Dream Birds

I have a list of birds I'd love to have someday. Currently, this is the list and the reasons why.

1. African Grey. This is probably my number one bird desire right now. I love how incredibly smart they are, how cute they are, and just about everything else about them. Most likely, I won't be getting one for a few more years; I want to get out of graduate school and get a job first, but I will be getting one.

2. Quaker Parrot. I love these for the same reasons I love African Grey. They only reason I don't already have one is because they're illegal in Kentucky. I'm waiting until I move to Florida for graduate school before getting one of these.

3. Cockatiel. I had a cockatiel once. I loved her to bits. She was the first bird that was "mine" and I would give a lot to have her back and whole. When she died, I was heartbroken. Whenever I see a cockatiel, I always want to hold it and cuddle it and take it home.

4. White-bellied Caique. I have wanted one of these ever since I was working at Petsmart and somebody brought their white-bellied caique in. I knew then that I wanted one--look how cute it is, look how sweet it is. It took me a year before finding out what kind of bird it was (I didn't think to ask the owner when she was at the store). When I found out what it was, I read some more about them. I love their fun personalities. I would love to have one.

Then there is a list of birds I can not see myself choosing to own. If one ended up in my possession, I would probably try my best to keep it, but I would question my abilities to do so. Right now, there are only two birds (or groups of birds) on this list: large macaws (I could handle the mini macaws) and most cockatoos (I know a cockatiel is technically a cockatoo, I'm excluding that...I could probably handle some other ones too). The large cockatoos just get too loud for me and the big macaws make me pretty nervous as well as getting too loud. When I had Prudence at the vet yesterday, there was a MAD blue and gold macaw. His loud voice reminded me of why I don't want one.

Right now, I am content with my tiny flock of two, but I really want a third bird. I almost got a brown-headed parrot a few weeks ago, but things didn't turn out the way I had hoped. I'm playing the waiting game right now, waiting for the right bird to come along.