Macaws:
Red Shouldered (Hahn's) Macaw
Severe Macaw
Blue And Gold Macaw
Blue Throated Macaw
Military Macaw
Red Fronted Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Green Winged Macaw
Hyacinth Macaw
It was fun teaching Rachel the turn around trick because she picked up on it so quickly! Turn-Around is one of the most basic tricks that you can teach your parrot and a lot of fun. Teaching tricks like this helps build a relationship and a level of cooperation from your bird because it becomes accustomed to doing things you say. The once wild, uncooperative parrot, learns that cooperation is beneficial and fun.
Rachel, Marianna's Blue and Gold Macaw, is going to be five this year and is in the midst of her terrible twos (adolescence). Some days she's cute and friendly and other days she's a total brat. Doing some trick training helps maintain and improve the relationship as she's going through the troubling years. Although Rachel has always been good with Marianna, because she had her since she was a baby, I have had to do some work to earn Rachel's trust.
If you would like to learn how to teach your parrot to turn around, refer to this free trick training guide. In that article, I explain with the help of Truman how to teach Turn Around.
This video on the other hand is just to show for comparison what it's like to teach a Macaw to turn around. Pretty much the same! The only difference I would say, is that things happen more slowly and the Macaw has to lift its tail as it turns!
It took about 3 days to teach Truman to turn around. Rachel learned it well in 2. The first session, not pictured in the video, was much like the second. By the end of the first session, she knew how to follow the stick around but not much more. During the second session, as seen in the video, she had her "aha!" moment and figured out to turn around, even if I don't show the target stick. So simply put, teaching turn around is having a parrot follow a target stick in a circle and then reduce the importance of the stick till the bird can just do it on command.
I would say that all parrots learn the turn around trick about the same way. From budgie to macaw, the same method worked perfectly with all birds. The only difference is the pace. The smaller the bird, the faster it moves. The bigger birds move more slowly. The smaller birds can do more repetitions in a single session. The bigger birds will do fewer repetitions per session, but they will learn the final result in fewer sessions! It is interesting to observe these subtle differences, but they have little impact on the final result. Just follow the method and keep going till your particular bird figures it out and you'll be all set!
The Birdie Ring Toss Trick is a true display of agility and intelligence in your companion parrot. Not only does your bird have to use it's noodle to decide which color goes where, it also has to successfully manipulate the ring to go onto the peg.
This is a fairly advanced trick. I recommend that your bird be first familiar with fetch and a simpler fetch trick such as basketball. Also, you and your parrot must be proficient at the concept of training and the best place to learn about that is my book, The Parrot Wizard's Guide to Well-Behaved Parrots.
Here is an old video of Kili demonstrating how she does the color matching ring toss trick. Not only does she put the rings on, she flies with them:
You can purchase the Birdie Ring Toss with 3 colors or 6 colors for most medium to large parrots at my Parrot Wizard Store. The size is perfect for parrots like African Grey, Eclectus, Cockatoo, and Macaw. For smaller parrots like a Senegal Parrot or Conure, it is a bit of a stretch. As you will see in the video in the end, Kili has no trouble handling the oversized rings. If you have a really energetic and well-trained small bird, it is still possible. However, for really small birds like Cockatiels, Budgies, Lovebirds, etc, the trick prop is just way too big.
Now a step by step guide to teaching the Birdie Ring Toss Trick:
Step 1: Teach the bird to fetch. Follow the fetch guide if you haven't already.
Step 2: Teach the parrot to fetch a ring to you. Set aside all of the rings and pegs. Just take one ring out. Lay it down or hand it to your parrot. Use the familiar open-palm fetch command and say "fetch." When the parrot places the ring in your hand, click and reward. If this isn't working out, review fetching other objects and start again.
Step 3: Teach the parrot to fetch a ring onto a peg. Before we confuse the bird with lots of colors, we need to simply teach the mechanics of placing a ring on a single peg. Take one ring and one peg of the same color while setting all of the others aside. Have your parrot fetch the ring to your hand in the vicinity of the peg. Begin to have your parrot fetch the ring to your open hand just above the peg. As the bird is about to drop the peg in your hand, pull your hand back and the bird will end up dropping it onto the peg. Click/reward. Even if the bird doesn't get the ring onto the peg itself but drops it somewhere close, this is progress so click and reward. When the bird improves, hold your hand further and further back. Start to change the open-palm fetch command hand into a point toward the peg. Keep practicing until you can simply place a ring down and the bird will fetch it onto the peg on its own.
Step 4: Teach color matching. Once the bird knows how to put rings onto the peg, it is time to introduce more colors. Start by adding just one more peg to the existing ring/peg combo. The bird has to first learn to ignore the different color peg and continue putting the ring on the matching peg as it did before. This will happen fairly quickly. Things get more complicated when you start shifting positions or adding colors. So, little by little lay on the complexity but not at once! First change places between the pegs. We want the bird to match by color and not by location. So frequently rearrange the positions of the pegs so that the bird can learn that only color matching is required. Whenever the bird puts the ring on the wrong peg, ignore. Don't click, don't give treats, don't say anything. Just stare blankly away from the bird for a few seconds to show that putting the ring on the wrong peg is completely irrelevant to you and then take it off and give the bird the chance to start again. There is no consequence for getting it wrong but likewise no reward. Attention and treats only come for getting it right.
Before you introduce the second ring, I suggest you get rid of the original ring and peg and practice the 2nd color ring/peg for a little while. There's no matching required but this way the bird will start to get used to matching A to A and B to B. Once the bird is good with one color at a time, it is time to introduce two pegs and two rings. When the bird puts the right ring on the right peg, click/reward. When it does not, ignore. Don't rush to correct the bird or take the ring off. Just ignore. If your bird is really struggling, you can cheat and help it a little bit by pointing which peg to put the ring on. These hints may give it the opportunity to get it right, get treats, and remember for next time. Keep practicing until the bird has a near perfect match of the two colors.
You can repeat above steps as you introduce a third color. If the bird is overwhelmed practice a two color regiment by removing one of the original colors and working between the 2nd learned and 3rd new color. Eventually return the other color and have the bird practice with three. You can use a similar process for adding the 4th, 5th, and 6th color. But if your bird is really smart, after doing a bunch of colors, it should rather quickly figure out that additional colors need to be matched with like colors rather than rely on learning one color at a time. This is the mark of an even higher level of cognitive learning.
So this is how you can teach the Birdie Ring Toss Color Matching Trick to your parrot. Knowledge of basic trick training, fetch command, and patience are the requisites. But with those and the steps outlined here, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to teach the Ring Toss Trick to your parrot. Here is a video of Kili helping me outline the major steps in the training process:
I love teaching tricks to my parrots. It is not only a load of fun, but it also goes to develop a wonderful relationship with my pets. Birds that excel at doing tricks also excel at being good pets. But also from the parrot's perspective, I am fun to be around because all of the treat earning opportunities only happen in my presence and through cooperation. It's a win/win situation.
You have already heard about training techniques for many cued parrot tricks on this Trained Parrot blog. Now I am preparing a series of videos describing how to teach all of the prop tricks that I offer for sale. The wonderful thing about trick prop toys is that they are extremely visual, challenging, intelligent, and a ton of fun.
The easier tricks are a chance to get the parrot to do something big while still being a beginner at training. The more difficult ones challenge your parrot's intellect and demonstrate a level of intelligence you don't get to experience in other kinds of pets. Let me run down the different tricks available and briefly mention the features and challenges with each. I am listing these in the order I recommend teaching them from easiest to hardest.
Birdie Bowling - This was Kili's first prop trick (first video). It is very impressive and exciting to watch, yet it is one of the easiest prop based tricks to teach! It's only a matter of teaching the bird to push the ball, the toy and gravity do the rest of the work!
Birdie Basketball - The staple of bird tricks. The basketball trick is probably the easiest but by no means unimpressive of the fetch based tricks. I recommend teaching this one first because it requires the least requisite skills. Just follow the steps in my Fetch Guide first and then you're ready to teach basketball. Height is adjustable so you can start low and increase height with progress. Also suitable for small birds because the hoop can be lowered. Comes with an easy to grip training ball and a realistic ball.
Birdie Treasure Chest - Every good pirate needs a parrot. And even better yet, a parrot that knows what to do with treasure! The Treasure Chest trick is two tricks in one. A chest for your parrot to put its favorite toys away and a piggy bank to save up for big treats. This trick is great for beginner and more advanced birds when it comes to training.
Birdie Darts - Another easy/exciting sports trick based on fetch. The secret is that the darts are magnetic, so your parrot just needs to drop them by the dart board and they will stick. Have your bird fly with the darts for a long range guided dart!
Birdie Slide - Watch your parrot zoom down a slide! A big toy with a stunning visual effect. This trick is actually easy to teach but only for a very tame parrot. The most important thing is that the bird does not get scared of the slide. Once you get past that, it only has to learn to climb the ladder and come down.
Birdie Skates - Teach your parrot to skate. This trick does not have any particular requisite tricks but it is difficult to teach. A history of being good at any other tricks will increase the chances of your parrot succeeding with this one. But once taught, it's a lot of fun to see your parrot skating around!
Birdie Ring Toss - Color matching ring toss trick. Teach your parrot to put rings on pegs and demonstrate color matching capability. Just the mechanics of putting a ring onto a peg is a whole trick in itself, but with color matching, this trick will stun your friends. Most people have a hard time believing parrots can even see color, let alone be so smart. This is probably the easiest of the color matching tricks I offer. Available in 3 or 6 colors.
Birdie Colored Boxes - A color matching tricks that your bird can open and close. The colored boxes trick is one of the brainiest tricks in my trick toy product line. Not only does your parrot get to demonstrate superior color vision and matching but also handling the box lids. In terms of complexity, it is mostly on par with the ring toss. However, the extra task with the box lids makes it more challenging as a whole. It is more suitable than the ring toss for smaller birds but can just as well be handled by larger birds as well.
Birdie Puzzle - Bird can do a puzzle, what more can I say? This trick is colors, puzzles, and tons of IQ aptitude in one. Matching shapes/colors isn't the only challenge. Getting the shaped pieces to fit into the slots requires a good amount of dexterity and skill. Are you up for the challenge? The puzzle is available in 3 different sizes to suit all kinds of parrots.
So there you go, 9 parrot trick training props that will keep your parrot trained, educated, and entertained for years! Try and teach them all and I guarantee that with each new trick, you will also develop a better relationship with your parrot. I have been collecting and developing these tricks for years. Now they are all available in one place, ParrotWizard.com.
Now enjoy this video of Kili showing off how to do all of them!
Parrots are extremely intelligent creatures and can learn concepts like colors, matching, and size. That's why I am always excited to teach tricks to my parrots that both challenge them and demonstrate their capabilities to others.
It was pretty easy to teach my new Colored Boxes trick to Kili. That is because she already has all of the skills required to learn the colored boxes trick. First, a parrot needs to know how to fetch. Next, the parrot needs to learn how to match colors. Finally, the parrot needs to learn how to push or pull.
Kili already learned how to match colors in the puzzle trick and ring toss trick. Kili learned to push/pull for a coin box trick and for her stroller trick. Putting all of these skills together led to the Colored Boxes trick. In this trick Kili places all of the round colored pieces into matching colored boxes. Some of the pieces are smaller and some are larger. She had to learn to ignore the size and focus exclusively on matching the colors. Then Kili learned to walk over and push all of the boxes closed.
A problem that I ran into while teaching this trick was that Kili tricked me into helping her figure out where to put the pieces. Out of habit, I was clicking my clicker during the moment Kili would begin to dip the piece into right box. I realized that she would walk around dipping the piece into each box and waiting to see if there would be a click or not. In other words, she was tricking me into determining the color match and just cuing her when to drop it. So to avoid being outsmarted by the bird, I had to pay attention not to click until she would fully release the piece into the right box. She needed to receive the negative punishment of getting nothing for dropping the pieces into the wrong boxes in order to realize which ones are actually right.
When you teach a color match trick like ring toss, puzzle, or colored boxes, in the beginning the bird will only do two or three colors on pure memorization. But as you keep increasing the number of colors, a light bulb comes on in that bird's head and it realizes that the colors have to match regardless of what they are. Then the bird is able to match any color of that style trick.
I recommend the Colored Boxes Trick for any small to medium parrots. It's too small for bigger parrots but the 6 Color Birdie Ring Toss is great for all the medium to large parrots.
Now check out this video of Kili performing her colored boxes trick:
Check out Kili's newest trick. Well actually it's not that new but we have not made a video about it before. I taught Kili the bird toss or what I like to call "boing boing." It's a trick in which I can toss Kili up and down in my hand like a beanbag.
The trick first came to me when I was walking about Phoenix with Ginger and her Senegal Parrot Sammy on a harness. Sammy is a really easy going Senegal Parrot that just about anyone can hold. Sammy is the star of Ginger's Parrots Movie. Anyway, so I taught Sammy to wear a harness in no time and we went to a Sunday morning parrot outing with other parrot owners. I was holding Sammy and we were there a while so I started turning Sammy over and playing. I forget why exactly but I started bouncing Sammy up and down in my hand and before you knew it we had a new trick.
Ginger and I passed by Dr. Drigger's office (a well known Avian Veterinarian in the Phoenix area) and I showed him what Sammy could do. The doc thought it was hysterical and took a video.
Fast forward to more recent times. Kili is very good about laying in my hand. So I started preparing her for the bird toss. At first it was just a matter of moving my hand up and down while holding her. But then I started letting go and allowing her to go up out of my hand a little and back down. It's nothing more than a trust building exercise. If Kili gets too uncomfortable, she just flips over and lands on my hand or flies away. But I can see her overcoming her fears in order to earn treats.
The funny thing is that this trick wasn't taught in the usual click and treat method. Instead it would happen here and there in the course of a year. Sometimes just playing with her out of boredom, other times right before putting her in the cage for a meal, little by little Kili learned to bounce like a champ. This was sooner a long term type of training rather than quick accelerated learning. I tried to get her to learn it quickly at first but it just wasn't working. So spanning it out over time without any hurry was the best thing for this type of a trick.
An interesting thing I noticed is that both Sammy, Kili, and Truman do better with the bird toss while wearing a harness. Perhaps it's the security they feel of still being partially held (by the harness instead of hand) or something else, but the harness definitely helped get the trick going in the beginning. And without further ado, here's the video:
Trained Parrot is a blog about how to train tricks to all parrots and parakeets. Read about how I teach tricks to Truman the Brown Necked Cape Parrot including flight recall, shake, wave, nod, turn around, fetch, wings, and play dead. Learn how you can train tricks to your Parrot, Parrotlet, Parakeet, Lovebird, Cockatiel, Conure, African Grey, Amazon, Cockatoo or Macaw. This blog is better than books or DVDs because the information is real, live, and completely free of charge. If you want to know how to teach your parrot tricks then you will enjoy this free parrot training tutorial.
Trained Parrot site content Copyright 2010-2020 Michael Sazhin. Reproduction of text, images, or videos without prior permission prohibited. All rights reserved.
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