It is much easier to live with a bird that knows some basic behavioral commands. It’s the difference between running wildly around a room to catch a bird before you rush out the door to work and calmly asking your bird to step up onto your finger to enter its cage. Would you rather have a bird that can’t bear to come out of its cage or  one that can’t wait to get out of its cage?

Using basic commands forms a positive means of communication between you and your bird. Rather than a flustered or flighty bird that doesn’t know what’s happening when presented with your finger or a perch or stick, your bird understands and acts accordingly, calmly stepping onto it when you say, “Step up.”

**For the full article, pick up the 2007 issue of Birds USA**