My previous contact with Jackie Bird was limited to her biting my hand. And trust me—when she bites with that razor-sharp beak, it hurts. After the last time we were here, I vowed never to go near her again.

But this week she's started to feel more comfortable with me—sleeping when I'm in the room and eating when I'm sitting near her. So I felt relatively safe in approaching her a little bit. We've been talking, and yesterday she started giving me kisses. Her kisses don't actually involve lip-to-beak contact; instead, she just makes a kissing sound in her throat.

Today as we were talking, she bent her head down so I could scratch her neck. Then she raised one of her claws and I offered my arm. She climbed on, and Frank snapped a few pics of us while I scratched her neck and petted her. It's still a tenuous relationship at best, but we're working on it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 6:41 PM.