Her blue-and-gold macaw, Baby, taught bird behavior expert Chris Davis that parrots are intelligent.

ATTITUDES TOWARD pet birds have changed a lot in the last few decades, but one thing has remained constant for Chris Davis. The pioneer avian behavior expert still feels the same passion for parrots that she did when she took up their cause 30 years ago.

You can see it when Davis works a room at one of the numerous parrot conferences at which she speaks each year. She seems to draw upon a boundless source of energy for her 45-minute presentations on parrot behavior, which in turn captivates her bird-appreciative crowd. Afterward, Davis stands outside the ballroom patiently answering questions from the gathering throng.

The work is draining, but Davis wouldn't have it any other way.

"This kind of work is a real labor of love," she says, "if you do it right."

And Davis seems to be doing it right. She writes a regular column and other articles for the monthly magazine Bird Talk and has produced instructional videos about living in harmony with companion parrots, including Demystifying Pet Bird Behavior and Training Your Bird the Alex Way with Dr. Irene Pepperberg.

She has contributed to half a dozen veterinary text and reference books and served as guest editor for a behavioral edition of a veterinary journal. She also does product research and development for the Lafeber Company.

Much to her own surprise, Davis has become a world-renowned avian consultant.

"I never intended this to happen, I was just trying to make some birds happy, and help people be more patient with their birds," she says. "It turned into a profession, and no one was more surprised than me."

The young dog trainer
Davis grew up in the country as an only child who easily formed friendships with animals. Her ability to work with them became evident at 12 when she trained and entered into a show competition a rambunctious boxer and won first prize, finishing ahead of several adult trainers.

In 1975, Davis met a cockatiel through her grandmother, who had been taking in unwanted birds since the 1950's. The experience convinced Davis she wanted a parrot, a large one - a cockatoo, to be exact. Bob Branch, the father-in-law of renowned Hollywood animal trainer Ray Berwick, was doing a bird demonstration at a shopping mall with Sweetheart, one of the birds that played Fred the Triton cockatoo in the Baretta TV series.

"During the show, I met this blue-and-gold macaw who wouldn't stop kissing me," says Davis. "I was completely enamored of this bird. At that moment, I knew my life had changed forever, although I didn't yet know how."

Two weeks later Davis bought a young hand-fed blue-and-gold macaw with money she had saved to buy living room furniture. She named the bird Baby.

Branch, in the meantime, had been so impressed with Davis' interest in his birds, he invited her to see his show at Lion Country Safari in California. Davis offered her services as a volunteer on the spot.

"I told him I'd trained dogs but I'd never trained birds. I said I'd sweep floors, do anything, but I'd like to learn about them."

It turned out the woman who worked with the birds on Branch's days off was quitting, and Branch offered Davis the job. She did not find the jump from training dogs to training birds that difficult.

That connection led to an invitation from Berwick to do additional part-time work at Animal Actors' Studio at Universal.

At about the same time came the surge in the popularity of pet birds, due in no small part, ironically, to the Baretta series. Unfortunately, few people knew how to live with birds as pets.

People who watched Davis work with the birds at Lion Country Safari afterward peppered her with endless questions about their own pets. So after a stint in college studying psychology and biology, Davis began developing and sharing her humane parrot-handling methods in 1977 in classes for bird owners.

The classes led to in-home consultations and, eventually, Davis' workshops, lectures and writing gigs.

"Just get rid of it"
When she began teaching, "there was no behavior modification at all," recalls Davis. "If your bird was screaming, you'd just get rid of it, or chuck it in a closet all day. To get a bird to behave, people used techniques that would involve breaking its spirit," an approach Davis believes is morally wrong.

"When I got Baby and discovered birds were such intelligent creatures, I thought, 'By gosh, you can work with the behavior on these animals!'"

Davis believes key to a well-behaved parrot is studying its environment and modifying its behavior, rather than just training it to do tricks.

"You can train a bird to stop engaging in a given behavior, but that usually does not remove the reason for its behavior," says Davis. "And if its behavior is a result of something in its environment that is causing stress, the stress is still there."

Davis uses a few standard techniques for discouraging birds from certain behaviors; for instance, a gentle but firm wiggle of the hand if a bird is trying to bite jewelry, or turning one's back on a screeching bird.

However, Davis does not use operant conditioning, a reward-oriented technique now widely used by trainers. She was one of the first bird behavior experts to rely more on "intuition" to determine what the bird needs and devise methods of dealing with it.

"I was the first avian behavior consultant to actually go into someone’s home and determine what kinds of environment and dynamics the bird lives with in order to help people better live with their companion birds," she says. "Intuition plays a big part in my consultation."

Davis has visited more than 2,000 homes, charging a fairly standard $50 to $150 an hour depending on location and problem. Like most bird behavior consultants, Davis also offers phone consultations, which require an especially attuned ear for problems.

"I'll pay attention to voice inflections, the manner in which people talk about certain subjects, pauses or hesitations, those kinds of mannerisms, in trying to solve a problem."

Sometimes, Davis' intuition tells her a relationship is not meant to be.

After meeting one client and her troublesome new cockatoo, Davis decided the woman probably didn't have enough time to devote to the bird. She advised her to give it up for adoption and acquire a less rambunctious bird, such as an African grey. The woman followed Davis' advice and a year later both the cockatoo, now in a new home, and the woman, now the owner of an African grey, were much happier.

A welcome sea change
Initially, Davis had a tough time convincing other bird trainers that gentler methods could work. Professionals in the animal training industry, interested only in teaching the latest trick, thought such touchy-feely methods were a waste of time, and so did bird owners, who could still purchase relatively inexpensive wild-caught parrots. If one bird did not please them, they simply bought another.

But Davis persisted, and as pet parrots became more expensive - the result of young hand-fed parrots replacing illegal wild-caught birds - and avian veteriarians saw the benefits of her techniques, people began to apply her ideas.

Along the way, Davis has seen a welcome sea change in attitudes toward pet birds.

"Twenty-five years ago, people didn't understand some of the more rudimentary aspects of birds," she says. "Birds were considered something you just sat there and looked at. People didn't interact with them anywhere close to the way we do now.

"For example, we didn't think they liked to cuddle, but we know now they like snuggling, they seek it out."

Living with birds as companions rather than property also has taught Davis that "the souls of these creatures are far greater than our own. I've seen great tolerance, love and grace in parrots."

Davis believes the greatest good our pet birds may do is to remind us of our connection with nature and our need to preserve it.

"It’s no coincidence that in every culture, birds are the messengers of good or bad news from the gods," she says. "They’ve always held a divine, exalted position, and I think we’re seeing that again."

That's one reason why the removal of parrots from the wild in the first place does not disturb Davis.

"If there weren’t pet parrots, there would be no wild ones," she claims. "It’s when you see them in your home, and you love them so much, you want their relatives to fly free, in the wild. Those are the people who work in places like Tambopata (a Peruvian parrot research facility), not the people who just see them at the zoo or on television."

Education is the answer
Davis acknowledges that not all parrot-human relationships work, which often results in homeless birds, but she believes education can make a big difference. She discourages many would-be bird owners from adopting and does her best to educate those who express a genuine interest in making a life-long commitment.

"It is the responsibility of each of us that know what is involved with having an avian companion, to help people make responsible decisions. I think that is the best we can do and still live in a democratic society."

Key to making changes for the better is continuing to impress upon people that they "need to get away from wanting a bird to be what they want it to be, and really appreciate the grace, beauty, intellect and magical quality every bird seems to hold."

The future for pet birds, Davis believes, is that "we will discover that birds - or for that matter, all animals - are far more sentient than we could ever imagine. In order to reach that point, we need to continue to try to view the world more from their perspective."

As she reflects on how much has changed, Davis' trademark zeal shines through.

"One of the delights for me is to see someone who’s just bought a parrot, thinking it was kind of a fun decoration to have. They they become dumbstruck - to find they have this intelligent, gracious, beautiful and profoundly influential creature at the center of their lives."

John Geary is a Vancouver-based freelance writer, former editor of the Calgary Psittascene and a PIJAC-Certified Avian Specialist who shares his life with two Congo African greys, Nikki and Coco.

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