He appears to test all strangers by nipping their fingers. For the first two days, our fingers were repeatedly nipped. But soon we became very close. Too close for Mike's comfort. He would shout, ' Somebody is in MY bed!', as Scooter peeked from under the duvet cover. When I enter the birds' room, he usually rushes to me to greet and to ask for some scratches. Out of the cage, he sometimes slides his head under my palm to be preened. Our strongest bond was established during my illness; he guarded me, preened me and tried to feed me on my pillow for hours on end. Deed is done, he is my mate. However, the relationship between Mike and Scooter has improved so much, owing to Mikes' patience and sweet talk. They are now good pals; they enjoy play time together.

Confident and playful. Boisterous and affectionate. Scooter fits to our lifestyle very well.

African Timneh Grey
I wanted to live with an intelligent bird. Being outgoing myself, I also wanted to have a bird with similar nature. My other criteria were high activity level, lower pitched voice, not too destructive and the smaller the size, the better. Timneh seemed to be a good choice, and he has proved this true. He is intelligent, very playful, active, a bit harsh on our furniture, wallpapers and plastic household goods, but he hasn't caused a financial disaster - yet. He enjoys dropping everything from tables: glasses, metal objects, plastic. etc.. If there is liquid in them, even better. He is talkative but not a screecher or screamer. He is fairly flexible and adaptable, and most of the time easy going.

Wild play
Scooter needs a good exercise every day. Making him out of breath twice a day is the secret of a happy bird. His play is wild and loud. He enjoys playing on two meter length of rope hung from ceiling. It has a couple of plastic chains, a basket, a leather rope and two Booings attached. He often spins from a plastic chain wildly while uttering a jungle cry. I sometimes accompany him to make a duet. Attacking a hanging toy in an upside down position is one of his favourite pastimes. He spins faster and faster as he flaps his wings in this position and utters a wild scream or two as he flies to the other perch. He also likes toys that require solving a puzzle. I use stainless steel bolts and nuts for him to undo. Untying knots on leather strips as well as undoing small Lego type blocks are also fun.

We have a couple of games to play. Our most favourite by far is a Frisbee. A pair of grey shoulder pads from my clothes were sacrificed. Mike and I play Frisbee with them. Scooter tries to catch it on wing and sometimes succeeds. He loves the game and even sometimes entices us. 'Are you ready?' Another game that we often play is Peek-a boo. We hide behind a cupboard, then he will fly to get us with ' Boo'.

Like our other birds, Scooter is a great flyer. He can do anything on wing in a confined space indoor: hovering, changing directions suddenly in the air, U-turn, V-turn, continuous circling, breaking, taking off from moving perches, catching a moving object in the air etc.. We encourage him to develop all sorts of flying skills in his first year, and despite his heavier weight, he accomplished it very well.

Who is talking?
Regardless of what I expected or did not expect, Scooter turned out to be a real talker. His first words were ' What's that?' and since then he has never ceased learning new phrases. There are times when he suddenly adds several new phrases in his vocabulary. One or two new phrases pop out everyday. From the beginning, he always learns a full sentences. 'Are you all right?', ' Don't worry!', ' What are you doing?' are some of his early phrases. He suggests us ' Shall we go upstairs?', or makes me laugh by saying 'By bye, I'm home, Mike is smelly!'

Like some parrots, Scooter sometimes talks in context. There are some phrases that he always uses in context, e.g. 'What's that?'. I noticed that new phrases were often said in context. Some examples of this are: when I gave him a toy, he wanted something else; he threw the toy to the floor and said in a grumpy voice, 'This is not what I want!' I had never heard him saying this before. One day he fell to the bottom of the cage whilst playing with a toy, he screamed ' It hurts!' in Japanese. A real surprise come when I splashed water toward him when he ripped the forbidden wallpapers. He flew away to a perch and said, 'Horrible!, That's horrible! Scooter upset.' A recent example is, when I delayed to give him his favourite snack (baked sweet potato), he repeatedly said 'Sweet Po'. So I replied each time, 'Sweet Po is coming. Wait for a second.'  He then asked ' Where is Sweet Po?'  Taken by a surprise, I still answered the same, then he replied. ' Scooter upset!'.

I call him genius half jokingly and half seriously, and often brag about him to my mother in Japan. 'Mother, Scooter spoke both English and Japanese at eight months old! Can your dog talk?'