Generally I would place the cockatoo & macaws in the same boat.

A lot to handle for the first bird.

the grey is the most content bird in captivity, talk a blue streak lives 30-40 years

That happened to us with our Quaker parrot. In fact, within six months he decided he hated everyone, despite all the attention. (We know how to handle birds.) I know they go through a rough time at puberty, but wow. He became violent and drew blood on several occasions. He now has another home in an aviary.

Our Cockatiel did prefer me to anyone else, but he wasn't nasty to anyone. He was a hoot and everyone loved him; even the dog. They live 15-25 years. Ours was ten when he developed a lung infection out of seemingly nowhere, and barely made it home from the vet before passing away. It was a very sad time at our house.

I have heard what Bonny has heard about Cockatoos. I detect a preference in you to have a larger bird. I suggest go talk to Leesburg about the Grays.

Red 13413, there is an African Gray, Einstein, whose antics are posted on YouTube. Check this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS3a...em-subs_digest

Einstein was a great bird
 

I think I read somewhere that Einstein had died. He was a wonderful bird. A friend of ours had an African Grey that suddenly began plucking out all of his feathers because he was lonely. This guy worked from home and was devoted to his bird, but it wasn't enough, apparently, after the bird had been with him for several years. Maybe it was the onset of puberty, but he finally gave the bird to someone who had multiple parrots, and his feathers grew back in.

Noisy?? I once was visiting a house where the owner had a large parrot that screeched so loudly we couldn't visit. It also smelled....not sure if that's the usual case with these birds. Have to say I had a paraquit (sp) when I was small...that too was noisy and VERY messy. The floor all around the cage would have seed residue from it. My parents eventually gave the bird away....

Could you be thinking of Alex, the Gray who was studied by an animal psychologist? He lived to be 30. I get an email notification when a new Einstein video is posted, and I just got one this week about his "Easter Egg Roll" that was published on 3/26.

The owner of Fish & Friends in Muskegon, MI, bred our cockatiel. She had an African Gray in her store one day whose chest area was pretty devoid of feathers. He had been living at her house, and she brought him in to live at the store in hopes he would get more human interaction and stop pulling his feathers out.

I think if I do decide this is something I'd like to do, that I will go the African Grey route. I'm still concerned and am reading and doing A LOT of research. I'm lucky enough to be retired and can be home with the dogs and any bird I choose.
Do any of you travel with your birds? We have a motor home and travel fairly frequently...

We used to travel all the time with our cockatiel. We had two smaller cages. One was about a one-foot cube that could sit behind the driver's seat on the floor (dog taking up entire backseat). Once at the hotel, we would let him out to crawl all over his cage or hang out on my shoulder. this travel cage was in order to get from FL home to MI home & back. Each home had its own big cage.

The other cage was about 16 x 18 x 20 and would fit in the back of my husband's car. We used this cage when we traveled somewhere for a vacation and there was no cage on the other end.

We found the bird traveled best in the car when the cage was covered and he couldn't see all the movement around him. He would natter away and talk to us a lot. Another thing was that since they love heat, you could get away with leaving him in the car while stopping for lunch--IF it wasn't above 80. Can't do that with the dog, though. So most of the time we packed a lunch and stopped at a rest stop with picnic tables. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies, but hey... at our age, who cares!

Traveling with a parrot
 

For years, we had a large cage at each end of our travels. For the drive, we used a medium sized plastic airline carrier that we modified with a perch inside. For other trips where there was no cage at our destination, we carried a folding dog crate and a bag of perches and toys. The cat/dog carrier was ideal because the bird had air circulating, but he couldn't see the scenery rushing by. It was also easier to get him from the car to the house or hotel room. He regularly chatted to himself or would interact if he was asked how he was doing. So where are you going to keep a 5'X3' cage in a motor home? Or one of those free-standing perches? If you look at the Einstein videos, you can see her standing on her perch with the feeding/water cups. Our parrot loved his perch and only slept in his cage at night or when we went out.

I am so glad to see that Einstein is still very much alive! It was Alex who died, and I read "Alex and Me" a year ago.