Chapter One
In Springtime
His Thoughts Turn to Love
My parrot, Tiko, didn't court me until five years into our relationship. I knew
how attached he was to me, but it came as a complete surprise when one morning
in early April his behavior toward me suddenly changed. I found his diminutive
brightly feathered self on my bed, insistently poking his head under my hand to
solicit preening. In the past, he'd had the good manners to perch on the
banister outside the bedroom, patiently watching me sleep and waiting until I
stirred before coming in for his ritual morning preening, which had typically
lasted five to ten minutes.
That morning Tiko gently picked at my cuticle and fingernails with his tongue
and beak for two hours while I drifted in and out of sleep, dreaming of jungles,
jaguars, and brilliantly colored parrots flitting through the forest canopy.
After breakfast, bleary from interrupted sleep, I started work. I'm a biologist,
a professor at Rutgers University, and my specialty is ornithology. Tiko is a
Red-lored Amazon, a distinguished member of a widespread Central American
species. He has taught me a tremendous amount about bird behavior ... read full excerpt from The Parrot Who Owns Me ebook
