Yea. I have a battle scar still from Cecil. ouch. It wasn't his fault, I misread HIM. my fault. Don't try to get an overstimulated Zon to happily step up and go back in his cage just cause it's convenient for you.
BACK AWAY FROM THE BIRD
Let him cool down a lil and reapproach him. It's like trying to get a 5 year old hyped up on chocolate and has been running with his buddies to lay down and take a nap..it ain't happenin.
That was the defining moment for me and zons. I realized how humanlike they could be.
I had heard that female blue fronts could make good pets. IN that video that she sent me, it was amazing to see Baby getting a belly rub. The only time Cecil was that docile was when his blood sugar hit 660. yikes.
It was good to see your reassuring post.
Mark

So very, very true about trying to handle an Amazon in overload. I also have the scars to prove it -- entirely my fault, of course. I simply can't say enough about how great BF females are. It's not just me, either -- I've heard this from many others. Liza Loo is completely delightful. Even thought she doesn't want to share anything with any of the other fids, on her own terms she's just adorable.

One funny story -- well, funny to me, anyway. I may have been the only one who was amused.

When she was my only 'zon, I would take her to the local exotic bird shop for grooming. Liza Loo has never been roughly handled or mistreated in any way during grooming. Nevertheless, she HATES it. She growls as though someone were cutting off her poor little head. So here she was, all wrapped up in a quilt, getting her wing feathers and toenails trimmed. As soon as she was released, she righted her disheveled self and literally launched herself off the tall cabinet toward the face of the offending person -- the lady who owns the shop, quite a tall, stout person. Rende isn't afraid of man or beast, but hopped back to get away from Liza Loo while I told her, "NO! Stop that!" Immediately, Liza stopped her attack on Rende and hopped onto my shoulder, leaned around and started giving me sweet birdie kisses and puffs.

Now -- I DO NOT recommend letting most Amazons on the shoulder and truly shouldn't have let her on mine. It was just one of those spontaneous things that happen. It was amazing to me to see how quickly Liza Loo morphed from attack parrot to sweet loving parrot.

How can you stand the wait? I'd be like a little kid waiting for summer vacation.

That Liza Loo, I like her already. hahah
I have a counter-story, that also taught me about not putting a Zon on your shoulder. IT also makes me have cautious trust about any of em.
Cecil hated my wife; her every being/existance and presence made him hiss like a snake, flare his pupils, and hunch down, spread his wings, flare his tailfeathers and move towards her like he was gonna eat her lunch. And she never ever did anything bad to anyone, she has the kindest gentlest disposition.
One day, he was on my shoulder (as you said, I learned later, don't let a zon on your shoulder) and she came up to ask me a question. He acted differently this time, no flaring, actually appeared to WANT to be on her arm. Reluctanctly, she held her arm out, and he readily took it, and slowly ascended to her shoulder.
Well, what a beautiful picture. He was happy and sitting there peacefully, she was smiling, it was indeed the Kodak moment. I left to grab the camera and in a millisecond she was screaming.
He had attacked her cheek for all it was worth. I managed to grab his stick and get him to step on it and remove him. She was ok, just a lil nip that healed quickly. But....it could have been so bad, about 1" from her right eye.
Cecil was very smart. Too smart for his own feathers. I have no reason to not believe he sat that up. act sweet and pretty and then attack the one person he hated.
AFter that he only got on my shoulder once. That was after a really bad storm and I walked into the exercise room and he was absolutely petrified. He actually had cut me off for 2 days because we had been gone for the weekend and I had people coming to check on him, but ......we abandoned him and took Dood camping with us for two days. HE was really pist at me, turned his back to me, until the storm, then he was my best friend again.
I am very glad to hear those stories, thanks for sharing. And maybe stories like this will save somebody's eye.
I'm finding that Zons are like horses: They will be broken and appear to be domesticated, but deep down, they're still wild, intelligent beautiful animals that yearn for the control, independence and freedom of the wide-open spaces. Dunno, maybe that's why I liked Cecil so much..he made me think.
Mark

What a litte stinker Cecil is -- so typical of a male Amazon, too. About eight or so years ago, my sister and her husband were visiting me when I spotted an ad for a DYH in our local Pennysaver. Nothing would do but that we go to see him, of course. The microsecond we walked into the room, Grumpy fell in love with my sister and her husband and hated me. It's been that way ever since. Since that night, Grumpy has been ruling the roost at their home. He's very intelligent and speaks clearly and in context.

And he still hates me. Passionately. Given the slightest opportunity, he'll attack and do his level best to kill me. One afternoon while I was visiting them, I decided to do an experiment. Silly human. Sis was sitting on one end of the sofa with Grumpy on her lap. I was on the other end reading the paper. He climbed down and headed for me, evil showing in every molecule of his little green body, eyes flashing, tail flared. Instead of holding the paper between us to stop the attack while Sis gathered him up again, this time I told her to just leave Grumpy alone and see what he'd do. The first body part he came to was my left elbow. He chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Sis finally couldn't stand it and picked him up. My elbow was bruised really badly, but now we were absolutely certain we weren't dealing with a case of unrequited love .

This past Christmas, as I was getting ready to leave their home to come back to mine, Grumpy was showing his ducky butt concerning me. Sis asked him why he treated me so mean. He looked her in the eye and said, very clearly, "I don't like her!" No joke, Jack!

With Grumpy being the first Amazon in our family, it's truly a miracle that I ended up as fond of them as I am. Fortunately, all of mine actually seem to love me.

Well, that is one thing I love about Amazons -- they are NEVER subtle!! They never seem to leave one confused as to whether they are liked or not!!