It would be great to have an exotic bird but I would feel sad that it lives confined rather than free.
Instead happy to visit a country where they are located and watch from afar the natrual surroundings and how they interact in their own environments.

My daughter has a cockatiel which stays in her room but I will take it out about once a day and let it hang out with me in my room. The negative is that it will shit wherever it is. The good thing about bird shit is it’s not smelly like dog, cat or human feces, but it’s still disgusting. The other annoying thing about the bird is that he makes a lot of noise. When he’s singing, it’s pretty but if I’m trying to watch TV and he’s noisy with chattering and screeching it gets annoying.

Drawbacks: many need constant attention, feather/poop mess, cages need cleaned all the time, some don’t like dogs or vice versa, can be loud, always want your food and drinks. Life span can be long.

Benefits-great companions, some are smart, people are fascinated, very affectionate, rather easy maintenance.

A family member has one.
Positives: Fun for little kids, fodder for FB posts. entertaining when it repeats phrases. interesting to watch.
Negatives: Allergens, feathers all over, messy cage, must control house temperature, must arrange for care when traveling, food and medical costs.

Absolutely none.

If I want to hear birds chirping, I open the door and listen through the screen. (happening right this second).

Bird poop is a negative.

Another negative is you have to be very careful, if you let him out of the cage and people are not attentive with keeping the door (house door) shut. We lost a bird about a year ago when the bird was on a guest’s shoulder and the guest went outside without thinking. The bird flew away, it was cold October, and I’m sure the bird did not meet a good fate. It was very sad for my daughter and for me, too. So unless people are going to be very diligent, there may be a problem.

^^Constant vigilance is a must then. Lot of work there imo.

@mazingerz88 Unless you choose to clip the wings, then they can’t fly. It’s actually much safer for companion pets, as long as other predators aren’t in the house, like dogs, cats, etc… They even have bird harnesses for non-clipped birds, which is much safer but not foolproof.

I’ve lived at different times with a little parakeet and a big parrot.

The parakeet found us, landing on my bike while we were picnicking in the park. We took him home, and he was fun. You could call his name and he’d fly to you. I would put my open hand under the tap to make a bird shower and he would run around underneath chirping with joy. He escaped one day and I cried, imagining him in the cold after sunset. I knew nothing about pet birds before the parakeet and was surprised how personable he was.

They must be hand-raised to be that friendly. I bought another one who bit me if I tried to pick him up. I took him back to the store.

The parrot was about on par with a cat or dog for friendliness. We clipped his wings but left his cage open so he could climb down and walk freely around the house. He would get in my lap while I watched TV so I could scratch his neck. He talked and sang and laughed (it was my wife’s laugh he picked up).

They were super fun. They are messy. There were always feathers around the house and crumbs around the cage.

Good point, @Call_Me_Jay. The two that we had (the one that flew away and the present one) were both from a store, hand raised. I never really liked birds prior because I know they can bite and draw blood. My aunt has a parrot and I’m afraid of it. Looking at the big exotic birds in the pet store, I know if one wanted to, they could take off a finger with their beak. Even the little cockatiel we have now, who’s not that little, scares me when he has his beak near my face.

@jca2
The birds are resilient as a neighbor lost his parakeet and assumed that it would die during the winter months, yet a year later it was seen in a tree nearby in perfect health.
Once it found its freedom, it couldn’t be caught.

That’s amazing, @Inspired_2write. The cockatiel needs warm temperatures, and when it got lost, temperatures were nearing freezing at night. I live in an area of large expanses of open field. We did see the bird in a tree (actually neighbor kids saw it) and then it flew across the rural road to a tall tree. I was over there calling it, but it was so high up, and not coming down. I googled and they said often those birds know how to fly but they don’t know how to land. They can fly but not particularly well.

My daughter will keep the heater on in her room in the winter, because it needs warmth.

@Inspired_2write We had an ice storm that knocked out all electricity for a week, while I had birds, and within the house and with cages partially covered and nesting houses inside, they were absolutely fine. I was so worried about them.