Customer Rating: 
Summary: All parrot owners need to read this book
Comment: I almost didn't buy this book due to one unfavorable review already on Amazon. I was concerned that it would tell me I was wrong to own parrots. It does not do that; but it does provide a wealth of information that I've never read anywhere else. The author is a reporter, not an advocate for the end to pet bird ownership. She discusses the psychology of birds; the joys and challenges of ownership; the scramble of underfunded and understaffed parrot rescue organizations trying to cope with an avalanche of unwanted birds; what happens when pet birds are released into the wild; the horrifying conditions birds face in breeding facilities and efforts to protect the wild populations. This is not an easy book to read but it is vital. I now know how crucially important it is for those of us who already own or plan to buy parrots to understand what exactly we are helping to support.
This is what I came away from the book with: know what parrots require of you; rescue an unwanted bird if you can; support efforts to regulate the industry and refuse to shop at places which do not; help prevent the destruction of these animals in the wild.
If you own or love birds, you will never read a more important book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best parrot-related book ever.
Comment: Be forewarned. This is not a feel-good book for those people interested in the fun, exciting side of parrots.
Instead, it is a well-researched and presented book about all the ways that humans have interacted with and affected parrots over the years, both domestically and in the wild.
The author starts off with a chapter about parrot intelligence, followed by a chapter about parrot companions. From there, we travel to purgatory, then straight into hell. We are educated about the dark side of parrot breeding, and why there are so many parrot rescues and sanctuaries. The author goes to Mexico to follow the trail of parrot smuggling into the U.S. and barely manages to keep her composure, despite the horrors she witnesses. She spends a chapter on an undercover agent for U.S. Fish & Wildlife who has dedicated his life to stopping parrot smuggling. The chapter reads like an episode of Law and Order and is equally engrossing. She travels through South America with conservationist Charlie Munn and witnesses the glory of parrots in the wild. We learn about all the ways that human activity is driving parrots to extinction around the world. We even get to go along with her to meet Presley, one of the last remainng Spix's macaws in captivity, with all wild Spix's macaws already extinct. We learn about ecotourism and how it helps to save animals, such as parrots, in the wild.
This book should be required reading for anyone who lives with parrots, is contemplating getting a parrot, is interested in conservation, and, well, pretty much everyone. While parrots are the subject of the book, it could just as well be applied to animals in general. There are many stories in this book about reptile smuggling, another hot topic.
Ms. Tweti has written a well-researched and informative book which reads more like a crime novel than nonfiction book. Despite the horrors portrayed, the book is very commanding and difficult to put down. I cannot more strongly recommend this book.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I threw it away
Comment: The writing in this book was so bad I did something I've never done before. I threw the book in the trash. Recycling would have been too good of a fate. For example, the opposite of dysfunctional would be functional, not "nondysfunctional" as used by the author.
I may have kept reading the book if the message was compelling. However, the PETA bias was too much to stomach. Like another reviewer I do not deny that abuse, neglect, and overbreeding occur. The author should realize, however, that problems such as these cannot be solved by constant scolding of everyone who has ever kept birds as companions or bred birds.
The notion, supported by the author, that naturalized (i.e., non-native, invasive, escaped, etc.) parrots are not a threat to native plant and wildlife is just plain wrong. Any professional ecologist could explain why, but instead of discussing data the author just says the birds aren't harming anything.
This book doesn't deserve a longer review.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Strong research, interesting facts exposed
Comment: I have read this book with keen interest.
Tweti's research is both thorough and factual, and she has traveled to remote areas to uncover little known and discussed facts about the parrot trade (and other species on her way).
I disagree with a comment below stating that this book is written with an animal activist point of view. Whilst the author has strong opinions, her approach allows the reader to discover a side of the pet trade that is not widely known by the average parrot owner. After reading the book, I understand how unsettling this piece could prove for the parrot trade in the US and abroad. However, I also believe the parrot breeders who truly care about their trade will benefit from the facts exposed in Tweti's work. Every parrot deserves for this information to be shared between all animal lovers.
As a parrot owner with little previous knowledge of the actual trade, it has opened my eyes and made me want to take a stand to further protect parrots in the wild, and parrots used for breeding programs. I recommend this book to a wide range of parrot lovers, whether like me you are a proud parrot owner (you will feel even more connected to how your bird feels in your home), to those considering bringing a parrot in their lives (it will expose truths to make you do an educated choice on where your companion comes from, and hopefully you will support the many rescue programs the author exposes), and to the parrot industry types who are clearly divided between those who genuinely care for their birds and those who care primarily for their wallet.
My bird and I both benefited from the information in this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Appalling
Comment: Would you condone the enslaving of 2-3 year old humans? If you wouldn't, then you shouldn't condone the enslaving of birds with that level of intellegence. I'm convinced, and you will be too, unless you are a breeder with a vested interest in the business of selling birds.
There were entertaining chapters about people who care for their birds and try to give the birds a comfortable and rich life. But it's still slavery. The house slaves in the old South were more comfortable than those that worked in the fields, but they were still slaves, confined to their owner's whims. I was especially struck by the similarity of the accounts of the birds' capture and transport to stories I have read about human trafficking in the nineteenth century. Many humans died then, and many parrots die now.
The condition of the breeding pens and what the birds endure in them especially turned my stomach.
If the buying and selling of exotic birds were banned by federal law in the United States, it wouldn't end the world trade, but it would reduce the demand significantly. (After all, there is still human slavery in the world.) Read the book and consider mailing a letter to your member of Congress.
And yet the author owns a parrot.
You've all heard stories about human children being passed from foster home to foster home, and how screwed up they become. The same is true of parrots as they are passed from owner to owner as "their" human discovers how difficult being around a destructive "terrible two year old" (in intelligence) can be.
Only the chapters on the wild flocks, made up of birds released by accident in the United States, gave me hope. There are too many birds to return to the tropics. Release your birds to the wild. Give them a chance to survive on their own. Some will die, that is true, but some will survive to form flocks and enrich our skies, cities, and forests (what's left of them).
End the slavery. Release your birds.
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