Parrot Festival Streaming Package Brings Expert Care Talks to Owners Year-Round

Rocky, a macaw whose screaming had been misread as aggression, was headed for euthanasia before Lara Joseph figured out what he actually needed. Joseph, owner of The Animal Behavior Center, recognized the behavior as attention-seeking rooted in improper handling, adopted Rocky, and used applied behavior analysis to turn his life around. Her behavior session at the 2026 Parrot Festival carries that same diagnostic clarity, and it is now available to any owner through the National Parrot Rescue & Preservation Foundation's streaming package, no plane ticket to the January event required.

The most immediately actionable takeaway is deceptively simple: stop walking into a room every time a bird screams. The instinct is to check on the bird; the result is teaching it that screaming works. Joseph's framework gives owners both the substitution behavior to reinforce and the vocabulary to explain the adjustment to anyone else in the household.

Send this to the friend whose cockatoo has been pacing the same corner of its cage for weeks. The enrichment and behavior sessions are the most immediate investment they can make before scheduling another vet visit to rule out what might turn out to be an entirely behavioral problem.

On the same speaker roster, Dr. Greg Burkett's prosthetics session challenges every assumption about what avian medicine can repair. A board-certified avian veterinarian with 32 years of avian-only practice, Burkett is a pioneer in fabricating devices that return birds the ability to walk, eat, preen, and fly. His work on 3D-printed bird beaks has moved well past experimental territory, and the session covers what modern prosthetics can now accomplish for birds that previously would have had no options.

The full program moves from true entry-level content, "Parrots 101: Getting Started with Parrots," through clinical sessions with Dr. Jordan Gentry on what to actually expect at a vet visit, and Jan Marquardt and Nancy Marbach's "Parrot Toy University," which gives sanctuary volunteers a hands-on enrichment skill to take back to their flock rooms. Buddy Waskey and Ray Varella address free flight, Matt Schmit covers pest control, and Madeline Franco presents "12 Things I Can't Live Without," a session whose practical specificity tends to land with experienced keepers as much as newcomers.

For smaller rescues operating on limited budgets, the reasonably priced digital package provides access to continuing education that once required a plane ticket and a hotel room. Proceeds from streaming subscriptions go directly back to the Foundation's rescue placement and outreach work throughout the year, making the purchase function as both education and support for the birds still waiting for homes.