Let me begin by saying I am no expert, because if I were, I wouldn’t have a screaming bird now, would I? And I do have a screaming bird. Many of you know him as Aruba. And many of you know why I had the opportunity to adopt Aruba. As my husband says, If you put Aruba on your left shoulder and he screams, the wax comes out of your right ear (For those of you who don’t know him, Aruba is a beautiful no, gorgeous Harlequin Macaw). One thing you get plenty of when you have a screaming bird is advice on how to stop the screaming. I’m not going to give a lot of advice here. Just a few things I do to try and calm down not only Aruba, but my house.

I have two children who hate Aruba. They can’t abide the screaming, which, in the beginning, went on almost all day. Well, I love my children, but it IS my house and I also love Aruba! And I was determined Aruba would not have a fourth owner. We needed to get the screaming under control. So, what to do?

I found that Aruba screams for two reasons: primarily because he wants attention, and secondarily, because the activity level in the house is high. These are both things I can get under control. Dealing with the screaming as an attention-getting ruse is tough, because when I scold him for screaming, he is getting the attention he wants. I can’t cover his cage, because he pulls any cover into the cage and shreds it. So, what to do?

I should take a moment here to explain my bird set-up. My birds are in a front room of my house, and separated from the living room, only by an entertainment unit. My husband installed vertical blinds around the two open walls of the room. To address the attention screaming, I say, It hurts my ears when you scream, so you can’t be with us Or, You can’t be with us when you scream and I draw the blinds. I used to tell him be was a bad bird when he screamed, but my African Grey, Shades, started saying, I’m a bad bird and Shades is such a good bird over negative. Now I try to use positive words with Aruba. I pull the blinds until I hear him talking or whistling. Then I immediately open the blinds, tell him now wonderful he is for talking, and tell him how much I love him. I hope this is teaching him how to get attention by talking. (Shades has never screamed, but he chatters all day long and I respond to him by talking back. But we hand raised him, and this is all he knows.) So that is how we work with the attention-getting screaming.

When the activity level in the house increases, Shades chatters and chatters, the parrotlets cheep, the parakeets chirp, and usually Caitlyn is crying or fussing. Aruba well, he responds by screaming, and screaming, and screaming. Grandma (that’s me) is about ready to put her head in an oven, because this usually happens at about 4PM, when my energy level is way down! My biggest challenge is to decrease the noise and tension levels, and its hard because my patience is at about a 1. I need to struggle to calm myself down before I try and calm Caitlyn, who is very tired. We rock a little, drink some bottle (yeah, I wish I could drink some bottle, too!!) and soon, not only is Caitlyn calm, but Grandma is also.

Another way to deal with the activity level in the house came from a friend. She suggested that I put Aruba outside during his worst scream time, which is between 4 and 6PM. So, I got a cage for my deck and out he goes. It has been working great, except for one thing. I live in a rural area, and my neighbor has geese. As we approach the outside door, Aruba begins to call the geese ñ now that’s a scream unto itself! But that’s OK, because he is allowed to scream outside all he wants. It has been working great, but we will have to come up with something else soon because of the cold.

Anyway, that’s the screaming bird story. I hope you can gather some bits to help you. A final bit I probably should have begun with LOVE YOUR BIRD!!! Birds scream. It is a natural instinct and you shouldn’t expect, let alone try and completely stop him from screaming. Dogs bark, cats meow and big birds scream. Do make sure he has plenty of toys so he’s not bored. LOVE YOUR BIRD. Tell him you love him. Enjoy your bird!