Chico the Chatter

Meet the Store Pets: Chico, Yellow Fronted Amazon Meet Chico, a 27 year old female Yellow Fronted (or Crowned) Amazon. Chico was not hatched here as a sugar baby, but we have had her almost her entire life. We purchased her back in 1999 from customers of ours who could no longer keep her. Chico’s previous home had exposed her to some colorful language, which of course she loved to learn. Like many Amazons, she loves to play with jingly, loud toys and will hang upside down and beat on the toys, making lots of noise. This is when the cuss words start flying! In the beginning, her learned profanity was more than her PG vocabulary and we had to watch her when kids were in the store in case she let loose. At first we figured we would find her a home, but when we heard how much she had to say, it was apparent that people might want to buy her for the wrong reasons. We worked over the years in getting her to focus more on her good language instead of the bad, praising her when she was well behaved and ignoring the potty mouth times. After nearly 25 years together she has caught on and thankfully, only really lets loose when another bird gets her riled up. As you see in the video, she has plenty of good things to say and loves to wave, laugh, and tell everyone what a happy bird she is. She also mockingly asks, “I can talk, can you fly??”. She sings, dances, and whistles, too. Overall she is one of our best talking birds, but we are always a little on edge to see what may come out of that beak! Chico is very close to Bev, who has been taking care of our store pets for the last 14 years. They have a special bond and Chico is very protective of her if she is around. When Bev isn’t nearby she gets along with most women and you can often find her on one of the front stands or out in the aviary on warm weather days. Even if you aren’t brave enough to pet Chico, make sure to give her a wave in her cage next time you are in and you’ll probably get a sweet “hi” and wave back!