When Lala flew away on 30th October 1999 she was just 15 months old. We had lived with her for 13 months. During and prior to this period I had collected as much information as I could about the Brown headed and the Poicephalus. Although the Brown headed are common in captivity, their ecology is still little known. 'They usually live in small flocks of c.12 birds but up to 50 may gather at a food source.  They have a fast dashing flight on slightly curved wings in conspicuous and noisy small flocks. More cryptic at rest as they hide behind branches, even in bare branches.' (Juniper and Parr 1998) The publication of the result of Stuart Taylor's fieldwork is long awaited.

Why did I choose Brown-headed?
My own reasons for choosing the Brown-headed were: 1) because of their small size, which wouldn't threaten my Kakariki boys, as well as it would be easier to accommodate than bigger parrots;  2) relatively quiet nature for parrots;  3) their cute appearance;  4) their not being very destructive;  5) their playfulness;  6) their fondness to be scratched; and 7) their calmer disposition than other Poicephalus, which some people claim. What I found out was, however, somewhat different from what I had expected.

Expectation and a pleasant surprise She always loved scratches, always liked people including strangers, and she was usually cute. But, her playfulness was what we had enjoyed most. When she came to us just after being weaned, she spent days watching clouds from the windowsill. Then, she gradually started playing. At six months old, she became very playful, swinging from toys upside down whilst screeching, or flying tricks and so on. She entertained us for hours on end.

A pleasant surprise was her neatness. I was very happy to find that her cage was the least messy among all my birds' including the Zebra finches'. She ate over the food dish, and didn't drag food to the higher perches, so that the most mess was contained in the cage. Her cage and perches needed to be washed less often than our other birds' cages.

Unexpected traits
In contrast to what I had read in aviculture literature, her voice was rather noisy although not all of the time, fortunately. For two hours or so every morning, she had screeched to the world in a high pitched voice whilst flying. Juniper and Parr describes this voice as 'an ear-splitting strident disyllabic chree-oo.. chree-oo rising in pitch on the second note' in flight' (1998). Although we could hear her 60 M (180 feet) away outside when the door was open, It was not very loud, compared to, say, Cockatoos, but very screechy. At other times she was very quiet though, there were some odd screeches in late afternoon when she was excited, but not so bad.

While she was in my care, her chewing had never grown to the full, but it was getting worse and worse. I have read some breeders saying that once the Poicephalus become sexually mature, they suddenly become strong chewers, which I can believe from how she chewed everything. For example, she chewed through a wooden clothes peg in a matter of minutes.  Wood furniture wouldn't be the same after her beak had been at it.

The worst problem we had with her was her aggression towards our Kakarikis. She was jealous of just about everything. When Kiwi was on my shoulder, she flew at him. She also tried to bite Kiwi and Tovi numerous times. They had to have different play times to avoid any accidents, although she was too slow to catch either Kakariki. Once she reached adolescence, she also became nippy to us, but as I explained in the Adolescence section, she became much better once we found out how to control her behaviour.

Are the Brown-headed calmer than other Poicephalus?
Having never lived with other Poicephalus parrots, I don't know whether they are generally calmer than others. Some claim so. Having read about phobic behaviours of the Poicephalus and having seen one - a female Brown-headed -  at the first hand, I had been very careful not to induce Lala into panic reactions unnecessarily. There were several times, when she got into a panic, for example, when balloons or aircraft flew over our garden, when seagulls flew just over the house and when a workman (seemed to her) suddenly appeared from the back door. But she always had a chance to fly away, and she seemed to calm down once perceived dangers passed. When we had refurbishing work done, Mike took her to his office until the noisy job was done. She had a good day out, and Mike had the office mascot that day. When there was a workman doing a job indoor quietly, I put her back to her cage with her towel halfway covered. She climbed up to the highest perch and sat still under the towel until he left. She always saw the sleeping cage a safe place to hide and roost and her favourite green towel was always over it.  I am sure this helped her to stay calm.

We slowly introduced lots of new things to her: toys, perches, people and colours. I waited until she felt comfortable with them, and when she showed interest in them, I praised her on how brave she was and how clever she was.  She had nothing to be scared of, except for Tovi's large Manu perch which we had to hide away anytime she came nearby.

Nutrition
Their natural diet consists of mainly seeds, berries, fruits (Ficus sp., Diospyros mespiliformis), flowers (Aloe marlothii) and nectar foraged in bushes or trees. They visit coconut plantations to feed on flowers, and occasionally forage in maize and millet fields. ( Arndtt ) I offered the same food to Lala as to the Kakariki ( see the diet table ), she was, however,  a finicky eater, so I had been worried if she had good enough nutrition until we saw the results of her blood and faecal tests at age one. She liked all sort of grains, fruits, cooked soy beans and sprouted mung beans. Yoghurt and walnuts were her real favourites. She was sometimes found licking butter on a butter knife when we were not watching. She, however, didn't like vegetables except for sweet corn and peas. I diced and grated other vegetables (carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes etc.) to encourage her to eat them, but to no avail. I even mixed grated vegs with grape juice, but only to find out that she squeezed the juice and left vegetables behind. The last solution was to use a jar of organic vegetable baby food which I mixed with grape juice. It is homogeneous so that she can't separate them. She begged me for hand feeding just before sleep up to seven months old. I spoon-fed her with this mix. I used Hipp organic mixed vegetables in a small jar with a success.

She ate like a pig first in the morning and just before sleep. Although she had snacks between them, these two were her main meals. The study of Cape parrots shows that they also eat mainly just after dawn and before dusk (Wirminghaus 1996).  You can take advantage of this when you want to change their diets by feeding the most nutritious food which they don't like at the first and the last of the day.
 

Water Wild Brown-headed parrots live in forest-savanna mosaic and drier woodland of the southeast coast of Africa. 'They drink once a day in mid-day ' (Juniper and Parr 1998). She drank a lot at a time, but less often than our Kakariki. As they live in dry areas, they prefer bathing to a shower. Lala liked bathing in a shallow dish twice or three times a week, but freaked out with a sign of a sprayer. She walked into the dish with the wings wide open, and lowered her chest into the water. In this way, she managed to get her chests and wings wet, but her back never became really wet. I tried to spray her on the back, but she got freaked. I took some advice from another owner of Brown-headed;  I made my hands wet and splashed water drops very gently on her back after she finished her bath. Be warned of stroking wet feathers, though,  they are likely to be damaged. Having said that, over some time, they might accept sprayers. Lala was terrified when very gentle rain started while she was in a small cage in the garden with us. She had never been out in the rain prior to that. After one year, however, she seemed to enjoy, although passively, light drops of rain on her back.

Sleep
Once outside became dark, she became restless, dropped everything and demanded me to take her to a sleeping cage by pecking my cheek gently, even though the room was brightly lit. The study of Cape parrots found that they are strictly diurnal ( Wirminghaus 1996). She slept for approximately 12 hours except for the longest days (10 hours). During the longest days, she had a short nap during afternoon. She slept in a fully covered sleeping cage positioned in an unused quiet bedroom for undisturbed sleep. I personally think that forcing pet parrots awake into unnatural time is not good for them. I am aware of that some birds insist on being awake with their humans, but if birds want to go to sleep, their desire should be given priority, not ours.

Grooming
Lala took care of her nails by herself so that we didn't have to cut them. She shortened and sharpened them with her beak. I have heard that other Brown headed people have also experienced the same. However, her nails were needle sharp. I used two Poly's pastels of different diameters as well as natural branches to make them blunt, but to no effect. Nevertheless, once she she started playing rough and hanging upside down from all sorts of places, they became less sharp.

The side of her upper mandible flaked once a while, and there was a fresh darker beak underneath. Whilst youngster, her beak was very pointed, but when started chewing in earnest, the tip became blunt.

How to become a good human for your Brown headed parrot
Despite their small size, Poicephalus parrots are not at all easier parrots than other bigger cousins, to live with. EB Cravens sees that ' Senegal Parrots and their various relatives can be some of the most jealous/aggressive of all psittacines'. (2000). The Poicephalus chats are often flooded with 'Help! my Senegal bites!',  ' How can I stop my Meyer biting me?', or even worse. You need a gentle but consistent approach to keep them under YOUR control, not the other way round.

My own experience was explained in the Adolescence section. Here I like to share other people's wisdom and advice with you. A well known aviculturist, Laurella Desborough says:

Showing Jardines "who is the boss" can be disastrous for your relationship. This frightens and angers them',

"If they are crabby or nippy, I put them in their cage and leave them alone. Their self confidence develops in the absence of stressful confrontations, and they have much sweeter personalities,"  (This technique should be used with all the Poicephalus parrots and also works for other parrots that go through a post-weaning nippy stage, such as some red-sided Eclectus females. The African parrots do not forget a bad experience with their owners and may "hold a grudge" even about a wing or nail clip.)

More good advice comes from Lynn Traylor who lives with a female Senegal, Honey. In the Poicephalus chat, she replied a question if male Senegal parrots are, at all, suitable for pets and if anybody owns a senegal who doesn't bite. With her permission, I quote her whole reply here:
 

 I genuinely believe that 98% of the problems that crop up with companion birds are the fault of the human, not the bird.There are a number of reasons- ignorance of natural behaviours on the part of the human, trying to force a bird to occupy a spot in the family in the same manner as a domesticated animal such as a dog or cat, and the insistence that sennies are *beginner* or *starter* birds. We all know they are anything but.

To successfully keep these little guys, you need to be willing to really change your life, to spend the time researching how they live in the wild, and to try to, to some degree, duplicate that for them. They need a flock - if you aren't around all day to provide it, they should not be alone. I have never kept single birds - they are all of different species, and while they aren't bonded to each other, they are very aware of one another, and interact with one another all day. They need to solve problems, have some freedom, forage for different kinds of food, and have their truly staggering intellect challenged on a regular basis.

I truly don't think that parrots make good pets for most people. It is a special few who are willing to alter their lives to suit a little bundle of feathers who will have success.

For the record, Honey is a 4 year old hen who NEVER bites, even when playing rough. I have spent the two years I have had her working to desensitize her in regards to scary situations in order to avoid the classic sennie phobic behaviour, and she has shown no sign of ever having any. Hopefully, she never will!

Then, she was asked to elaborate her story by a lister.
 

When I got Honey (she was given to me at two years old), I realized she was very playful, yet very gentle. I started playing with her in a much different manner than with my cockatiel - rolling her on her back on my bed and wrestling with her, blowing raspberries on her tummy, etc. - sort of "rough housing" but in a calm and controlled manner to keep her from getting overloaded. I discovered that she adores swinging upside down from the door of her cage, and liked it even more if I swung the door back and forth while she hung there. I started shouting "WHEEEEEEEEEE" when we do this. She loves it, and always begs me to play with her on the cage door. So I decided to use the "WHEEEEEEEE!" as a signal that we were playing. When something that would potentially be frightening happens to her, I immediately use out signal. For example, she got a little over-enthusiastic the other day, swinging, and lost her grip, falling to the floor (not far, carpeted). That is something that could potentially trigger a phobic reaction, but I immediately dropped down to the floor with her, yelled "WHEEEEEEEE!" rolled her on her back, rubbed her tummy, and she immediately started to play - jumping up to pounce on my hand. My neighbours probably think I'm nuts, but she trusts me, and must assume that these things aren't *really* scary, they are new fun stuff.

I have a bird room - a bedroom that belongs to them. They each have a cage, in it's own spot in the room, but the doors are left open. For the most part, they all (besides Honey, my sennie, I have a male tiel, budgie and lovebird) stay in their own territory. Honey's is her cage, cagetop playgym, and a separate gym about 4 feet tall made from a wooden laundry rack. She spends her days either on or in her cage, or on the gym. She has 4 small food cups, where her vittles are placed every morning, two skewers and one dish for veggies, and an embarrassing number of toys. She has *stuff* to do - figure out where the skewer with the plums is today, whether there is a magical food dish hidden somewhere filled with nothing but Tropical Fruit Nutriberries (there isn't but a girl can dream), toys to beat the snot out of, her pals across the room to talk to, naps to take, shredders to shred... I think that they need to figure things out to be happy.

I was lucky - she didn't bite when she came to me and all I had to do was not screw up. I do this by not winding her up when we play, respecting the fact that I'm not allowed to *play* with her toys when she is playing with them, and spending a great deal of time just holding and stroking her. I keep my energy level down, so as not to hype her up. She loves me, and trusts me, so all I have to do to punish her is ignore her. If I get a nip from her because she has gotten cranked up and I didn't notice, all I have to do is put her down and turn my back on her. A few moments of averting my head and refusing to acknowledge her and she is turning herself inside-out to say she's sorry.

This is becoming a book...

Be gentle, but have fun and play. They are so acrobatic! End the day on a quiet note - every night, she sits on my chest and gets full body strokes, making her happy little noises.

Give them stuff to do - not just a toy or two to chew on. They need problems to solve.

I think all birds need company. They are flock animals. I am home during the day, and devote a great deal of time to them, but even under those circumstances I would never have a single bird.

Learn to ignore the nips. Any acknowledgement that you have been hurt provides reinforcement for the bad behaviour.

Never, ever do anything to break the bond of trust. NO hitting, NO shouting in anger, ever. Ever. If you are in a lousy mood, don't go near the birds until it passes.

There is also a good article about small parrots by Tracy Gwiilim. She claims that the small parrots should be treated differently from their larger cousins, which I agree. She concludes the article by saying ' It is not up to them to live up to our expectations, it is us who need to live up to theirs.'
 

African Parrot Society
Poicephalus Chat at Pet Bird