I have 3 rescued parrots and 7 rescued finches (in addition to our dogs and cats. lol). All rescued from abusive homes. The parrots were covered in blood when I first saw them due to owner incompetence. I'm not joking when I say they were abused.

It's taken a huge amount of work, but they are all recovering nicely...even begging for petting and scratches

I'm meeting tomorrow with a local wildlife rehab that has 13 large parrots of various kinds that they cannot rehome due to their behavioral issues. Whether I can volunteer to help, or talk my wife into even more work...remains to be seen. lol.

I'm also writing a book on parrot/bird ownership and enrichment (physical, emotional, intellectual stimulation)...will have a website up soon.

Short version...pros...birds can be as intelligent as some children and/or dogs. Mine make me smile almost daily. Cons...they are a HUGE amount of work, especially trying to build trust and do training, not to mention daily cleanup of the mess they make. My birds take at least 3 hours of my time each day between feeding, training and socializing. And parrots in particular can be incredibly LOUD. I can hear my parrots from my neighbor's house. Luckily my neighbors are very interested and tolerant of how I rehab my animals. lol

Birds take an incredible amount of work if you wish to do it right. They need training and socialization just like dogs do, but they are (usually) much slower to trust and respond.

They make wonderful pets...if the owner is prepared properly

One more thing...having my birds (both the number of them and their issues), makes it impossible for me to travel or vacation for more than a day or two at most. Finding an animal sitter that you can trust, and that the birds can trust, is not always easy.