What’s my favorite large bird?

Written by Sal Salafia, Certified Avian Specialist Founder of Exotic Pet bird

After spending years of raising thousands of hook bill birds. I get asked one question over and over. What is my favorite large bird?

I love all birds, it’s the reason I opened this company. Certain birds appeal more to me than others. I have to say I am interested in birds that are not always the most vibrant or the most rare. Often I enjoy spending time with birds I think need me to work with them more than those who freely give their love away.

That said, I have always been a huge macaw fan. In particular the blue and gold macaw. I have owned many macaws over the years, but Blue and Golds are one of my personal favorites. If you read up enough on Blue and Gold Macaws you will find that they are commonly referred to as “the Golden retrievers of the Macaw world”. Now Macaws and Golden retrievers could not be more different animals if they try, but I personally believe what people that refer to them as this are referring to the following.

A.) Blue and Golds tend to be more even tempered macaws. Not to be confused with even tempered parrots because frankly there are far easier birds to have as pets than macaws.

B.) As macaws go, I’ve found these birds to be very loyal and loving pets. Much like a Golden retriever.

So that all said, they are my personal favorites because I’ve found these birds to be so smart. They are highly intelligent and are very interested to spend time with their owners if the owner has raised them properly and worked out good boundaries and socialization.

I personally owned a Blue and Gold for years that was my absolute buddy. He was one of my all time favorite birds and I was fortunate to have him in my life for a long period of time. He passed away sadly due to natural causes but he will always have a portion of my heart.

Fun fact: Blue and Gold Macaws were also the very first macaws I raised from infants. I remember raising them in my home and waking up to go check on the new babies the following morning to find them laying down on the bedding appearing to be dead! I can remember feeling sick in the stomach and gasping and then having these two knuckle heads lift up their heads and to start honking at me! What I didn’t realize at that early stage in my Aviculture journey was that blue and golds heads are very heavy proportionally at 6 weeks old they sleep with their heads down looking dead because their neck muscles are not developed enough to hold them up while they sleep. Boy I wish I knew that when I walked in that room!

These little nuggets are the first two baby blue and golds I raised

I can also remember a time I raised 6 Blue and Gold Macaws and walking in to hear one saying hi. (8 weeks old baby). The following day I remember hearing hi in a separate enclosure and finally days later these little guys were all saying hi to each other at nearly 9 weeks old. Can you imagine a 9 week old baby human saying hi to you? It was during this experience that I remember thinking, these birds have all taught each other how to mimic language at such a young age, needless to say I was more and more intrigued by the species the more I raised. I have lost count of exactly how many I have raised to date, but I know I’ve raised more than 100 large macaws at this point and Blue and Golds are always a favorite for me to spend time with!

So now you know my favorite large bird, what’s your favorite?