I Pet "Mad Mike"

And I still have all my fingers!! "Mikey" is a Goffin's Cockatoo (see generic image) and he flies freely around the refuge. He's a little wild and is known to attack people's feet and sometimes attack other birds. Whenever someone is making up the seed and nut trays he'll come close and likes to be given a sunflower seed. But watch out! He'll ignore the seed and stab the end of your finger if he gets a chance. And yet he likes to take seeds by hand when the room has dozens of trays he could feed at. It seems to be a desire for attention and bonding. So...This evening another volunteer was in to spoon feed some of the special needs birds. Mikey was attacking this fellow's heels, and I was afraid the volunteer might trip, get bitten or step on Mikey (he's just a bit larger than a Robin). So I went closer and played "rodeo clown" and got Mikey chasing my tattered old running shoes. Sometimes he'd catch me and that's fine when he bites into the rubber edges, but when he manages to get some toe in that beak - ouch!!

At one point while his beak was full of dirty old running shoe rubber and he was gnawing and chewing away on my shoe, I knelt down and gingerly reached over to gently pet along his back. And he liked it! He visible relaxed and stopped munching so hard. I pet him like that for several minutes. Once or twice he'd let go of the shoe and reach around towards my finger and I'd snatch it back. But then he'd go back to my shoe and 'allow' me to pet him.

This broke up when something else happened, and I went back to what I was doing, while he flew off to the top corner where he hangs out with his non-flying girl-friend. But later he came back and landed at my feet and waited for me to pet him without munching on my shoes at all. He still reached back for my finger a few times. And I'm still not going to trust him not to stab/bite, so I pull my finger back when he does that. But then he turns away and puts his head down a touch to indicate "you can pet me now - see - it's safe - I can't bite you now..." What a little rascal.