The Avian Behavior Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Training your bird for transportation isn't just an important part of education programming, it's a good life skill to have. For wildlife rehabilitation organizations, nature centers, and other small bird of prey centers, this is an essential skill that trainers rely on. For companion parrot people, this is an important behavior to trainer before it is needed in case of emergencies. This episode is an excerpt from our roadmap on Your Bird's First Education Program inside the Avian Behavior Lab. It's full of tactical advice on how to shape calm behavior for riding comfortably in a crate in a vehicle. We talk about what to do about tidbitting, why we don't use food very much to shape this behavior, and what we use to reinforce with instead. We discuss challenges with equipment and how to use context to shape the behavior.

Support courses in the Avian Behavior Lab include our latest updated version of Crate Training, the roadmap, Creating a Training Program, and How to use context to shape a behavior.

Looking to the wild for answers is a common refrain among bird people when it comes to care advice, particularly nutrition. And while this concept seems well grounded in science, the actual practice is much more complex and nuanced. For parrots, we don't always know what, how, or why the eat what the eat. And when we do know, replicated the conditions and food stuffs can be impossible for those of us who have parrots in our care.

We sit down with fellow science communicator Dr. Stephanie Rosenbloom who not only has a PhD in chemistry, but a keen interest in parrot nutrition. We tease apart the idea of the appeal to nature fallacy, that occurs when a person assumes that what is natural is good and true, without considering the effects of their actions on the environment. We discuss a recent post that went viral on social media about parrots eating meat and other topics about diet and further into philosophy.

For more of Stephanie's talks, you can check out https://avianbehavior.thinkific.com/courses/avocet-2024

News flash, if your bird is attacking you, it probably doesn't mean that they hate you. What it does mean is that we have a lot in our relationship to unpack, from environmental conditions to expectations. When parrots in our homes come at us, either from the ground or on the wing, it can be really scary. Even cockatiels and small conures can pack a punch with those little beaks. Bird drama also can cause family drama, and no one wants to feel unsafe in their own home. We talk about behavior advice that belongs in the Dark Ages and why it is keeping you from success, we get real with how to realistically approach this problem, and we introduce our free challenge, Stop Attacking Me! Join us with the live version starting October 1 2023, or whenever you can!

As always, enjoy a free trial of the Avian Behavior Lab with the code AVIAN at https://avianbehaviorlab.com

Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the International Owl Center in Houston, Minnesota, and Hillary have a fascinating conversation about owl vocalizations and Karla's journey with Great Horned Owl behavior. They discuss owl behavior observation influences, species differences, reinforcement strategies and all things owl. This conversation will fascinate any professional or amateur owl enthusiast.

If you have yet to take one of our free challenges or just want awesome bird information, sign up for our newsletter.

For more information on ABI's Advanced Animal Behavior Workshop, check out our few spots left here.

For the International Owl Center Conference, you can get information here.

Sign up for their awesome newsletter here.

Hillary answers more questions from a workshop regarding how to prepare a bird for a program, are we friends with our birds, how to know when you are doing more harm than good and much more. We get philosophical on this one!

 For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for registration and details

Welcome to the Avian Behavior Podcast, where we bring innovative approaches to progressive animal training and behavior, wildlife conservation, bird nutrition, and all things avian. We appreciate all of the supporters who have helped us fund our collaboration in South Africa with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project coming up in August.

You can still get your trouble-making hornbill merch and much more!
You can make the most impact with a small donation to GoFundMe
You can get your Hornbill swag here
Caracara shirts are one of the most popular
The full page is here.

Hillary answers questions from a workshop regarding do's and don'ts on building relationships with birds of prey, what to do about a kestrel that attacks the bait bag, weight managing owls, and more. For more information on our upcoming Advanced Workshop in November 2023, check out this page for registration and details

Welcome to the Avian Behavior Podcast, where we bring innovative approaches to progressive animal training and behavior, wildlife conservation, bird nutrition, and all things avian. We appreciate all of the supporters who have helped us fund our collaboration in South Africa with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project coming up in August.

You can still get your trouble-making hornbill merch and much more!
You can make the most impact with a small donation to GoFundMe
You can get your Hornbill swag here
Caracara shirts are one of the most popular
The full page is here.

We sit down with good friend and well known aviculturist Dick Schroeder to talk about what we can learn about working with the Southern ground hornbill in a variety of different ways. Dick is a celebrated member of the avicultural community, he has raised numerous hornbill species, including over a dozen Southern Ground Hornbills (baby Kipling was his eighth!). He has boards seats, first time breeding awards, speakerships, and other accolades all over the world in aviculture. We talk about community and the importance of working together.

This conversation kicks off our fundraising campaign for our efforts to work with the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project this coming August. Help us reach our $4000 goal and enhance the release and monitoring program.

The website is https://avian-behavior.org/hornbill/

Our Patreon is https://Patreon.com/avianbehavior.

Our two favorite subjects, owls and raising ambassadors. Owls are considered flagship species, which means that while they may not necessarily be directly endangered, they are species chosen to raise support for biodiversity conservation in a given place or social context. This means that due to their widespread appeal, they have the capacity to draw in an audience to more complex issues related to their ecosystems and less charismatic components. What this also means is that they can act as flagship individuals for education programs. We often say people come for the owls and stay for the vultures.

But raising an owl for life as ambassador is challenging, even to be a glove bird. We want the bird's presence to reflect the care and expertise that the organization requires. In this episode we discuss what this looks like in the beginning stages and how the many mistakes we made led us to our mission of raising ambassadors over ten species of native and non-native owls.

You can sign up for the Masterclass of How to Raise an Ambassador Owl

and you can also find our exclusive, limited seats only 4 week live mentorship, Train with Me - Owl Ambassador Training and learn the ins and outs of this intricate and incredibly important process.

Join us with a free 14 day trial in the Avian Behavior Lab with the code AVIAN

We are going to be talking about how LIMA (least intrusive, minimally aversive) and the humane hierarchy structure stopped serving me in my animal behavior progress, what got me there, and how I help my clients instead. We take a HUGE look at how it's not uncommon in science for us to wittingly or unwittingly select the results that we want to move our hypothesis along, and this can have enormous results in health, nutrition, and yes, animal behavior.

To purchase the entire conference of AvOCET on demand: https://avianbehaviorlab.com/avocet-conference-recording/

The full video is here 

► Having issues with your bird not stepping up on your glove or approaching you? Take the free 7 day fearful and aggressive Challenge https://avianbehaviorlab.com/fear-and-aggressive-behavior-challenge/

► Learn the Fundamentals Of Animal Training https://avian-behavior.org/39-2/

►Shop our Amazon Store for bird supplies https://bit.ly/3QWjjJR

► Join a community of passionate bird owners and learn from hundreds of hours of science and behavior based on demand courses and live trainings - FREE for 2 weeks! 

Subscribe to Avian Behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/avianbehavior

 Our mission at Avian Behavior is to strengthen the connection between animals and the humans that care for them with the most progressive and positive reinforcement techniques.

Sources

Scientific Method 

Monsanto study with Stanford University

https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0518p38.shtml

P hacking:

Maintenance Phase School Lunches, P Hacking, and the Original "Pizzagate"

Buzzfeed News article 

In this session of our Behavior Makeover Series, we work with a rehabilitated non-releasable raven that is showing a lot of avoidance behavior around his trainer. We create a behavior shaping plan using non-coercive negative reinforcement instead of counter conditioning or systematic desensitization to build the raven's trust. This works on all species, from parrots to eagles and mammals too. As always, follow your local and federal laws when working with native and exotic species and we do not condone rescuing wild birds without proper permits.

For more bird training and behavior tips:

► Having issues with your bird not stepping up on your glove or approaching you? Take the free 7 day fearful and aggressive Challenge https://avianbehaviorlab.com/fear-and-aggressive-behavior-challenge/

► Learn the Fundamentals Of Animal Training https://avian-behavior.org/39-2/

►Shop our Amazon Store for bird supplies https://bit.ly/3QWjjJR

 ► Join a community of passionate bird owners and learn from hundreds of hours of science and behavior based on demand courses and live trainings - FREE for 2 weeks! https://avianbehaviorlab.com

Connect with Hillary on Social Media 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/avianbehavior 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avianbehavior 
Podcast: https://avian-behavior.org/podcast
Subscribe to Avian Behavior here: https://www.youtube.com/avianbehavior
Our mission at Avian Behavior is to strengthen the connection between animals and the humans that care for them with the most progressive and positive reinforcement techniques.