The Parrot Who Owns Me

The Parrot Who Owns Me PDF Author: Joanna Burger
Publisher: Villard
ISBN: 158836027X
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
“Birds are my passion,” says Joanna Burger, “but parrots are my weakness.” Fifteen years ago, when se adopted a neglected, orphaned thirty-six year old parrot named Tiko, she entered on of the most complex relationships of her life. Sullen and hostile when he entered Dr. Burger’s home, Tiko gradually warmed as she carefully persuaded him of her good intentions. Eventually he courted her, building nests inside household furniture during mating season and trying to coax her into them. He nursed her vigilantly through a bout with Lyme disease, regularly preening each strand of hair on the pillow as she slept. For a while he even fought her husband for her attentions, but eventually theirs became a relationship of deep mutual trust. The Parrot Who Owns Me is also the story of the science of birds, and of parrots in particular (America’s third most commonly owned pet, after cats and dogs). Woven into the narrative are insights and fascinating revelations from Joanna Burger’s work — not only about parrots, but about what it means to be human. By turns delightful, hilarious, touching, and enlightening, The Parrot Who Owns Me introduces us to an unforgettable bird and his human companion, whose friendships tells us much about ourselves.

The Parrot Who Owns Me

The Parrot Who Owns Me PDF Author: Joanna Burger
Publisher: Villard
ISBN: 158836027X
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Birds are my passion,” says Joanna Burger, “but parrots are my weakness.” Fifteen years ago, when se adopted a neglected, orphaned thirty-six year old parrot named Tiko, she entered on of the most complex relationships of her life. Sullen and hostile when he entered Dr. Burger’s home, Tiko gradually warmed as she carefully persuaded him of her good intentions. Eventually he courted her, building nests inside household furniture during mating season and trying to coax her into them. He nursed her vigilantly through a bout with Lyme disease, regularly preening each strand of hair on the pillow as she slept. For a while he even fought her husband for her attentions, but eventually theirs became a relationship of deep mutual trust. The Parrot Who Owns Me is also the story of the science of birds, and of parrots in particular (America’s third most commonly owned pet, after cats and dogs). Woven into the narrative are insights and fascinating revelations from Joanna Burger’s work — not only about parrots, but about what it means to be human. By turns delightful, hilarious, touching, and enlightening, The Parrot Who Owns Me introduces us to an unforgettable bird and his human companion, whose friendships tells us much about ourselves.

The Parrot's Perch

The Parrot's Perch PDF Author: Karen Keilt
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1631525727
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The Parrot’s Perch opens in 2013, when Karen Keilt, age sixty, receives an invitation to testify at the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN in New York. The email sparks memories of her “previous life”—the one she has kept safely bottled up for more than thirty-seven years. Hopeful of helping to raise awareness about ongoing human rights violations in Brazil, she wants to testify, but she anguishes over reliving the horrific events of her youth. In the pages that follow, Keilt tells the story of her life in Brazil—from her exclusive, upper-class lifestyle and dreams of Olympic medals to her turmoil-filled youth. Full of hints of a dark oligarchy in Brazil, corruption, crime, and military interference, The Parrot’s Perch is a searing, sometimes shocking true tale of suffering, struggle—and survival. Karen Keilt lived through the darkest days of Brazil’s military dictatorship. In her courageous and compelling memoir, Keilt narrates an emotionally honest reckoning of her desire to find true happiness. Forbidden by her wealthy family to even mention her imprisonment, torture, and rape, Keilt is forced to make a change that will affect the rest of her life. Seen through her testimony to the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN, readers become witnesses to both her vulnerability and her quiet strength.

Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird

Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird PDF Author: Stephanie Spinner
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0307975673
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
In 1977, graduate student Irene Pepperberg walked into a pet store and bought a year-old African grey parrot. Because she was going to study him, she decided to call him Alex--short for Avian Learning EXperiment. At that time, most scientists thought that the bigger the brain, the smarter the creature; they studied great apes and dolphins. African greys, with their walnut-sized "birdbrains," were pretty much ignored--until Alex. His intelligence surprised everyone, including Irene. He learned to count, add, and subtract; to recognize shapes, sizes, and colors; and to speak, and understand, hundreds of words. These were things no other animal could do. Alex wasn't supposed to have the brainpower to do them, either. But he did them anyway. Accompanied by Meilo So's stunning illustrations, Alex and Irene's story is one of groundbreaking discoveries about animal intelligence, hard work, and the loving bonds of a unique friendship.

Of Parrots and People

Of Parrots and People PDF Author: Mira Tweti
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670019694
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Discusses scientific findings on the intelligence, personality, and rich lives of parrots that challenges flawed assumptions about nonprimates. Topics include animal welfare, what parrots are worth on the black market, and their uncanny ability to bond with humans.

Alex & Me

Alex & Me PDF Author: Irene Pepperberg
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN: 1921372729
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
'A moving tribute that beautifully evokes the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievemnets . . . [while] uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible.'Publishers WeeklyOn September 6, 2007, an African Grey parrot named Alex died prematurely at age thirty-one. His last words to his owner, Irene Pepperberg, were 'You be good. I love you'.What would normally be a quiet, very private event was, in Alex's case, headline news. Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous - two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Yet, over the years, Alex proved many things. He could add. He could sound out words. He understood concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none. He was capable of thought and intention. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures.The fame that resulted was extraordinary. Yet there was a side to their relationship that never made the papers. They were emotionally connected to one another. They shared a deep bond far beyond science. Alex missed Irene when she was away. He was jealous when she paid attention to other parrots, or even people. He liked to show her who was boss. He loved to dance. He sometimes became bored by the repetition of his tests, and played jokes on her. Sometimes they sniped at each other. Yet nearly every day, they each said, 'I love you'.Alex and Irene stayed together through thick and thin - despite sneers from experts, extraordinary financial sacrifices, and a nomadic existence from one university to another. The story of their thirty-year adventure is equally a landmark of scientific achievement and of an unforgettable human-animal bond.

Saving Jemima

Saving Jemima PDF Author: Julie Zickefoose
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 1328518957
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
The story of a sick baby bird nursed back to health and into the wild.

Elsewhere in the Land of Parrots

Elsewhere in the Land of Parrots PDF Author: Jim Paul
Publisher: Harvest Books
ISBN: 9780156029728
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Reclusive David Huntington writes rigorously meaningless poetry to great acclaim. But he lives fearfully, sleeping and working with earplugs, rarely going outside, drawing his life more closely around him every day. A wild parrot, a gift from his father, becomes the breach in the dike: Little Wittgenstein has a jungle shriek, fierce eyes, and a beak that wreaks havoc. David finally throws the bird out the window--and follows it into the world. His guilty search for the parrot takes him first to Telegraph Hill, where the parrot may have found others of its kind. Inexorably David is drawn even farther, lured to South America by rumors of an ancient flock in the wild mangrove swamps. There he meets the lovely level-headed Fern, an American scientist who has her own reasons for searching for the birds. Will he retreat, or follow the parrots' call? Jim Paul has created a tender, whimsical romance, told with wit and subtlety, about having the courage to heed the messages the world sends you, and to welcome unexpected love.

Parrot and Olivier in America

Parrot and Olivier in America PDF Author: Peter Carey
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 0307358364
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
From the two-time Booker Prize-winning author: an irrepressible, audacious, trenchantly funny new novel set in the 19th century and inspired in part by the life of Alexis de Tocqueville. With dazzling exuberance and all the richness of characterization, story, and language that we have come to expect from this superlative writer, Peter Carey explores the birth of democracy, the limits of friendship and whether people really can remake themselves in a New World. The two men at the heart of the novel couldn't be any more different: Olivier is the son of French aristocrats who (barely) survived the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerate English printer. But when young Parrot is separated from his father (after a stupendous conflagration at a house of forgery) he runs into the powerful embrace of a one-armed marquis who will be his conduit - like it or not - into a life as closely (mis)allied with Olivier's as if they were connected by blood. And when Olivier sets sail for America - ostensibly to make a study of the American penal system, but more precisely to save his neck from the latest guillotineurs - Parrot, unable to loosen the Marquis's grip, is there too: as spy, scribe, comptroller, protector, foe and foil. As the narrative unfurls, shifting between the perspectives of Olivier and Parrot, between their picaresque adventures apart and together, in love and politics, prisons and finance, homelands and brave new lands - a most unlikely friendship begins to take hold.

The Parrot Problem Solver

The Parrot Problem Solver PDF Author: Barbara Heidenreich
Publisher: TFH Publications
ISBN:
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
When not properly trained and socialized, parrots are prone to developing behavioral problems, including aggression and self-mutilation. Many parrot owners face these problems and need guidance on how to solve them. This book offers practical advice on how to understand, prevent, and correct aggressive beavhior in parrots.

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog PDF Author: Nancy Ellis-Bell
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 030740594X
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
A memoir of one family's life after adopting a rescued macaw, a one-footed, expletive-loving bird named Sarah that quickly takes over the house, the family, and the dog, and the misadventures they experienced before teaching the neglected bird how to fly.