[rec.birds] Steve Martin Bird Videos?

heneghan@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (joseph.t.heneghan) (01/18/90)

In a recent Bird Talk magazine, there was an advertisement for 2 
Steve Martin Bird Videos: 1 was taming and training, the other was
more for entertainment and included flights of raptors. Has anyone seen
these videos? I'm pretty sure Steve Martin was the guy who appeared
on Johnny Carson with the Amazon singing "The Napes Are Home With
Their Mommies". If that's the guy, then this tape's for me. I smile
just thinking about the time he was on the show.
					Joe Heneghan
					

bamford@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (harold.e.bamford) (01/20/90)

In article <12752@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> heneghan@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (joseph.t.heneghan) writes:
>In a recent Bird Talk magazine, there was an advertisement for 2 
>Steve Martin Bird Videos: 1 was taming and training, the other was
>more for entertainment and included flights of raptors. Has anyone seen
>these videos?

I saw *A* tape by Steve Martin on taming and training of parrots.  It
was interesting and informative.  He trained several parrots to do
some simple tricks (e.g., kissing the trainer to get a seed).  He
trained them in real time, from the bird clearly not knowing the
trick to successfully performing the trick in 15 minutes.  Pretty
amazing.

Oddly enough, Mr. Martin does *NOT* approve of parrots as pets!

I tried to train our macaw (hand fed) to "wave 'bye 'bye" but
either I was not doing something correctly, or these techniques do
not work on hand-fed birds.  Pandora (the macaw) started to learn
the behavior but then abruptly stopped before training was
completed.  Probably thought I was teasing her.  Well, that's
OK.  She's a friend even if she doesn't perform tricks like a
trained dog!

I would suggest renting the tape (from a pet store) rather than
purchasing it.  We borrowed the tape from a pet store with no
charge.  Of course, we buy a lot of bird toys and such from them...

-- Harold