GREY FISHER
Male birds nest, too
 My adult mealy Amazon, whom I've had for over seven years, has not been sexed. According to your Archive articles about courtship, he has been nesting. He was going down to the bottom of the cage (which almost never happened before, even to retrieve a dropped favorite food), and would coo and chirp, sounding very happy. Then he would carefully tear the newspaper into strips and attempt to pile them up and move the pile around. This behavior continued for about a half hour a couple times a day for about a week and was repeated again for another week a few weeks later. I would not have been surprised to see an egg. Do male parrots exhibit this kind of behavior or has "he" given me a hint that I should change his name to Marvette?
-- Marge Slack, La Fayette, Ga., Hon3g2@aol.com
 Good question! The behavior you describe is typically associated with a female - but don't let that make you think that "he" is actually a "she". Birds (and other animals) don't always get hung up on the typical gender roles the way we humans do. I have seen males nesting and females copulating with inanimate objects, so you can never be too sure!
I would recommend having your bird sexed. If he is a she it is possible that the next step will be egg laying and that can have potentially serious health risks. Find a local avian board-certified vet if you don't have one already and take Marvin/Marvette to be checked out. It'll give you peace of mind and settle the pesky name issue in one fell swoop.
Grey Fisher is a trainer at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Previously he was a trainer with Natural Encounters, Inc., a world-renowned organization that helps zoos all over the world train birds and many other types of animals using positive reinforcement.
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