Chico's Corner

Chirp!  I am Chico, a cockatiel.  I was hatched on October 4, 2002, and have lived in the Kimball house since January 6, 2003.  My family thinks I am a male, but they're not sure; maybe I should surprise them with an egg?

Cockatiels are small parrots native to Australia.  Wild cockatiels are grey, and look like this:

I'm called a lutino cockatiel, because I'm mostly white.  My most distinctive features are the orange spots on the sides of my head, and the yellow crest on top.  You can tell my emotional state from the crest.  It's down when I'm relaxed, but when I get excited or frightened, it stands straight up in spikes, looking like a little crown.  Besides grey and white, cockatiels can be mixed, pearl, pied, cinnamon, whitefaced, and even olive.

Oh look, now the whole gang's here.  Let's party!

Cockatiels like birdseed, of course, but we also eat pellets from the pet store, and we're interested in whatever the people around us are eating.  It's not safe to give us anything with chemicals in it, but food considered "healthy" is okay.  Fresh fruits and veggies are always good, and cheerios on a string are fun.  Last Thanksgiving I tried a bit of turkey, and felt like a cannibal.  But do you know what I like best?  Pasta, tied to the roof of my cage!

Who left the pellet jar open?  Yum, yum!

A lot of people like cockatiels because we're easy to take care of. We don't talk a lot, the way other parrots do, but we still have more personality than you'd expect in a little bird!  I'll let you in on a secret; humans think they have pet cockatiels, when the truth is that cockatiels have pet humans.  My pet human is the one named Mama who brought me home.  She's always so nice to me.  Her mate Papa feeds me and cleans my cage, but I don't like him much because he looks big and scary, especially when it's dark.

If you have a cockatiel, I'd love to hear about him or her (it gets lonely here sometimes, and we're very sociable birds).

Gotta go now.  Shake your tail feathers at these:

	Birdie's Domain, another cockatiel's home page.
	The National Cockatiel Society.
	Cockatiel Heaven, a bulletin board all about us!
	The Aquatic Temple of the Ducki Lama. Even birds can get religious.
	Papa's home page (if you must, hiss!).

Tweet here.

Update from Papa: Chico died suddenly of a stroke on the morning of December 13, 2005. This page has been left up in his memory. Oh Chico, you were such a character! We all loved you and we miss you terribly. May we someday be reunited on the other side.