The Avian Behavior Podcast

This is an excerpt from our Masterclass on How to Raise an Ambassador Owl. We added this lesson after fielding many questions about quarantine procedures, and wanted to ensure that an ambassador owl would still have a viable start to their career in conservation education. Here we cover specific signs of illness, potential practices that can lead to stress, and what to do if your facility puts your new ambassador under strict quarantine protocols. For visuals, you can check out our video. For the full Masterclass, check out https://avianbehavior.thinkific.com/courses/owl-ambassador For more classes in our subscription based online learning program, use the code AVIAN for a free 14 day trial https://avianbehaviorlab.com For free resources, including our podcast, blog, and best practice guidelines, check out https://avian-behavior.org

Having a parrot with extremely complicated screaming, attacking, pair-bonded behavior that won't let you out of their sight without an intrusive cascade of undesirable behaviors can be a problem for the entire household. It also means layers of stress when you are torn between appeasing your parrot and your family. This excerpt from our deep dive masterclass series for members of the Avian Behavior Lab helps us look at the angles of this complex issue and how we tease apart which challenge we take on first from a science-based perspective. This series was extremely enriching, and we know you will glean some actionable details from the science here. Sign up for our newsletter for your latest bird nerd information! For more information on how we avoid using restrictiveness and intrusiveness as metrics, check out Episode 58 For AvOCET 2024 information, check out our registration page. Stay up to date on our workshop schedule here.

We are going to talk about an old school term in weight management of free flying and ambassador birds, and that is ad lib weight. Another term might be trap weight or base weight. Reason why this is old school is that for some people implies your bird has this same reference weight throughout their lives, regardless of muscle tone, seasonality, and age and it can be downright dangerous. There are many issues with ad lib weights, such as how we figure it out without coercion or restraint, the assumption that all birds can achieve steady state, and that some birds come from a place of food trauma. Not to mention that use prescriptive numbers to assess health can be problematic. Let's level up! We look at many different metrics that help us cross reference a dynamic set of reference weights across the seasons that help us identify healthy birds and high welfare. If you know us, we are going to discuss with you actionable, practical science based training tips that help you level up your training program that you can put into place right away. This podcast is from our bonus class from our Avian Behavior Lab Masterclass on Progressive Weight Management that we did on a YouTube livestream. Be your best with birds, and join us for lively discussion on deep topics. You can attend all of the masterclasses with a free 14 day trial of the Lab with the coupon code AVIAN. Check out this entire class on Youtube

Lead poisoning is a really big deal for wildlife, and Southern Ground Hornbills appear to be particularly sensitive to lead levels in the blood. In August, Avian Behavior International visited the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project in South Africa to identify some key behavior objectives to enhance the reintroduction strategy for the Southern ground hornbill. This bird has one complicated life strategy, punctuated by a long life and intricate social structure. If you are interested in how ethology impacts your work with conservation ambassadors, check out the Avian Behavior Lab, where we discuss the science of behavior and how it impacts our reinforcement strategies. Use the code AVIAN for a free 14 day trial. Notes and references for the just a small portion of Dr. Kemp's extensive hornbill work that also went into Hillary's report on the show's page Dr. Kemp spoke at the first annual Avian Online Conference for Education and Training, AvOCET, hosted by Avian Behaivor International. The second conference is being held April 26-27, 2024 with amazing speakers as well!

News flash, if your bird is attacking you, it probably doesn't mean that they hate you. What it does mean is that we have a lot in our relationship to unpack, from environmental conditions to expectations. When parrots in our homes come at us, either from the ground or on the wing, it can be really scary. Even cockatiels and small conures can pack a punch with those little beaks. Bird drama also can cause family drama, and no one wants to feel unsafe in their own home. We talk about behavior advice that belongs in the Dark Ages and why it is keeping you from success, we get real with how to realistically approach this problem, and we introduce our free challenge, Stop Attacking Me! Join us with the live version starting October 1 2023, or whenever you can! As always, enjoy a free trial of the Avian Behavior Lab with the code AVIAN at https://avianbehaviorlab.com

Hillary answers more questions from a workshop regarding how to prepare a bird for a program, are we friends with our birds, how to know when you are doing more harm than good and much more. We get philosophical on this one! For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for registration and details Welcome to the Avian Behavior Podcast, where we bring innovative approaches to progressive animal training and behavior, wildlife conservation, bird nutrition, and all things avian. We appreciate all of the supporters who have helped us fund our collaboration in South Africa with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project coming up in August. You can still get your trouble-making hornbill merch and much more! You can make the most impact with a small donation to GoFundMe You can get your Hornbill swag here Caracara shirts are one of the most popular The full page is here.

We sit down with good friend and well known aviculturist Dick Schroeder to talk about what we can learn about working with the Southern ground hornbill in a variety of different ways. Dick is a celebrated member of the avicultural community, he has raised numerous hornbill species, including over a dozen Southern Ground Hornbills (baby Kipling was his eighth!). He has boards seats, first time breeding awards, speakerships, and other accolades all over the world in aviculture. We talk about community and the importance of working together. This conversation kicks off our fundraising campaign for our efforts to work with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project this coming August. Help us reach our $4000 goal and enhance the release and monitoring program. The website is https://avian-behavior.org/hornbill/ Our Patreon is https://Patreon.com/avianbehavior.

We are going to be talking about how LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and the humane hierarchy structure stopped serving me in my animal behavior progress, what got me there, and how I help my clients instead. We take a HUGE look at how it's not uncommon in science for us to wittingly or unwittingly select the results that we want to move our hypothesis along, and this can have enormous results in health, nutrition, and yes, animal behavior. To purchase the entire conference of AvOCET on demand: https://avianbehaviorlab.com/avocet-conference-recording/ The full video is here ► Having issues with your bird not stepping up on your glove or approaching you? Take the free 7 day fearful and aggressive Challenge https://avianbehaviorlab.com/fear-and-aggressive-behavior-challenge/ ► Learn the Fundamentals Of Animal Training https://avian-behavior.org/39-2/ ►Shop our Amazon Store for bird supplies https://bit.ly/3QWjjJR ► Join a community of passionate bird owners and learn from hundreds of hours of science and behavior based on demand courses and live trainings - FREE for 2 weeks! Subscribe to Avian Behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/avianbehavior Our mission at Avian Behavior is to strengthen the connection between animals and the humans that care for them with the most progressive and positive reinforcement techniques. Sources Scientific Method Monsanto study with Stanford University https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0518p38.shtml P hacking: Maintenance Phase School Lunches, P Hacking, and the Original "Pizzagate" Buzzfeed News article