it has been a little over two weeks since Ellis came into our home. his honeymoon period is just about over. since coming into our home, he seems a bit timid when approaching me (when i am luring him with a treat) but when i approach him, he seems quite calm and confident of himself. to show this, he would start preening himself as i stand next to him on his cage - no aggressive movement whatsoever.

it is also clear that he favors my husband more. if i get to close to Ellis while my husband is in the room, he would come and try to attack me (walks over to me with an open beak; he doesn't try to fly-attack me). so i keep my distance if my husband is in the room. one reason why Ellis likes my husband so much, is because my husband is the better whistler. Ellis LOVES to play whistling games with him. Ellis would whistle a tune and my husband would whistle it back to him. this can go back and forth for a few minutes. there was one time when my husband initiated this game with a weird tune....and Ellis copied it back perfectly. that was amazing! Ellis also gets really excited and makes happy squeals when my husband enters the room.

Ellis is not much of a talker, although he does mumble a bit sometimes. He does like to mimic (smacking lips, some laughing, trying to learn kissing noises) and whistle.

He also doesn't really show much interest in being touched. Ellis has not allowed my husband or myself to touch him, but he easily steps up for us on a hand-held perch. my husband has tried to offer him his arm to step up on, but Ellis just walked away. we'll see. I will be starting Ellis on some targeting exercises and see how he does with some training.

Ellis loves corn and beans. he also has been munching on the zupreem fruit blend pellets, but still mostly eats his seed mix. the conversion to pellets will take time.

Ellis - a cute, little white spectacled amazon, came to our home this past thursday (October 11, 2007) with his bigger friend Herkimer. He has shown no aggression or fear towards my husband or myself. He just looks very calm and contented all the time. We will keep an eye on this - just because birds that are laid back when you would think they should be a bit fearful, it may be a sign of an underlying illness.

But so far, Ellis is great. He steps up very nicely on a handheld stick for both of us. we have not yet tried to have him step up on to our arms yet...i just want him to be more settled first. i may try during the next few days.

When he came to us, he also had full use of his wings - which means his wing feathers were not clipped. we did this today for his own protection. Ellis, however, is a very good flyer. He landed nicely on his target perch without a hitch.

Ellis was brought up on a parrot mix - seeds, nuts, dried fruit. He doesn't eat much pellets. I have been giving him his parrot mix and mixing in some zupreem fruit blend pellets, and I have actually seen him biting on the zupreem pellets. i will take the conversion slow, but that is a good sign.

below are some great pictures of Ellis that we have taken so far.

ps: don't let the last image fool you. Ellis really knows how to handle Herk, and Herk would never hurt Ellis - thus far, anyway. we do keep an eye on both when out of their cage.