The longer I live with macaws and visit Avalon to help socialize their macaw babies the more I begin to think that a lot of the behaviour and personality and handling 'rules' are simply stereotypes and that birds are highly individual creatures whose development (weaning, socialization, subsequent handling) can create vastly different personalities.

My main experience is with macaws so I can't speak for other genera but I feel confident I could take any non force weaned macaw, of any species, and make it a friendly, amiable critter. (This is not to say I haven't taken a good number of nasty bites when dealing with new birds. I just tune out the pain and try again.) The different species do have different tendencies but I think a lot of the stereotypes spring up because the creatures are handled by people that don't properly meet their needs. My cat vet told me he stopped treating birds partially because he got tired of seeing ones that hadn't been out of their cages in years.

One other question - what is the frequency/level of vocalization? Ariel primarily sits around and groans and goofy talks and it is actually Merlin who is the more grating when it comes to noise.

or any bird for that matter. worrisome, for sure.

jared, ivy is still young so her voice isn't fully developed. but she can already scream pretty loud. she mostly does it in the morning and night when i am getting her food ready, and sometimes in the shower too. or sometimes just to hear herself talk. honestly, the only times it's bothered me is when it has been RIGHT in my ear. i have heard different macaw screams and ivy's seems to be "lower pitched". i think if you already live with macaws, you will be fine. i personally find them easy to tune out, they always seem so happy! but i could never tune out a cockatoo!

I have limited experience with Hys and my oldest is 8. They smell sweet and I haven’t read anything about them having an offensive odor. Macaws can have a unique odor, but showers resolve that issue. We have not had behavioral concerns. One of our Hys is a rehome who was left in the cage most of the time because the owner was afraid of her. The longer she was left in the cage, the louder she got. We were worried before bringing her home, but she has proven to be the most loving, sweetest bird. She is now flighted and has a buddy. Our birds are all loud at dawn and dusk which is normal and expected. I don’t stereotype any of the species as in my experience, they all have different personalities just as we do.

Shadow, our BP2 has his own adorable personality. We researched BPs prior to adding him to our flock including contacting his breeder. He has a high squeal occasionally, but it is totally tolerable and actually cute.

I love macaw smells! Especially BGS! kinda reminds me of pine trees for some reason. I think one reason someone training birds for show would have trouble with Hys is that they take much longer to develope their minds along with thier bodies. They mature very slowly and being force weaned and pushed at the same time would no doubt case problems like noise and stress wich could lead to stronger smells. Loud is all macaws. I don't mind macaw noise so long as its not constant and repetitive. Cockatoos and conures though, not for me! Even my tiels (yes, cockatiels!) irritate me far more than the macaws. They just chirp ALL THE TIME when they are thinking about laying eggs. Drives me nuts! Hys defintely have a unique "honk" they sound like a big blue gose!
Big Blues: I visited Shadow often before he went home with you! My husband was totally in love with him! You are very lucky, he is an awesome bird. Dou you have pics of him somewhere for us to ogle?

Believe it or not I do smell my birds, which is how we discovered Budgie (scarlet) had something going on. The vet did a crop wash on him and sent him home with meds. Thankfully he's been ok, he's still got a attitude but ok.

As for hy's smelling - nope they just smell like a bird or as Emily said like what they eat. My macaw range from 36 years old to 15 months and each with a different personality. Maverick & Piaui "Honk" more than scream and it's usually in the morning when the sun is coming up. Both will do their babbling and talking along with the rest.

Piaui was hatched 9/17/06, we didn't get him until mid April 2007. The breeder had a bad batch of hand feeding formula so they wouldn't release him until they new he was 100% healthy. They also will not sell unweaned birds.

ivy honks too, but she screams as well. she sounds almost like a hawk! she grumbles a lot, especially if i make too much noise when she is trying to sleep. she sounds like a grouchy old man, it's really cute! all morning, she sorta barks and says her version of "what?"

oh geez, me too! artemis can get very screechy. i think macaws don't have that annoying-ness to their voices, despite how loud they can get.

ivy's voice is almost rumbly, deep tone. i guess that's where the honks come from lolol

I'm going to talk to my friend again, and try to get a bit more information out of her. Thinking about it while reading all of your replies, I'm wondering if all the Hy's she worked with were from the same horrible breeder. Just to clarify, she only uses positive reinforcement, and she saved *many* birds that came in "weaned"...and ended up getting the whole program shut down. She loves macaws, just not the hy's.
I'll ask her about the smell thing too. It may be she just doesn't like the smell...kinda like male amazons - some people love the smell, I personally find it extremely offensive.

wendy

Some people just aren't good with some birds and V/V I am not really into anything but large macaws, and there are lots of folks who love greys or zons or quakers. Maybe she just doesn't click with them. We all have our own preferences. They are obviously very desirable to many others!

Hi the breeders are
- Kashmir Csaky - Enchanted Emerald Forest Macaws
I emailed her some questions and will get back to you when I here back from her.

- Nancy Speed PPatch Parrots Macaws

Here are more I found that Avalon did not mention one way or another
Amwell Bird Hospital
All Macaws
Hyacinth Macaws

Sally Blanchard suggested Aves International- We raise exotic birds and parrots and publish the Baby Bird Calendar. citing that the Hyacinth was a specialty of theirs.

Here is a general page on the Anodorhynchus group of Macaws Blue Macaws (rather than the Ara we co-habitate with). There are a lot of articles by the first person my aviary suggested. I am going to join a yahoo Hyacinth page and see if I can't track this woman down.

By the way, you are spot on about some people are better with one genera over another. I'll play with a new macaw but Amazons scare me.

If you end up getting one before I do I'd love to meet it and learn how to handle it. If it goes the other way you would be welcome to come over and meet ours. It's a huge decision and I plan on doing it correctly.