For Big "D" - Updated

I have amazing nieces and nephews, and since some of them live so far away, I will do my best to accommodate them. This post is for my nephew, who would like to see some vids of little Kawi, so rather than sending him to all of the past little snipets here and there, this one's for you, Big "D!" For those who aren't familiar with Kawi, he got his name because C drives a Kawasaki ZX-14. We brought Kawi home when he was two months old, and while searching for names, I suggested Harley. C shouted from the other room, "Well, how about Kawi!" So Kawi it was.

Well, let's just get this one out of the way. We trained our little bird to "eliminate" on command. Yep, that is a toilet. Wait for it, or fast-forward to the middle of the video:

Kawi loves to mimic us, so here he is mimicking C with his little yawns.

When we walk through the door Kawi calls and calls for us until we take him out of his cage, so when we are home, he is almost never in his cage. We've had him since he was two months old, and he is a very social little bird. He recently started throwing little temper tantrums when we put him back in his cage when he doesn't think he should be there. This involves taking out his aggression on one or more sets of his toys, now appropriately called his "anger beads." (He actually goes to bed pretty quietly, though, since cockatiels are supposed to get 10-12 hours of sleep each night.)

Kawi loves to have his head scratched, but only on his terms. Usually he decides he wants "loves" when you are really busy, like writing a paper for school, so he comes down off of your shoulder and sticks his head under your fingers. If you ignore him, he will use his beak to lift your fingers onto his head. When he is done getting "loves," he makes it very obvious, as you can see at the end of this next video. Don't let that submissive attitude at the beginning fool you. He won't do anything he doesn't want to without a fight.

Kawi loves driving around in the car with us. This was the day after Christmas, and we were dropping off items at charity, so Kawi came along. The flapping bags in the back of the truck were a bit of a distraction, but in addition to Kawi's squeak-toy medley, you actually get part of Raiders of the Lost Ark and a smidgen of The Addams Family at the very end of this next clip. If you listen carefully, you also get a "Hi Bird," in there, too. He talks only when he wants to, but ALWAYS greets C with a friendly, "Hey Buddy!" He talks a lot when he is in his cage by himself and doesn't think we are home, but he loves singing to us.

Kawi's be-bopping can be pretty fun, too.

We occasionally take Kawi to the pet store where he loves to visit with his brothers and sisters. If cockatiels are not adopted while very young, it is difficult to get them trained like we have been able to train Kawi, and they will turn wild. These wild birds are often used for mating, or sold as cage pets to people who probably won't be able to handle them very much unless they work with them for a long time. Still, they are very smart and social creatures and love to interact. I didn't catch it on video, but when we walked away with Kawi, this caged bird started screaming for him, and didn't stop until we came back for them to finish their conversation:

Here is one of Kawi's better performances of Addams Family. Sometimes he gets really sweet and decides to sing to your ear, your thumb, or your neck.

Kawi loves to preen himself. As a joke, some of C's employees purchased a "Hooters" chicken wing kit for him for Christmas (he's a very non-Hooters kind of guy, which is the joke). I included this video because it's so funny to hear C reading the chicken wing instructions while a tiny little bird is tidying his feathers on C's shoulder. At the end of the vid C makes some new noises, which Kawi loves. Kawi lets you know he wants you to repeat the noise by bobbing his head. (Non-bird lovers, skip to the last 4th or 5th.)

Kawi gets into adventure-bird mode where he gets an idea into his head and won't stop until he achieves his goal. To keep him from eating the tile grout (containing polymers and chemicals) we placed a pencil cup in the way. As you can see here, that wasn't about to stop him. You get a little snapshot of his attitude at the very end, but believe me, that's nothing. He may be little, but he has a lot of sass.

Kawi loves to play fight. When he wants to fight he will climb down onto C's hand and say, "Get it-get it!" and then he'll nibble at C's fingers. When you get to see how grumpy this bird really is, and how easily he will really bite you if he feels like it (not play biting like in this video), this means a lot more. If you try to make him do anything he doesn't want to do, he screams and bites, or runs away.

Here is a little short vid to show how Kawi asks for a scratch.

Kawi fixates on things, as shown above and sometimes has a hard time giving up, even when it means things aren't looking so good for him. Case in point: Silk plant. He is trying to stand on the back of C's laptop while using the other foot to pull down the silk plant close enough to pull the little purple balls off of the fake lavender. It doesn't end so well for little Kawi, and you get to see a little glimpse of his indignation.

This last video is one I took while he was in his cage by himself. You will hear him say some of his favorite phrases, including, "Come here, come here!" "Show us your wings!" "Dooo, Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap flap." Fake sneezes (he mimics us), "Take a drink! {slurp, slurp}," "Come back here!" "Whatcha doin'?" "Hey buddy," "Hi Pretty Bird," "Hi Kawi Bird!" "Hi Bird!" "Hi There!" "Kawi's such a GOOD Bird," Kawi's such a bird," "You're such a good bird. Yeah." Cricket noises, kissing noises, and some funny little laugh he picked up that sounds more like a machine gun. You will also hear the Queen's Aria from the Magic Flute, the Raiders theme.

We always leave music playing when we aren't home so that he doesn't get lonely. After watching this, I noticed that he started tapping his perch during the times when the kids on the CD are clapping.