I didn't know if this fit better in Pets or as wildlife but here goes (It is a matter of perspective). Just an interesting (to me) observation. Walking through a mall recently to kill time waiting for one hour glasses to be made (again) I perused a pet shop and noticed 3 large blue on the back and sulphur yellow on the belly MACAWS. These are expensive exotic pets here abouts. A few years back my wife worked in San Diego, CA on a point of land sticking out in the ocean. There were flocks of wild macaws living there and they frequently perched on a building just outside her window and made such a ruckus they were a distraction beyond their beautiful blue and gold feathers. We also were just inside the extreme northern limits of the range for the Mexican red headed parrot and there were frequently flocks of those flying around the house. They were pretty obnoxious to listen to but fun to watch chasing crows out of the palm trees.
We had a "pet" parrot for a few years. It was a double yellow headed amazon parrot (not a Norweigan Blue) that we got via other than normal channels. It seems there was a fire in a pet shop in Pomona, CA and some of the stock got lose. A few parrots took up residence in some really tall pine trees on few acres my mom owned. Her second husband used to shoot at the crows with his pellet gun as they "messed" on the cars and everything else a lot. So, at evening twilight a crow was sitting in a tree by his shop and he shot it. It went tumbling to the ground and when he went to administer the coup de gras, he was just sickened by the sight of a wounded parrot. Seems the parrot was doing a pretty good crow imitation and in silohette his colors went unnoticed. I got a call and drove 125 miles to get the parrot and did my best first aid. His wing healed but he never was able to fly good enough to gain much altitude. If he started about 6 ft off the ground he couldn't clear a 6 ft fence after flying 30-50 ft.
Unfortunately, this meant he was not going to be released back into the wild where he previously did OK for 4-5 years. So we popped down to Tijuana and got an ENORMOUS parrot cage and screened in our front porch. We kept him for years and gave him to a bird fancier who had a parrot that fell in love with ours while keeping him for us when we were gone for a couple weeks. Her bird would literaly throw fits when separated from ours.
We had many interesting experiences with this bird who one of my college chums nicknamed RODAN after seing it crack open left over chicken bones and eat the marrow.
We would leave his cage open all day and he had the run of the porch and would come into the kitchen when we left the connecting window open. At breakfast he would come right up and take my peanut butter toast. In self defense I used to tear off a good sized piece for him. He would take it and retreat a couple feet back across the table, stand on one foot, and eat with the other. Meanwhile I tried to eat mine because if he finished first he would come for mine. He didn't like guys! Every guy I know who tried to handle him got bit. He would coo and neck with women and girls, pulling strands of hair between his beak gently to preen them. I bought him parrot feed with red peppers in it. He never touched the peppers, didn't care for the sunflower seeds, but ate all the peanuts-in-the-shell in the mix and we bought him more. He got named Peanut for obvious reasons. If a guy handed him a peanut, sometimes he would take it but often would throw it down with great force. If a gal gave him a peanut he would gently take it and crack it open and eat it.
It was a mixed blessing. I wanted to be able to rehabilitate him and release him in the wild but when that failed we gave him a decent life for several years and then placed him in a loving home with another bird he liked. I successfuly rehabilitated a horned owl but that is another story for another time If anyone wants to hear it.
Pat
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