senegal parrot behaviour

Question
maggie,
we have a senegal parrot 9 years old,we have only had it a year(it was left for the weekend).He/she is a lovely healthy bird but it screams when we leave the room and hears us in other parts of the house.It is totally calm when we are in the room and allows me to tickle its neck and head, he loves attention. It is also noisy when we have visitors,it seems to want to be the centre of attention.    thanks clive  

Answer
HI Clive,

It is not unusual for a parrot to want to be the center of attention. :)

It sounds like your Senegal is doing what we refer to as "Contact Calling".  Birds do not like to be seperated from their flock, so when they wonder where you are... sometimes they will call to you. Here is an article that will give you more details about this behavior:

http://companionparrot.com/articles/contact.html

And since your bird is what I would refer to as a "rescue bird"... he might be scared that you will abandon him and never come back (just like his previous caregivers did). He probably just needs reassurance that you are within ear shot.

Here are some more articles on problem screaming and what to do about it (how to prevent/reduce it):

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww11e.htm

http://www.parrothouse.com/sf3.html

http://www.africangreys.com/articles/behavior/screaming.htm (this article is written with African Greys in mind... but Senegals and Greys are both african species of parrots and are extremely similar in many ways, so the information presented can be used for either).

I hope this helps. :)

-Maggie