Blue-and-Gold Macaw

I had cockatiels before so I thought I understood parrots. A macaw is a completely different category of commitment. My bird needs at least four hours out of his cage daily, destroys anything wooden in reach, and screams loud enough to upset my neighbours. He is also breathtakingly beautiful and whe…

Blue-and-Gold Macaws are expensive to acquire and expensive to keep properly. Mine has a custom stainless steel cage that cost more than my sofa. She eats fresh fruit and vegetables daily alongside her pellet diet. She sees an avian vet twice a year. And she is worth every penny. She dances to music…

My Blue-and-Gold is twelve years old and has grown up with my children. He is gentle with the kids, plays fetch with plastic bottle caps, and has a vocabulary of about forty phrases. The size of the bird still amazes visitors — he is genuinely enormous by parrot standards. You need space, time, mone…

People fear large parrots because of their beaks and that fear is not entirely wrong. But a well-socialised, hand-raised Blue-and-Gold is extraordinarily gentle. Mine allows my six-year-old niece to stroke her head feathers. She has never bitten hard in three years. The key is consistent positive in…

I have wanted a Blue-and-Gold Macaw since I was eight years old and finally got one at forty. Rio is three years old, weighs nearly a kilogram, and is the most visually stunning creature I have ever shared a home with. He sits on my shoulder at the garden and neighbours stop to stare. He talks clear…

People focus on the size and noise of macaws and forget to mention how well they can talk. My Blue-and-Gold has over fifty words and uses several in context. He says good morning when I uncover his cage and calls my dog by name. His intelligence is obvious every day. The noise is real and the space …