Updates

Saturday, April 22nd (Final Post!)

This weekend I finished taking pictures and videos of both birds and started working on my slides. I am almost done with the presentation, and am really happy that I was able to put in some videos that will really liven up my slides! I am still working on the speaker notes and making sure my speaking length is 5 minutes. 

Saturday, March 25th

This weekend was busy at the bird center and I did not have much time with the birds. I left the birds to their own in a room where they could perch and preen each other and every once in a while put them on my shoulder and let them accompany me around the store. Jesper is most certainly more comfortable around me when he is on my shoulder, and Inej is also very happy when she is sitting in my hood. I think I will continue working with them more often by letting them spend 'alone' time while still being close with me rather than leaving them in a room. I also recorded videos of Jesper showing off his tricks and uploaded a google drive with videos from throughout the year onto this site. I was able to collect some pictures from the beginning of the year and started thinking about which ones I want to use in my end of year presentation

Wednesday, March 15th

Because I took the SAT on Saturday I decided to visit the birds on Wednesday since I was on break. The birds were mainly the same from last time I worked with them, and trick training did not progress much unfortunately. I will keep working on this. I have stopped putting as much millet into their cage due to Inej having to lose weight. I am not sure if it has been working but I want to see if I can get her to eat more fresh fruit since she has been refusing to recently. I will continue working on both birds and seeing if I can continue gaining their trust without breaking their bond with eachother.

Saturday, February 25th

When I came to the bird center this weekend I noticed that Inej was gaining weight again, and since I think this might have been due to the millet I left in her cage and the lack of excersise, I made the choice to let her and Jesper out in the bird room for the week. Since Inej can still fly and is able to move around to get food and water, I think the pair of them will be safe, and I hope to be able to collect them back next week. If the snow storm prevents me from doing so, I will ask the owners to do it for me. 

On account of training, I have gotten Jesper to spin around multiple times, but Inej has not been that interested in the treats so she has not been as interested in doing the trick. I plan to bring different fruits and treats next time to see if I can get her interest back.

I have also discussed with the owners my idea of expanding my project into a more research aspect and got permission to grab other pairs of birds to do similar, mini versions of this trick training to see if I can gather more data and actually be able to continue this research in college. 

Saturday, February 4th

I did not make it to the bird center because of a Science Olympiad competition but I emailed the alumn Ive been speaking to about my birds and also spoke to my father about publishing articles. I learned that publishing something might take a year or even more, and it would depend a lot on the people who will be checking and editing my work. I am still waiting on a reply from the alumn because I did ask her about any places she knows where I might be accepted to publish, especially since she has written some articles already and had them published on the Audubon Florida site. I will be going to my birds this week and look forward to start getting more pictures and videos that I can think about adding to whatever final format my project takes.

Saturday, January 21st

I was very pleased with the progress that I saw in the birds this week. I got Jesper to do a full turn around on a perch twice, and both birds understand that touching the chopstick with their beak means a treat! I have not tried getting Inej to turn yet, but I am so excited that Jesper has gotten to the point of being able to at least turn 180 degrees to get a treat. I have also noticed that Inej is very very confortable around me now, to the point where she doesnt want to get off my shoulder or hand, which I hope will show Jesper that he is also safe around me. Although he is a lot less worried than he was before, he still definitely prefers his perch to me, and even takes off from my finger when hes up to 5 feet away from it just to get there sooner. I'm not sure why exactly he loves this perch so much, but I think it might just be more stable than sitting on my shoulder while I walk around so he's grown accustomed to it. I've started looking into differences in the female and male brains of parakeets and so far have found that not too much research has been going on in that area. Although the classic "females are less talkative and active" can be found on every single bird website, I havent yet found any scientific articles about the actual sex differences in parakeets (or parrots either interestingly enough) brains. I did find one article about vocal and behaivioral responses in parrots and it does brush into male and female parakeets, so I did read that and plan on trying to find more this week!

Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18481

Saturday, January 7th

This week I was unable to come to the bird center so instead I spent my time reading my book on corvid brains and behaivior and planned my next plans with the birds. I want to continue trick training both birds and researching some neuroscientific aspects of my project, especially the differences between female and male parakeet brains. 

Saturday, December 24th

This week I started working with getting the birds more comfortable around me and sitting on my shoulder again. Since I had a few times where Jesper flew off my shoulder and then sat somewhere unreachable for awhile, I had ceased letting the birds sit on me while I worked around the store, but because of their recent progress I wanted to get them used to being there again. Luckily they both stayed on my today, so I hope to continue with that next week, including working on training again since I by accident forgot the chopsticks this week (oops) and didn't want to confuse the birds with a different object to train them with. I am very happy that the birds are getting more comfortable with me, and am now going to be extra careful in the future to not miss a week and see all their progress go downhill again.

Saturday, December 10th

I was not expecting the level of uncomfortable that the birds felt around me today. I was very suprised to see how scared and nervous they were around me, and in the first hour or so they almost completely refused to step up onto me. Because of this behavior, I made the decision to hold off on trick training until next week, because I do not think trying to teach already very nervous birds something new would be a good idea. I did my best to comfort them, and do all the different things I did usually like cuddle them, play little games, and give them crushed corn pellets, but also gave them some alone time and let them relax together while I was in the room so they could understand they were safe around me. Jesper did not fly away from me this week, so I am curious why that sudden 'good' change in his behavior took place over the 2 weeks I was gone, but 'worse' progressions like the refusal to step up remained. My next course of action is to keep gaining trust with the birds, and also allowing them to move at their own pace for awhile. I want to make sure the animals are comfortable with me before beginning to train them with tricks. I am also planning on checking out Facebook or Reddit groups online about training birds and maybe connecting with some people who could give me some tips for my unique situation. I look forward to seeing if the birds are more at ease around me next Saturday, and I hope whatever videos or advice I find online end up being helpful!

Saturday, November 26th

This past week confirmed my suspicions: the two birds have bonded and I am not part of that group. Both have preformed lower in the criteria that I score them in each week, and I notice that they are not as comfortable around me as they used to be. I am forming a plan of how to tackle this challenge while also keeping in mind that this is very useful for my behavioural study and is an important note to mention when I reveiw the differences between the male and the female. I definitely feel like the male is more bonded than the female and is the most affected by this bond since it looks like his progress is regressing more than the females.

I plan to watch more videos about bonding with the birds and trying out those techniques this week!

Saturday, November 12th

This week suprised me. Both birds were only skittish in the morning, and got used to me again very quickly. Inej hardly bites anymore; only nibbles and tries to chew on my nails. She has started stepping up a lot better, and out of the two birds, is actually the most comfortable with me. I am starting to suspect the birds bonded with each other, and the male is a lot more attached to the female than she is to him. Jesper will fly away from my shoulder or finger if Inej is not near us or if he cannot see her. He will also get fidgety is she is not on the same perch as him, and will chirp and twitter until they are reunited. I emailed the alumn I connected with in Florida; I hope she has some advice on what I should do about this.

I have begun thinking about the format of my project and think I might create a poster that will later be hung up at the bird center. I am still unsure wether it would be about training birds or warning people to not buy birds unless they're ready, but I will try to decide that soon. 

 Saturday, October 29th

This Saturday I noticed that my birds were more comfortable with me when I spent some time in the bird room just organizing and cleaning before going to take them out of their cage. Although they were both still skittish and definitly were not easy to catch, it was clear that they recognized me and had time to remember that I wasn't going to hurt them.

I decided to use some advice that the Emma alumn from Audubon gave me, and stuck some celery into their cage to see if I could use food as a training technique in the future. I also wrote down how well the birds acted around me in the morning, and recorded the results in the rubric. Suprisingly, Inej is getting more comfortable around me as time goes on, and especially in the mornings is less nervous around me. Jesper, although the initial bird who seemed more friendlier is starting to become a bit more nervous which makes me curious if Inej will be the one who excelling in the training now.

Saturday, October 15th

This Saturday was the first time I actually noticed how much the birds improved since I initially caught them in the bird room. I talked to two customers who told me about their own journey of training parakeets. One man said his 2 birds hes had since February both hate him and avoid him all the time. He was shocked that Jesper and Inej sit on my shoulders and can even stay in my hand for a few minutes. He told me that he tries to work with his birds every day, and they still refuse to step on him or even stay near him. After hearing this, I instantly felt amazed at how well my two birds have been doing. Similarly, a woman in the evening told me about a female parakeet she has that is very visious and does not stop biting. The lady asked for my advice after I told her about my project and how the birds training has improved. I told her that the way I got Inej to stop biting me was by, basically, forcing her to cuddle with me. By holding her close to me and not letting her bite me, I showed her that being around me is safe, and  she has no reason to bite me. I advised the lady that she should also try to spend more time with her bird by just cuddling, not constantly attempting to train her. Sharing my experiences with customers made me really proud of what I've acheived in my project so far, and I'm also very proud of the birds, and how amazing they've been for the past month!

Inej has stopped biting as much and as hard, and has gotten more comfortable with being on my hands and sitting on my finger. Jesper is also getting better at stepping up more often and sitting on my shoulder.

My homework next is to establish my 'success points' and make a sort of grading rubric for the birds. This rubric will be graded by the birds performance every Saturday morning, on criteria based on the success points. 

Saturday, October 1st

This was the first official day where I actually worked with the birds and attempted to get them not only used to me, but understand what I will be expecting of them in future weeks. After a couple attempts to get Jesper to get onto my finger, he reluctantly stepped up, but only for a few seconds before flying away. By the end of the day, Jesper could sit on my finger comfortably if I was standing still, or on my shoulder if I was not moving too much. He still tries to bite me in self defense whenever I hold him, but he is starting to be a little more gentler, which leads me to think he was starting to get used to me.  Inej, however, was very stubborn, and refused to get onto my finger the entire day. She would either scurry away to the other side of the perch, or simply fly away. She is still very hostile and bites constantly, multiple times to the point of drawing blood. The owner of the shop and I dullened her beak slightly, just to make sure I wouldnt be too injured by her, but although that means her biting doesnt hurt as much, she still tried to attack me. Towards the end of the day, both birds were pretty comfortable with me, and I could notice that they recognized me when I would walk into the room or pick them up. Hopefully next week they will be slightly better and I will not have to chase after them as often!

I have improved the foundation of my project in the sense I have a clearer idea of what exactly I want to acheieve and how best to do so. From now on, I will bring notes to the bird center, and will record how many times the birds bit me or flew away, stepped onto my finger, or felt comfortable enough to rest in my hands. I think this will allow me to keep track of progress better, and will also give me solid numbers to use later on in my paper. I will also be researching how these types of behavioral studies work, and the format of the papers so I know what I will need to be able to successfully publish mine.

My next plans are researching behavioral study papers, creating my milestone goals I will keep track of in my weekly notes, and taking my first note log next Saturday!

Friday, September 23rd

My project idea is still up in the air due to the fact that I need to consult with the owner of the bird center I volunteer at. My current plan is to have my project be a behavioral study/expirement on the training of wild parakeets. I hope to be able to have the opportunity to train multiple wild parakeets and see how long it will take to have them fully hand-tamed through only weekly visits. From past research on parakeets, I know that their brain is advanced enough to remember people up to a year, so I am curious how willing the birds will be to go through training if it is only held once a week. I have a few other ideas if this project does not work out, but I need to bring them up with the owner of the bird center, and hopefully get imput from her since she has been working with birds for about 20 years and might be able to give me advice on what might be the best topic for my signature project.

My current progress in the project consits of a semi-finished poster on canva, a basic outline of the portfolio site, a copy of the needed google doc, and a completed contract. I hope to solidify my project idea over this weekend and with that be able to finish my site outline and canva poster.