this is the angriest bird i’ve ever seen
I don’t know much about birds, so I looked this up - turns out, round cages like that one are bad for birds, because they only feel safe when they have corners so if they can’t find one, they become very anxious and scared and this can lead to health problems. That’s why cockatoos hate those cages and why this worker of the Saskatoon Parrot Rescue (Canada) is destroying it. So this bird (Pebble) isn’t upset at the loss of the cage, as some websites say, but is actually trying to join in by expressing its glee that the stupid thing is gone.
Another good thing is that the Daily Mail tagged this as WARNING: BIRD LANGUAGE and actually put ‘bleep’ sounds on every single fuck and fucking that comes out of that cockatoo’s beak.
[link to original video]
What’s actually going on here is that:
1: yes those cages suck and good riddance to that one. You can make a round cage work by draping a sheet over the back half to give the bird a sense of shelter. But that cage is also WAAAY too small for a parrot that size.
2: you can get a good sense of that cockatoo’s previous owners and their behavior from the language that bird is using, and they probably should never have owned a cockatoo - BECAUSE
3: cockatoos are cuddly and intelligent but also very excitable birds who, very much like a three year old child, are prone to getting over-stimulated and then throwing fits and tantrums. This one is yelling because it’s getting worked up by all the crashing and noise - BECAUSE
4: screaming and mayhem are actually a bona fide parrot social activity! That cockatoo may indeed hate that cage, but also it’s getting excited at all the noise! and movement! and destroying! and pitching in with its own screaming and chattering because YAY IT’S SOCIAL NOISE TIME. (Social screaming hour is one of the things new parrot owners often don’t know about and are unprepared for. Parrots NEED to be loud sometimes.)
Notice this man quiets down after the crashing and banging, and de-escalates the cockatoo’s rising excitement by speaking to it in a normal tone, signifying to it that social screaming time is over for the moment. Cockatoos LOVE getting excited! But they aren’t always great self-soothers (especially if nobody ever taught it how) and sometimes you have to help them calm down to keep them from spinning up into a screaming fit. I have a feeling the cockatoo’s previous owners mostly just screamed back at it instead of soothing it.
If this all sounds weirdly high-level psychology for interacting with an animal, that’s because it is. That’s how smart the larger parrots are.
If you watch, after the initial stomping, which the bird watches quietly, it starts to swear, not at the guy, but at the cage. It remains focused on the cage. It absolutely understands what is happening. The guy doesn’t yell. The cockatoo escalates the swearing and yelling on its own. That shit is coming from within, yo, and I at once feel absolutely horrible for that bird, and very happy that it is getting the chance to watch the cage be destroyed and scream “fuck” at it while doing so. I have met a few cockatoos, and while I would not recommend big birds as pets, the ‘toos I’ve known have been the gentlest, sweetest, most precious beings. Who yell. A lot. But are so sweet. They don’t deserve to be in homes where they are not treated as members of the family and given loads of enrichment.
NOW I can reblog this video! because I didn’t understand before and it seemed so cruel to the poor birb. thanks to all for the explanation! and YES BIRB YOU SCREAM AT THAT FUCKING CAGE, DEATH TO THE FUCKING CAGE! FUCK! and I’m so glad that birb is in a better place now.
Yeah, if you watch this follow-up video you learn that Pebbles has been through 10 homes in 22 years. She learned to swear in her first home thanks to her owner’s teenage daughter, and then she was passed on to a petting zoo when her first owner’s boss told them to get rid of their foul-mouthed bird or lose their job (which… is that even legal??) - she spent 8 years at the petting zoo then went through several other homes before finally being adopted by this guy, Kelly - who utterly adores her and has a whole YouTube channel devoted to her (plus several other birds he’s rescued and adopted).
