Parrot Books

[Michael]

What kinds of parrot books do you already own? What are your favorites. What kinds do you want to add to your collection? What books would you like to see published that perhaps aren't already available?

DVDs, websites, blogs, etc apply as well if you'd like to talk about those.

[Natacha]

I actually don't have all that much...I have one generic book about Lovebirds (can't remember the name, author, etc and not sure where it is) and I have Guide to the Senegal Parrot and it's family by Mathie Sue Athan, which I did buy before getting Shade but after doing extensive research on Poicephalus so it didn't teach me all that much that I hadn't figured out by that point.

As for DVDs, Barbara Heidereich was a speaker at last year's Canadian Parrot Conference (CPC) and my boyfriend ended up buying a DVD after we asked several questions to her and got personalized answer. I believe he got "Parrot behavior and training #1".

Lastly, I do have a subscription to Bird Talk, but it has been a long time since the magazine has ever taught me something new. The subscription is a gift from my boyfriend and I do still enjoy looking at the pictures and some more personalized articles, but if I were the one paying for said subscription, I wouldn't have bothered renewing it.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I also get "Bird Talk". Even I haven't found too much startling and new in it, but a periodical will publish new information in a fairly timely fashion and it is often amusing. I wish there were an avian equivalent to "The Horse" and "CatWatch" both of which are basically lay-veterinary publications that concentrate on publicizing current research results and so forth.

I am a bibliophile and I have:
"The Complete Pet Bird Owner's Handbook" by Gary Gallerstein
"Guide to Companion Parrot Behavior" by Mattie Sue Athan
"The Well-Behaved Parrot" by Mattie Sue Athan
"The Conure Handbook" by Anne C. Watkins
"Conures: A Guide to Caring for Your Conure" by Nikki Moustaki and Eric Ilasenko
" Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement" by Tani Robar and Diane Grindol
"The Alex Studies" by Irene Pepperberg
"The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship" by Joanna Burger

Of these books, I consider the Gallerstein book the basic solid reference. It is comprehensive and contains basic vet care info.

I like "Parrot Tricks" but I'm not sure I learned a lot from it I didn't already know -- it does give one blueprint for starting the training process.

I like Mattie Sue Athan's books, but the two are almost completely redundant as far as I'm concerned.

Neither of the two conure books really told me much about green-cheeks other than the one or two sentence basics that get repeated over and over.

The last two are on my pending reading shelf.

The book I'd really like to read is one that talks about the natural behaviors and social patterns of parrots in relatively undistrubed flock situations. Especially as pertains to green-cheeks, including description of natural habitat.

[bmsweb]

Books I'm currently reading are:
Conures (by Tony Silva & Barbara Kotlar) - Good light reading
Taming and Training Conures - Some good tips but better info on this forum
The Guide to Popular Conures - Good general book on conures as it touches on most common issues
The Professonal's Book of Conures - Love this book, great reference info here
Breeding Conures - LOVE this book, read it 3 times now.

This is the reason why

[TheNzJessie]

i have one and its one about native new zealand birds. its very interesting. im not into books as such about parrots because i find the information can get outdated very quickly. buy a book 5 years ago and it would of said the only option for a captive bird is wing clipping a seed diet and water


these days with the pellet diets, water bottles being introduced and flighted parrots being more dominant i would find books to outdated them selfs in 6 months

[miajag]

I have "The Guide to The Quaker Parrot" by Mattie Sue Athan. It's not terrible but I didn't really learn anything new from it (someone gave it to me as a gift right after I got my bird; I had been doing research on birds for months previously). It also seems to make a lot of assertions based on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence.

I wouldn't mind reading The Alex Studies.

[pchela]

I was allowed to borrow books when I worked at the pet store so I read almost all of the ones we had. Nothing was terribly impressive. They mostly seem to be geared towards beginners (and a lot of the info is outdated and wrong or based on the opinions of the author) Once you learn all of the beginner stuff, it seems like you have to start asking other, more experienced bird owners questions as there doesn't seem to be all that much information beyond basics available.

I do very much like Barbara Heidenreichs work.

I did read Alex and Me and I recommend it to anybody who wants to cry their eyes out.

[lzver]

I did read Alex and Me and I recommend it to anybody who wants to cry their eyes out.

Even with knowing what happened to Alex it didn't make it any easier to read. Definitely a tear jerker.

[Natacha]

Oh did I ever cry in those first few and last pages of Alex and me!

[Weka]

((Resurrecting book thread))

So far, I have the following on my shelves:


Parrots: A Natural History by John Sparks and Tony Soper

Guide to Companion Parrot Behavior (1st ed.) by Mattie Sue Athan

Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot (Barron's) by Mattie Sue Athan

Guide to the Senegal Parrot and Its Family by Mattie Sue Athan

Parrots For Dummies by Nikki Moustaki

and of course,

The Parrot Wizard's Guide to Well Behaved Parrots by Michael Sazhin


I was about to look into getting The Second-Hand Parrot, as well, but then I realized I already have three books by Mattie Sue Athan and, while they have some solid experience-backed advice, some of it I'm not entirely in agreement with. (I.e. clipping, toweling) Has anyone read this book?

Also Parrots of the World (Princeton Field Guides) by Joseph M. Forshaw and illustrated by Frank Knight might be a nice addition to my birding library.


On the summer reading list, as I find human/bird interaction a fascinating topic:

Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species by Mira Tweti

Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird by Bruce Thomas Boehrer

Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene Pepperberg


Maybe when I have some time after the holidays I'll write up a couple of reviews...


--Weka