Maybe what Polly wants is a new toy

From Boise, Idaho, at a meeting of the Animal Behavior Society

SCARY STUFF? Young, hand-raised orange-winged Amazons cope with novelty better initially than parent-raised birds do. Fox

Changing the toys frequently in a parrot’s cage may reduce the bird’s tendency to fear new things. Bird keepers grow anxious as their birds fidget, sometimes plucking their own feathers, says Rebecca Fox of the University of California, Davis.