birds in the independent will department, despite their reputation. You really have to earn everything you get with a bird. Not everybody has the patience or even understands the concept of that. I'm glad I do, though. It's been so rewarding.

It was so cool to read so many great responses to this question. Thanks for bringing it up, Kenny. After a couple weeks off this board for the death of a close friend, this was a great discussion to come back to!

[Pajarita]

But I think that maybe some people who used the word 'birds' actually mean parrots because if you scratch the head of a finch, the finch will not feel pleasure, it would be scared, anxious and stressed out. Not all birds are the same. Passerines don't bond while parrots do. Having said that, we can have great relationships with all of them but, by necessity, they would have to be different, according to the species. On the other hand, all dogs are dogs and all cats are cats...

[Strawfrawg]

I see what you're saying, and it's true...all birds are different...but I wouldn't blame anyone here for thinking of parrots and their close kin for this discussion as that's what most of us share our lives with. We're kinda called The Parrot Forum.

As long as we're making distinctions, as an aside I would disagree about "all dogs being dogs" (I can't speak for cats but someone else here probably could). I was raised in the dog world (no, not by wolves) and I can tell you the range of general dispositions across breeds is vast. We didn't do all that selective breeding just for looks, and not even always for selfless love and devotion. The range is smaller than it is in the bird world because we are indeed talking about wholly engineered animals, but spend a day each with a Yorkie, a Saluki, a Rottweiler, a Malamute, and a Foxhound (and those are just random AKC-recognized breeds off the top of my head) and you'll see how different breed characters can be. You might be great with one and suck royally with the rest. True of birds, too, I reckon. There are species I know I wouldn't be very good with.

You may have just hit on the small ripple that's been coming up in some discussions lately...broad generalizations. I personally will try to make fewer in the future. Hahaha...I hereby retract any I've made!

[KimberlyAnn]

Cats are nothing compared to birds in the independent will department, despite their reputation.

I had to laugh at this. Only for the pure reason that I had the most independent cat for years. Brings back great memories! Emmi is less independent and strong willed then Tommy. If Tommy wanted something, he was going to get it. If he wanted to sleep somewhere (inside the kichen cabinets on the dinner plates, top of an open door, in the neighbor's house) he would figure out a way to do it even if it meant he would get stuck. If he wanted to eat something, he would open the fridge or bite open a box or bag of something. We had to cat proof the house for years!

If a stranger seemed "wrong" to him, then he would be in attack mode. Loud howls and hisses. But if you seemed ok to him, he would head right for your shoes, stick his head in and pass out. With any strangers to him...we never knew how he would react so we always crated him until we could figure it out. And if you hurt his little kitty feelings, you better spend a lot of time making it up to him or you were dead to him. DEAD! As in he would not even look at you. He was very temperamental. EVERYTHING hurt his feelings. I think I looked at the back of his head for three days after I went to Europe for two weeks. He was that angry. Lol But he was also so full of love and a big baby who slept in my arms with his paws on my cheek for years.

[Strawfrawg]

Ha! I stand corrected, Kimberly Ann! There go those generalizations again...glad I retracted mine. Takebacks? I can only speak to the cats I've known. My cockatiel in particular made them look like saints of compliance!

[KimberlyAnn]

And that's another reason why we are "Good Animal People!" We love our animals with unconditional love and appreciate their craziness and indulge their inner spoiled brattiness.