Jimmy

Name: Jimmy
A.K.A.: James Birdsworth, Monkey Bird, Pickle

This is my Jimmy bird. Lauren and I adopted him in spring of 2008 from a group called S.O.A.R. (the Society of Avian Refuge). They had inherited him from an older woman who bought a whole bunch of birds, and didn’t have it in her to take care of them any more. She didn’t tell them much about Jimmy, so they didn’t have much to tell us. As a result, there’s a lot we don’t know about Jimmy.

We guess that he was probably born sometime in 2006 or 2007, but the reality of it is he could be older. He’s very quiet and timid when company is around, and sometimes when we’re around, but he’s always watching and taking in his surroundings. Evidence of this comes whenever Lauren and I are in another room and Jimmy goes through his exhaustive repertoire of songs and phrases he’s picked up from us over the years. He’s nothing like an African Gray in terms of his ability to mimic human voices, but he can nail just about everything else, from creaking doors to the microwave timer to Bubba, our green-cheeked Conure, who has a very different voice.

He’s also very manipulative. It took us a while to realize what he was up to when he could chew up his boring food and let it all fall to the ground, to save room for the fruits and vegetables we’d eat throughout the day.

For the time being, I’m his favorite, and he’ll usually beg me to no end for attention. He loves getting scratched on his chin, cheeks, and the top of his head.