The crowd roars with delight as two scarlet macaws race across the open sky. Their incredible beauty mesmerizes the spectators. Then the birds amaze the crowd with their many tricks and cute repartee. Some of the audience leave merely entertained. For others, however, the sparkle of new love is in their eyes as they exit the show — they are falling madly in love with macaws. In fact, they might even be thinking about adding a macaw to their family. Although sincere and enthusiastic, are they able to successfully share their lives with a macaw? 

Well-trained macaws in a show astound us with their endearing behavior, beauty and elegance. We know we want one or must have one, just like the one in the show. However, we might fail to recognize that the birds’ trainer has dedicated long periods of time to train these birds into the stars we see on stage. Buying a macaw does not ensure us a bird like the show bird. Even with a well-trained bird, we must maintain that training or the bird will not behave as expected.

*For the full article, pick up the July 2008 issue of BIRD TALK**

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