When I was young I got a parrot training book. My mom worked at an all-bird pet store and I used to scrape cages just to be around the birds and learn more about them. This book amazed me and I thumbed through its pages each time I got the opportunity – it contained at least 100 tricks within its pages and the possibilities for parrot intelligence seemed limitless. So when the store owners’ daughter saw me cleaning row after row, cage after cage of bird poop, she jokingly asked me “What bird are you working towards”? When I replied “Not birds…books!” She laughingly told me to pick any one in the store. Of course I immediately ran straight for the only trick training book and even though it turned out to be the shops most expensive title she let me take it home.
My point here is not to explain the complex tricks within this book however, because you see, the book taught me a very important lesson as I trained different tricks to different birds as a young adult and soon as a professional avian trainer: It taught me that the different tricks were very similar and could be approached or taught in the same way. And now that I have spent years of my life training birds for casino shows in Las Vegas, working for rescues and sanctuaries, training birds for movie producers and so forth, I learned just how simple the “tricks” could be.
What if I told you that basically every bird trick in every bird show in the world was only a combination or variation of eight basic tricks and that no matter how complicated a behavior may seem, at its foundation lays one or more of these “simple” yet profound actions? Someone could spend a lifetime creating different ways to do these same tricks but no matter how hard someone might try, this is basically all there is. You see, as I read the book I didn’t realize it but a pattern had begun to play out in my brain and as I taught the same behaviors over and over for a period of years and shaped them to become “other” tricks it became a clearer picture for me. I have been able to break down the complex behaviors into a more simplified and easier to teach approach.
These 8 “tricks” or behaviors are as follows: Targeting, Retrieving, Stationing, Vocalizing, Flying, Memory, Body Manipulation, Prop Manipulation.
TRICK #1: Targeting
Targeting is training the bird to touch his beak or other body part to a designated point, such as the palm of your hand, a chop stick, or any other “target” you choose. Giving a kiss is a form of Targeting: the bird simply touches his or her beak to your lips. I often use targeting to teach card tricks, I alter the card imperceptibly and teach the bird to spot the difference. After he learns to select the “correct” card you can mix and match as many cards as you wish and the bird will still choose the right card every time.
This same trick could be used to teach the old gambling game where a ball is placed under one of 3 different cups and they are mixed around to confuse the participant. The bird learns to spot the difference, he touches the target, and picks the right cup every time! This doesn’t only work for tricks, indeed, many “trick” behaviors such as Targeting translate well to training abused or neglected birds and also helps to teach basic husbandry behaviors thereby making life easier for the bird and owner. For example, we teach the bird to touch a chopstick with his beak…well, where the beak goes to touch the target the body follows: As the bird attempts to touch the target he could be going inside his cage or a carrier willingly, he could be stepping up onto your hand without realizing it (in fact, stepping up onto your hand is Targeting, except instead of touching their beak to a stick they touch their foot to your arm!). The bird could be trained to wear a harness for safety outdoors by luring him with the target so he sticks his head through the straps of the harness. Over time you simply add more snaps and buckles and leave it on for longer periods of time.
You could teach the bird to run through an obstacle course, come to you on cue (this is called the Recall and we will discuss another way to train it later) and so much more. Have you ever seen a bunch of children all lined up holding each other’s hands on a field trip? They were targeting of course! I hope you give this a try, if you do I’m sure all your tricks will be right on target! (Try this for fun, teach your bird to target and after they can practically do it in their sleep put them on a pair of Roller Skates! They will be skating circles around the other birds on the block in no time!)
TRICK #2: Retrieving
We’ve all seen someone’s pet dog play fetch and our birds are no different. Retrieving is any transporting behavior, where an object moves from A to B, or A to B to C and so forth. You can make it as complicated as you wish and you can spice up other behaviors as well by adding this to it. For example, we discussed card tricks already where the bird selects a card by Targeting, well you can chain a Retrieving behavior onto that trick so the bird brings the correct card back to the spectator to end the trick.
This is also how the “Dollar Bill Tricks” seen at nearly every bird show and zoo is done – it is simply a flying retrieve! The object that the bird carries and where the object goes doesn’t matter: The object could be a scooter that they “ride” (or more accurately carry) back to you. This also goes for Bicycles, Unicycles and so on. Playing Basketball has never been easier, teach them to bring a ball back to a cup or the palm of your hand and then simply cue them to perform this while you hold the cup under the hoop!
I will be using Retrieving for my next project: Teaching a bird to pick pockets for a Las Vegas entertainer. The trick is just a simple retrieve, but I can chain multiple retrieves together so the bird will check the shirt pocket, coat pocket, back pocket etc! Stacking rings on a peg, the “teach and talk bank” and other tricks are all Retrieving behaviors and the possibilities are endless. I have even been present when a wedding proposal was made possible with the help of the retrieve: a simple “Dollar Bill Trick” was made life changing for someone when a Goffins cockatoo returned a different dollar bill to the spectator than the one she had originally had – this new dollar bill had a diamond ring folded inside of it!
TRICK #3: Stationing
Stationing is great any time you want the bird to be somewhere at a certain time. It is very similar to the old dog training command “stay” but it is so much more. When I am flight training a bird I am training the bird to Station 99% of the time. Where I want the bird to go is different every time, but even though it may look like a completely different behavior, if you look closely you will see it isn’t all that complicated.
When I train the Recall or when I want the bird to come to me on cue (which we taught another way by using Targeting), I am training it to station on my hand, arm or shoulder. I give it the cue (a whistle or upturned palm etc) but I can also train it to station on a perch or stationing platform away from the stage. This can make your shows a 3D experience and people will be amazed at the precision with which your birds perform as they fly from one platform to another, then back to you on stage. Many shows such as the LA Zoos “World of Birds Show” have assistants placing tidbits of food in different places throughout the shows, and the birds have been conditioned so that they ONLY eat from these platforms, so when they are released they fly from point A to point B then back behind the stage. They reload the stationing platforms and repeat this several times during the show with many different birds and the crowds are always surprised to have birds coming from all sorts of unexpected places.
This was also done in Las Vegas with the Superstars of Magic Show. Doves were conditioned so that they ONLY ate from a specific perch each day and then the perch was placed on stage. When the cue was given during the end of the show the box behind the stage was opened and a gorgeous flock of white doves flew over the crowd to the front of the stage. Stationing can also be used when a bird picks up the pesky habit of running straight to the shoulder each time: Simply feed his favorite treats when he sits on your hand and make the hand more rewarding than the shoulder. This way, you’ve made the bird want to do what YOU want him to do.
TRICK #4: Vocalizing
A parrot’s ability to mimic human speech is one of their most endearing qualities and oftentimes it is what first sparks someone’s interest in these intelligent animals and makes them consider parrots as pets for the first time. When somebody is in the room with a smack-talking parrot for the first time they can’t help but have fun! The secret to most speech training that I do however lies mainly in capturing behavior. I capture behaviors all the time: Yawning, jumping up and down, nodding the head yes or no – all of these are natural behaviors for many birds and all we have to do as trainers is put it on cue. I do the same with talking. Most people know that to train birds for free-flight and other high-profile stunts I prefer working with younger birds but this is not the case when a talking bird is needed for a TV show etc. For times such as when the History Channel called me and needed a talking bird for a stand-in on a TV show I immediately knew it would be a 30 something year old Yellow Naped Amazon.
You can teach birds to say things the hard way (by repeating the same thing over and over) but oftentimes parrots learn to imitate the fire alarm and telephone a long time before they start repeating after you. For this reason it is much easier just to capture a word or phrase the bird already says and just put it on cue. For example, those weird sounds your bird learned when you watched Star Trek could be a Laser: If I wanted him to do this noise on cue would wait for him to make the noise, then I would click and say “laser” as I handed him the treat. Soon he will get the idea and you can say things like “What sound is laser” and so on so it is more of a “performance”. You can use whatever cue for whatever sound(s) you want!
TRICK #5: Flying
Now we have already discussed the most important behaviors of flight-training earlier with Targeting, Retrieving and Stationing but as I also said earlier, a person could spend a lifetime coming up with new variations for each trick and Flying is no different. These other tricks usually start on the ground. One example is when the bird flies through different hoops. The bird can be lured with the target or a food treat to walk through one or more hoops and then back to you. Over time you simply phase out the lure.
When I am training a bird to fly one or more circles before landing on me I start on the ground and teach them to spin on cue (this is a Body Manipulation trick). I start by training them to complete only 1 complete 360 and then move on to 2 and 3. Then when I am working on free-flight I cue them while they are in the air and many times they do at least a half circle the first time if you have drilled it enough on the ground. If they do anything like that reward them lavishly! Magicians have taught this another way for centuries: They have special noose-harnesses made of a nearly invisible thread that the bird wears and when they toss them into to air the bird has no choice but to fly in a circle right back to the magicians hand. Another way is to clip one primary feather at a time on one wing only. Eventually when they have clipped around 3 or 4 feathers on one wing the bird starts to fly circles. When working with an older bird many people find it is safer to give the bird a “flight-training clip” where the first 3-4 feathers or so are clipped on BOTH wings. This way the bird can still fly back and forth but they are not as maneuverable and they can’t really fly up or down or right or left quite as proficiently as before this light feather trim.
Clipping your parrot is an individual choice to make and it is up to you to decide what is best for your bird. Many people think of this as a sort of “training wheels” for parrots and they use this to shape desired behaviors such as the Recall while the birds’ choices and ability are temporarily limited. The truth is, much of the ground work can actually be taught to a bird that has been severely clipped and you can just work flight in as the wings re-grow. A clip is only temporary…what you train can last forever. There is so much to discuss with any of these 8 tricks but flight-training is a very big topic in recent years and much of my writing has already been dedicated to this if you wish to learn more. One game I like to play is to teach a bird to retrieve a small ball etc and really drill it until the bird can practically do it blindfolded and then I start tossing the object in the air - Audiences love this trick!
TRICK #6: Memory
Most parrot owners will agree that parrots are smart and science is finally coming along to back them up. The truth is, parrots have an excellent memory and we can use this to create some very interesting tricks. Remember the card trick and the old gambling game we discussed earlier? Targeting is not the only way to teach the trick. For many years people simply taught the bird to remember what order the cards would be in. For example, the first time the cards are laid out the correct card is 3rd from the left. Now, to make it appear impossible to cheat the entertainer would lay the cards out a 2nd time so now the card was the furthest on the right. The only limitation is your imagination - Parrots can even learn to play the piano!
The LA Zoo has a raven that “searches” for hidden objects and it is no surprise that he finds them every time because they are always hidden in the same place. The bird just has to remember where the objects are and it’s not hard if he’s done 2-3 shows a day for 5 years. Psittacines probably adapted such a good memory because of the intense 3D world they evolved to live in and the same would be true for all birds possessing an “above average” intelligence. It’s not surprising to me that they have a large IQ, rainforests are a big place and they had to remember what trees flowered or gave fruit at what time of year and so forth.
TRICK #7: Body Manipulation
The majority of cute behaviors I teach where people think the bird is “almost human” are tricks involving the bird moving, manipulating or in other words animating some body part or in some cases multiple body parts or the entire body. These are tricks such as spinning on cue, waving “hi”, nodding yes or no on cue, rolling over onto their backs, doing flips or summersaults, extending the wings, shaking hands when they meet someone, hanging from the beak on a finger or perch, dancing and on and on. These are some of the easiest tricks to teach but some of them can be quite difficult for even the best trainer because many of them involve capturing, shaping, physically manipulating the body yourself and so on.
Some tricks like waving or turning around can be taught in 5 minutes if you have a good relationship with the right bird but some tricks take days before the bird starts to get the idea and even then you might be shaping or fine-tuning the behavior for quite some time. Just start slow and shape the behaviors over very small approximations until you reach your goal. For example, to teach the bird to spin on cue you will only ask it to turn halfway a few times, using a treat or target to lure the bird. After he gets going good move on so that the bird must now complete a full 360 degree rotation. Then you can start phasing out the lure and moving the cue farther away from the bird with each repetition.
Every bird will be different so move at the pace of your bird and if they just can’t seem to move on don’t be afraid to go back a step for one or two reps. I can go on and on with instructions for training more Body Manipulation tricks but I simply don’t have the room to write about them all here, you will just have to read my other articles (hint hint).
TRICK #8: Prop Manipulation
The final behaviors all involve working with props and like the other tricks there are many variations you can work on to make your tricks that much more complicated and harder to reproduce…if that is your thing. Sometimes it might be easier to start at the end of the trick and work backwards, starting with the finished product first. Opening containers, turning latches, and many other such behaviors are included in this branch of the 8 basic tricks we call Prop Manipulation. Riding a bicycle might be a simple retrieve, but the bird also needs to learn to manipulate the prop with his feet for him to be able to ride it back to you. Many shows begin or end with a parrot unfolding a scroll or banner with “welcome” or “the end” written on it, to do this the bird just needs to untie a knot.
One of the biggest secrets to being successful with any prop is conditioning your bird to it so that he enjoys it and doesn’t fear the prop or try to avoid it. Many of the birds I supply for shows are raised from infancy to be show birds so I am fortunate enough to begin conditioning them at a young age. If the bird will be riding roller skates and playing basketball I am exposing him to these things before he even has all of his feathers, but don’t worry if you don’t have this option, you can still systematically desensitize your bird to any object it fears over time. It just might take a while. I suggest you also do this with any costume accessories you plan to wear to your shows, for example, if you will be dressed as a pirate the bird needs to become accustomed to your change in appearance and all the pieces of your costume. This is also a smart thing to do if the bird will work on a television set etc., there are plenty of “scary” things like cameras, wires and cables, flashing lights, pyrotechnics, the audience, cast and crew and so forth. Just be sure that no matter what the bird will be interacting with, whether it is a prop or a piece of costume jewelry, you give them ample time to get used to it.
-Chris Harris
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