Nila is a genius

[InTheAir]

I just have to let you all know that it is confirmed, Nila is a total genius. He loves figuring out new tricks and really thinks about the best way to complete a task.
Trying to teach Sapphire any task that involves concentration and precision is pretty close to impossible so far! She's great at flights and can change direction to land where directed at an instants notice, but she can't even comprehend concepts like putting coins in a piggy bank She just wants to eat the piggy bank! She can get the coins in it, but after doing it a few times she decides it is pointless and runs off to eat the xylophone. .. It's not that she is not intelligent, it's just she doesn't have the drive to perfect a trick like Nila does.
I wonder if she has ADHD..

I just thought I had better let you all know that Nila is a genius independent of my training, so missk can drop the super trainer when referring to me and we must all remember to address Nila by his true title; His Royal Birdiness.

[Donovan]

Was there a specific incident that motivated this post or did it just feel like sharing in general?

[MissK]

Hey, I understand His Royal Birdiness is *quite* exceptional, but I *also* understand that if he lived at my house he would not have gotten the opportunity and guidance to open up all that greatness.

This is why *my* bird regards interesting new toys as sleeping roommates who should not be disturbed....... He's not dumb; he's just stuck with me.... 'Cuz, as you know, Rocky's *perfect*!

[InTheAir]

Donovan, living with his royal birdiness brings my attention to this every day. He does things like greeting Ellie with her birds calls, he never greets anyone else like that.

Missk, I'm sure Nila would be exceptional no matter what upbringing he had. He opened the door to Charlie and Janeys cage when they were staying, without being showed how. Sapphire has the same cage, yet he never lets her out He's got brains.

[MissK]

Have you forgotten Nila's painting? Have you forgotten that he painted himself (as he is) flying triumphantly past his alternate possible self? How could you forget these things? He, himself, credits his life with you as the vehicle for making self-fulfillment possible!

I loved the video of the Artist (and assistant) in the studio, as well as the painting itself. I must, however, respectfully disagree with the interpretation presented thus far. Hesitating slightly to speak for the artist, and admittedly allowing for some possible misunderstanding owing to the cultural differences between Nila and myself, I must suggest this is actually a painting of his joy and fulfillment in life under the influence of his nurturing family.

The red bird in flight at the upper left represents Nila's triumph and is the focus of this painting. It is presented in stop action format which literally illustrates his rapid upward movement beyond the normal green bird to the right, whose less dramatic advancement is also shown in stop action. The green bird represents Nila's alternate possible accomplishments, had he lived a different life under different circumstance. The red pennant carried by the wing of the triumphant Nila bird symbolizes his self-competitive achievement as he flies past the ochre cloud of limitation which may potentially overshadow any endeavor, including that of the green alternate Nila bird. It is a celebratory work which acknowledges the variance of possible life paths and also looks to the future as the red bird is clearly in a powerful and dramatic ascent.

I look forward to future achievements by this fine and expressive artist.

(**For those who missed it the first time around, this is the link to Nila painting.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJLlLz_RBvI **)

[InTheAir]

Lmao!
Seriously though, you have good point there. I have to work out what releases Sapphires inner red bird, she's not showing any signs of interest in learning tricks. I thought she was old enough now, so I've been trying to work with her properly and she's just not into it. She does learn tricks, but her heart isn't in it, ya know... She mostly likes more tactile things than Nila, foot and beak playing. She holds my finger with her foot a lot, butts my finger with her beak to get me to rub it. She just doesn't seem to see the point in doing tricks that aren't tactile.
She does love hunting geckos. .. Maybe I could use geckos as rewards for tricks. ..

She's generally quite self absorbed, she likes to follow me around with a favourite toy and just sits near me chewing the toy to bits when I stay in one place.

[MissK]

Honestly, she sounds quite nice! We all have different strengths. She's an individual.

I'm reminded of my dogs, when much younger, running the land at my mom's house. One chased every hint of every rabbit, squirrel, chipmunk, mouse, and raccoon that ever crossed the grass, running this way and that -"It was here! It was there! It ran this way! It's in there! I know it! I can smell it! Where *IS* it???!!"

The other joyfully followed the first - "Hey, we're running! This way? OK! That way? OK! Hey, my ears flap when I run!!!"

Buuuuut, my ear flapper is a brave, natural guard dog, and my hunter is a cream puff.

Different strokes for different folks. Maybe Sapphire is going to be a mechanical puzzle genius.

[AJPeter]

InTheAir you must be very proud of Nila's self portrait, what a clever bird! Nila manages the brush better than l could with chop sticks! Have you tried teaching Sapphire Tapestry?

[ranechild]

I think Sapphire might be really good at glass blowing...

[AJPeter]

What is a female sculptor called?

[MissK]

A sculptor. Or was that a riddle?

[InTheAir]

I think Sapphire might be really good at glass blowing...

She is very good at eating stuff and opening containers too. She can destroy a cactus in under 30 seconds, which is about as long as she can concentrate on one thing. It's lucky she's got such a big beak or she wouldn't hardly be able to do any damage before she gets bored.

[AJPeter]

What is a female scuptor called? I was thinking of sculptress but Sheila or Jane would do, of course to be totally off thread what is a female raptor called? Sorry InTheAir.

[SkyeBerry]

I have had a couple good laughs reading this thread. Thanks!

AJ - I do not know why, but I googled female raptor - hmmmm - why don't you try and see what you get?

[AJPeter]

I prefer gargling to googling but I did try Bing for female raptor and the results were so disgusting l shall not ask again!

[SkyeBerry]

[AJPeter]

Sapphire one Gecko's nil.

[InTheAir]

Nila won't jump through hoops, but he flies through them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgEzfprQVZo
Sapphire can do it too with a bigger hoop and an easier set up, otherwise she sits there looking at me like "you want me to do what? Are you crazy?". Which is funny because she is a much quicker decision maker when flying. ..

[InTheAir]

We upped the hoop game to 2 hoops (a suggestion from someone at parrots2014) to extend Nilas trick further and he figured it out almost immediately. He needs to adjust his flight speed to get through them and I just love watching him thinking on the wing! I think this game is the best flighted bird enrichment I can do in a house.
Nila and I are so excited about this game, we have ever had to use a lower value reward in the hope it tones down his enthusiasm.
Sapphire still likes to be told where to land when she plays, whereas Nila knows the goal is to go through the hoops and land where he chooses.

Nila never fails to impress me with his capacity and enthusiasm to learn! Btw Sapphire is now the master of the agility course! She is also getting much more keen on training, so I have to teach Nila to station and do more with her now.

[Donovan]

Nila won't jump through hoops, but he flies through them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgEzfprQVZo

btw I've been considering copying you...
ya know, you run out of ideas over time.. flying through hoops would be great and a real challenge for Mr. Bell because I'm certain he'd be leary of it at first..

He seems to have the attitude of, "well yeah that's my favorite treat but i don't want it that bad to go near that big object you're holding" So getting him to do it would be fun for me and would help him overcome a fear of me holding objects.

Also this all reminds me of mentioning once that mr. bell will fly through a door with only a very small opening that i was asked to video that i have yet to do.... i should think about that... -he- thinks he's doing a trick.. the reward being to follow me to the kitchen i suppose. He does it lots of ways. He'll turn sideways sometimes..
Sometimes he'll hold his wings all the way up as he squeezes through, using momentum.
Other times he'll get on a near by lamp and just jump through and not bother flying until he's through.

The agility course that Sapphire is doing seems great. I saw the video a while back. One thing I've learned since having birds is that novel tricks seem complicated but the reality is that they can be very simple to learn.
Did Sapphire learn the agility course pretty easily with a lure?..
And on the slalom, did you have to reward her at each turn?

[InTheAir]

I targeted rather than lured for most of the agility course training. I did use a little trail of sunflower seeds to get them to explore the blue tunnel though.

The weave/slalom was broken down into smaller increments. I think we started with 3 poles.

Definitely try Mr Bell with the hoops, he sounds like a great candidate. I didn't really need to introduce it slowly because my birds think anything I am holding its a toy for them, and my house is full of hula hoops so it's nota novel object anyway. I had to target them through it to a perch to start with so they wouldn't land on it. Nila quickly understood not to land it, Sapphire still pauses on it sometimes if I haven't designated a landing site for her.

[Donovan]

targeting..

this is point and fly?
It's something I haven't actually explored yet.

[MissK]

Please, for me, can hula hoops be a set of fly-through weave poles?

[InTheAir]

This is the best targeting how to video I've seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaOicTtwIZo&app=desktop

I use my finger as the target and my birds touch it with their beaks. I've seen videos of birds that have been trained to touch the target with their foot instead.

[InTheAir]

Please, for me, can hula hoops be a set of fly-through weave poles?

Dave is going to make a redbull air race with hula hoops for Nila around the house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BycHBgQKnQ0

It looks like a game Nila would like.

[MissK]

Wow, that's cool! I never knew there was a Red Bull AIr Race and now I really want one! I only got a few seconds since You Tube was painfully slow, but I got the idea. Love the giant traffic cones. Nila will be great. Dave will be great for building it.

[InTheAir]

Dave put hoops up and Nila is wildly enthusiastic, waay to enthusiastic! And that's after he's had dinner... How do you teach a ringneck to slow down?
He's done some pretty good stunts so far, but we have a whole lot to work on including verbal cues and cueing the different hoops by colour. He flies way too fast for me to point, in fact I only ever see him go through one or 2 hoops because I can't even turn my head fast enough to keep up

[Donovan]

To make him slow down decrease the size of the hoop which by itself can be interesting. Mr Bell can fly through a very small opening in a door no wider than the length of your finger so nila can too. Try upping the ante. I wish I could capture the door thing in slow motion. He has different techniques.

[AJPeter]

If Mr Bell can get through a door opening 3" wide l should imagine thet an Alex could manage 4" and that is an important lesson not to open windows too wide in hot weather!

[InTheAir]

To make him slow down decrease the size of the hoop which by itself can be interesting. Mr Bell can fly through a very small opening in a door no wider than the length of your finger so nila can too. Try upping the ante. I wish that I could capture the door thing in slow motion. He has different techniques.

Interesting thing about this idea, Nila likes to tuck his wings as he goes through small hoops, so he seems to build up air speed on approach so momentum keeps him going through. I think if I made the hoop smaller he'd go faster to tuck his wings more. I might try that after we have this stuff sorted. He is at the cusp of comprehending the current level and I don't want to overface him.
Slo-mo would be awesome!

[Donovan]

I think to help him with this... tilt the hoop downward just a little... angle it so that he can use both gravity and momentum to carry him through.

Mr. Bell flying through the small opening in the door is done different every time and I think it has to do with where in the flap he is when he arrives... does that make sense?...

Sometimes his wings are extending and all the way up, and sometimes he has them folded as he goes through the door. Also I've seen him just turn sideways to go through. It happens so fast I can't really tell exactly how he does it... i'm sure in his mind he has a system.

[MissK]

Do you suppose this sort of phenomenon is how we got the idiom "on the fly", for meaning (basically) adjusting for current conditions as you find them?

[AJPeter]

What you need Donovan is a slow motion camera, but l suppose they will get through any gap however small if they want.

[InTheAir]

Do you suppose this sort of phenomenon is how we got the idiom "on the fly", for meaning (basically) adjusting for current conditions as you find them?

I can totally see that in action when Nila plays the hoop game. It has also drastically improved his confidence flying in new houses, that's why I'm so enthusiastic about it! We stayed at a friends house last weekend and he was so much more confident in picking landing spots in the unfamiliar terrain then he was last time we stayed in a new place.

Btw Sapphire has now learnt that the object of the game is to fly through the hoop and choose somewhere to land, instead of being targeted to a perch via the hoop. It always seems to me that she is so earnestly contemplating how to behave correctly when learning new tricks. She looks so sweet and serious. Nila is more gung ho and will just try stuff until he gets it right (which is usually very quickly).

[InTheAir]

Nila in training for a red bull air race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQNeWRIi84I

[GeveZe]

It's awesome!!!

[Donovan]

Ah good stuff. And good job on the training.