Every few days we are privileged to be visited by this handsome fellow. My friend Lisa in Ontario tells me it’s a type of parrot called a Military Macaw. Wikipedia agrees.
The routine is always the same. The parrot swoops into the top of the 6-story eucalyptus tree that towers over our house, and announces his arrival with a series of imperious bleats and squawks.
The second the bird fires up, Archie sprints up to the balcony railing (Thanks God he’s sure footed, because it’s about an 8-metre drop off the other side) and lets off round after round of insane barking. It’s deafening. The bird bleating, the dog barking. The ruckus goes on for along time, because Jack Russell Terriers never give up on anything. Ever. And in this case, Archie seems to think he’s got a good shot of intimidating the bird into flying down to the ground and surrendering.
That splash of color in the top left corner is the parrot. You’ve got him on the ropes now, Archie!
Yesterday’s game began normally, but then the parrot began…well, I swear it began barking. Mimicking Archie. It got to be a proper conversation, where Archie would bark once and the the parrot would answer back with what really did sound like a bark. Back and forth they went….”bark, squawk, bark, squawk, bark, squawk, bark, squawk.” Except, as I said, the squawks now sounded uncannily like barks.
Speaking in a second language is tiring, so after barking for about 10 minutes, the parrot apparently had enough and off he flew.
Next time he drops by for a chat with Archie, I’ll try to get a video for you.
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