Interview With Mattie Sue Athan
© Anne Watkins
World renowned avian behavior consultant, speaker and author Mattie Sue Athan recently took time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions for Companion Birds.
CB: How did you realize your ability to modify bird behavior?
MSA: I didn't. There was a breeder/store owner named Gale Whittington who recognized that his birds were better behaved when I was there or if I had been there recently and who encouraged me to try to find out why. I was writing a book that included two talking bird characters, and I decided to try to find out all I could about talking birds. I guess I got lost in the research. That book was never finished, but I'm now working on my sixth book on bird behavior -- on Second-hand Parrots, co-authored with Dianalee Deter-Townsend.
CB: What's your favorite bird behavioral tip and why?
MSA: If you see a behavior you don't like, replace it by stimulating and reinforcing a new one. It's really the only thing you need to know. Everything else is just technique, but loving techniques are the art of the craft.
CB: What's your best advice for first-time bird keepers in regard to choosing a parrot?
MSA: Avoid expectations. Let love and adventure guide the relationship.
CB: What is the most important thing you'd like folks who share their lives with companion birds to take to heart?
MSA: Hang in there, don't ever give up. Especially if the bird flies away; stay in the field until the bird is found. It's easy. I've done it time and time again in good weather and bad.
CB: What sort of birds share your life today?
MSA: Portia and Penelope and Saucey and Lolita (Amazons), Scarlet (macaw), Kenya-Sue (Jardine's), and Tza-Tza (Quaker).
Book Reviews
Mattie Sue Athan is the author of five books on parrot behavior and is currently completing another project with co-author Dianalee Deter-Townsend. These beautifully illustrated books are required reading for any bird enthusiast. Each volume provides insight into parrot behavior and offers general care tips and grooming information, feeding and caging notes, and personal stories that illustrate the often complex relationships between birds and humans. I'd like to heartily recommend two of Ms. Athan's books in this month's column.
Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot, first issued in 1993, was reissued in 1999 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. and is one of the best selling books on parrot behavior in the world. The book includes chapters on parrot socialization, bird behavioral development, what to expect from your parrot, how the companion parrot fits into the human world, and true-life bird stories drawn from Ms. Athan's experiences. A glossary of terms in the back of the book is helpful in understanding 'parrot' terms used in the text.
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