Liz Wilson, a certified
veterinary technician and certified parrot behavior consultant, has been
living and working with parrots for thirty-five years, with twenty years
of experience specializing in avian and exotic animal nursing. Her
current feathered companion is a 50+ year-old female blue and gold macaw
named Sam, who has shared Liz's life for 35 years.
With prior training in
elementary education and psychology, Liz started working with behavior
in companion parrots twenty years ago. She has gained recognition
internationally as a parrot behavior consultant thanks to her lectures,
seminars, freelance writing and consultations with parrot owners. An
experienced and entertaining speaker, she has done extensive lecturing
with avian veterinary conferences, avicultural conferences, companion
parrot conferences, and bird clubs both here and in Europe.
She has written extensively for
BIRD TALK Magazine and BIRDS USA (both available at
http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-magazines/bird-talk/,
as well as the
AMAZONA QUARTERLY,
the ORIGINAL FLYING MACHINE, the PET BIRD REPORT, and PARROTS MAGAZINE.
She has been doing the “Parrot Psychology” column in BIRD TALK since
2001. In addition, her articles have been published in Japan, Germany,
the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, China, Sweden and Russia.
In addition to numerous
veterinary articles published in the Journal of the American Veterinary
Medical Association [JAVMA], The Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery
[JAMS], and the Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, she has now written or
co-authored eight veterinary textbook chapters, including two for Dr.
Greg Harrison’s CLINICAL AVIAN MEDICINE (SPIX Publishing), and three for
the MANUAL OF PARROT BEHAVIOR edited by Dr. Andrew Luescher (Blackwell
Publishing). In addition, she has two books of article reprints, the
HANDBOOK OF AVIAN ARTICLES,
Vol. I & II. Both books can be ordered through this website.
Due to her devotion to helping
parrots through helping colleagues (and herself) learn more about parrot
behavior and working with parrot owners, she founded and chairs the
Parrot Division of an extraordinary organization, the
International Association of
Animal Behavior Consultants.
She also serves as the IAABC Treasurer, as well as holding a position on
the Board of Directors.
She is also dedicated to parrot
welfare, education and preventing parrots from needing new homes. In
this capacity, she is honored to be the Education Vice President of the
Phoenix Landing Foundation,
Despite no longer working
directly with veterinarians, she continues her membership of the
Association of Avian
Veterinarians,
of which she has been a member since (she thinks) 1984. She is also a
member of the
Parrot Education and Adoption
Center,
the
Veterinary Technician Animal
Behavior Society.
As a devotee of Amazon parrots (despite not living with one), she is
proud to be the Pennsylvania state representative of
The Amazona Society.
In addition to doing in-home
behavior consultations in the Philadelphia region and in areas where she
travels and lectures, Liz does phone consultations with parrot owners
all over the world. Until recently, when writing, lecturing and
consultations started taking too much of her time, she was an adjunct
faculty member in the veterinary technician department at Harcum College
in Bryn Mawr, PA. She also worked extensively with wildlife
rehabilitation for seven years.
