AT MY LOCAL pet store a small greenish bird sat alone amid the Amazons, macaws, and conures. I heard one of the clerks say how he loved the little brown head, and he nodded at the little green bird. "Is that the brown head?" I asked. The clerk said yes and added that she was one of the sweetest birds he'd ever worked with.

I offered the bird my hand. She immediately climbed on, and I guessed her weight to be around 110 grams. But from her polite standoffishness I could tell she wasn't that impressed with me. I held her for a few minutes and then put her back on the perch. She cost $500, which was just $495 more than I happened to have in my pocket.

But I was intrigued, so I began doing some research. I wanted another parrot, but I don't like loud noises and knew a macaw or cockatoo would drive me crazy.

It turned out that African brown-headed parrots, a member of the poicephalus genus, are still relatively rare in captivity. In their native southern and eastern Africa, brown heads are either abundant or close to endangered status, depending on which research you read. The scant information that I could find emphasized them as intelligent and capable of talking but relatively quiet and easily adaptable to living with humans.

Brown heads tend to be overlooked because they lack the colorful feathers of the macaws and the antics of the cockatoos. Or perhaps it is the naturally long, sharp curved beak that puts people off.

But brown heads offer their own subtle charms. They're named for their soft grayish brown heads and faces; however, their bodies are covered with various shades of green feathers, most of them iridescent. The feathers under the wings are a bright yellow, which flashes brilliantly when they fly. (I've never been able to capture my bird's brilliant feathers in photos.)

Despite their curved beaks brown heads are no more likely to bite than any other parrot. When they do, the bites are not much more painful than a cockatiel's.

Wild thing
I began my search for a breeder of brown-headed parrots. I was still new to the world of parrots, but I figured a bird would be cheaper directly from a breeder and I would be able to see the conditions in which it was raised. There are no parrot rescues in my area, and brown heads are so rare the odds were good I'd never find one at a sanctuary anyway.

I was right on all counts. A breeder I found in Louisville, Ky., just 80 miles away, had a baby brown head for $300. The baby's parents were wild caught from Tanzania, so I knew this bird would be the nearest I'd ever get to having a wild creature in my home.

Brown heads are voracious chewers.

The breeder said the bird was a male, about three months old and newly weaned. I named him Charlie. In retrospect I wish I had given him some exotic African name.

When I got home, I called the breeder, and he told me that the remaining clutch mate had cried and cried when Charlie and I left. I offered to bring Charlie back so he and the clutch mate could say good-bye properly, but the breeder assured me that wasn't necessary.

One of the first things Charlie did in his new home was growl at me. That scared me. Had I misread all the literature? Had I brought home a monster? I learned later that growling is a sign of fear in brown heads. He's never done it again.

Charlie also liked to open and close his beak rapidly at me, which I learned is a friendly overture. I opened and closed my mouth right back at him to show I wanted to be friends, too.

The breeder warned me that new surroundings might cause Charlie to regress, and he showed me how to handfeed a bird. Charlie stopped eating on his own the second day I had him. I enjoyed giving him his formula, Kaytee Exact mixed with a bit of warm water delivered with a syringe. The third day he starting eating again on his own and all was well. By the fourth day, Charlie had claimed the house as his and me as his human.

Charlie the angel
Charlie's eyes were the solid black of a baby bird's, but soon developed the lighter outer rings of the adult. He was just as affectionate as the store clerk said brown heads were; he insisted on perching on me and being petted continually. I did my best to encourage him to play with his new toys, including a "party favor," a wooden block and paper coils, but I secretly adored his attachment to me. He was so small and soft and warm, with those big dark eyes - who could resist?

The breeder had beautifully adapted Charlie and his nestmates to human life. Charlie was not afraid of the vacuum cleaner or other sounds. He will still eagerly eat raw carrots, broccoli stalks, oranges, green beans, and other vegetables. Apples and grapes are also great favorites (though I limit these sugary treats, as you should for any parrot). Charlie's favorite warm foods are pasta, oatmeal, potatoes, peas, rice, and my specially made birdie bread. Charlie will do almost anything for an almond.

But Charlie's base diet is Harrison's pellets, regular potency formula in the beginning. Then, when he was about one year old, he began plucking his chest feathers, a horrifying development because I thought I was taking good care of him. I worked with two vets and even a parrot behavior consultant, with little success.

One day, by accident, I bought a bag of Harrison's high-potency pellets. Within a couple of weeks, Charlie stopped plucking and began to blossom into the beautiful creature he is today. If I ever needed proof of the value of good nutrition, that was it.

It was about this time that I had Charlie DNA tested. Brown heads are monomorphic - the feathers of the male and female are identical, so you can't use them to tell the sexes apart. It turned out Charlie was a female, so she became Charli.

A brown head's nails are extremely sharp; I routinely have Charli's trimmed at the vet's because she's very protective of her feet and I'm not allowed to play with them. Nail trims always seem to aggravate Charli because she can't grip things as well. After every trim she seems to set about sharpening them again by chewing on them, looking coy all the while. I'm able to keep her feathers lightly trimmed so that she can fly but not gain altitude.

All parrots should be offered a safe, covered place in their cage in which they can hide or just spend some alone time (unless, of course, you have a bird that considers all dark places as opportunities for breeding). A Hide 'n Sleep is Charli's sacred sleeping place. She immediately began chewing until it was just the way she wanted it; I'm not allowed to replace it or straighten out the chewed holes. Nor does she want to be bothered once she's settled in at night. She does, however, welcome scratches first thing in the morning while still snuggled inside.

Who can resist a brown head's big expressive eyes? Not Charli's smitten owner, Marguerite Floyd.

Charli the devil
Brown heads are notoriously jealous and territorial, which is probably their main fault as a pet. They do not tolerate other birds well; Charli dislikes my three cockatiels and I must keep them separated at all times so she doesn't hurt them. Even inanimate objects can raise her ire; if I dare answer the telephone when she is nearby she will attack the receiver.

She is also the most stubborn bird I've ever met. Once she's decided she doesn't want to do something, it simply won't happen. However, if I let her be for a few minutes and give her a chance to reconsider, that usually works.

Charli reached puberty around 2.5 years of age, a little early for a brown head. Her "seasons" seem to fall in the spring and autumn, though she frequently takes a mating stance on her perch, regardless of season. She'll fluff up her feathers, open and close her beak rapidly, and rapidly emit soft chirps. I ignore her and it passes. Brown heads do regurgitate as a sign of love, but they don't seem to do it as often as other parrots. When Charli is in the throes of hormones, I must remove her from her cage using a perch, and I dare not go near her food dish if I value my fingers.

Overall, Charli is fairly quiet, as advertised. She does not talk, though once she perfectly mimicked the sound of my microwave. In other words, she probably could talk perfectly well if she wanted to, but I guess she has no reason to. When she squawks in the evenings, she's a bit louder than a cockatiel, but by no means ear-shattering or even annoying (unless I'm trying to watch TV). Occasionally she'll softly chirp once, usually when she thinks she hasn't received enough attention.

Three-month-old Charli had more muted feathers.

Charli depends more on body language and facial expressions to get her message across. For a bird she has a remarkably expressive face. A slight narrowing of the eyes tells me something is beginning to annoy her. A bit more narrowing tells me she's angry or about to stalk one of the cockatiels. When her eyes are big and round she's feeling affectionate; when this is accompanied by fluffed feathers she wants to be petted.

Inside her cage, Charli enjoys hanging upside down most of the time and watching me to be sure I see how clever she is. She loves fighting the bell on the end of her boing, filling the house with metallic rings. She is a ferocious chewer; since I refuse to let her have my desk and leather couch as chew toys, she stays busy by destroying a fresh roll of tightly wound adding machine tape each week. I often give her partially shelled almonds in a puzzle cage so that she has to work to get at them. When she finishes foraging for the almonds, she gives me a self-satisfied look, fluffs her feathers a bit, and preens.

Almost six years old now, Charli has never been sick or required more than her annual well-bird check-ups. According to the experts, I should expect to enjoy her at least 30 years. I still keep in touch with the breeder; I like to send him pictures of how beautiful Charli turned out to be. I'm a lucky human to live with such a sweet, contrary creature. If you, too, decide to take on a brown head, check out the Yahoo mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brown-headed_parrots/.

Marguerite Floyd is a hospital documentation manager, but considers her real job to be slave to three cockatiels - Flash, Nicholas and Sugar Franklin - and 6-year-old brown-headed parrot Charli.