I've trained everything from ibis to egrets. I've trained many different types of birds of prey. I've been involved in hunting with hawks and falcons for 26 years now. The difference between parrots and birds of prey is that parrots are a lot more intelligent. You can teach them more things and more quickly than birds of prey.
Birds of prey are rather basic in their thoughts.
To teach them to fly from A to B is relatively straightforward, but you can't teach them to do many of the things you can teach parrots to do. Q. I saw on your tape that you've done some research on Guatemalan native birds. I wanted to study parrots in the wild and see how they interact with each other, studying their social groups and communications. My philosophy is that much of the captive behavior that we see in parrots is driven by their instincts and that relates directly to the parrots' wild behavior. I was there for almost a week, out from dawn till dusk, just studying parrots and seeing how they interact in the wild.