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I'd say a bird could be trouble, but it's because I've had bad experiences with birds. This is a long story, please forgive me. My family addopted an African Grey parrot, and it became attatched to our elderly dog. Greys are incredibly smart - the thing learned how to call the dog by name, would even play games with him. The dog was old though, and died. The parrot went insane, and attempted to chew it's own leg off in grief. We got it medicated and had a colar put on it, and it seemed OK, if not perma-stoned. My dad brought home another dog from the pound, which looked like the old dog (stupid), and this made the parrot even more crazy - it would scream the old dog's name at the new dog and throw stuff at him and act very violent whenever the dog was around (agressive noises, beating wings, trying to bite him). Finally he found a way to start chewing on his leg again, so we took him to the vet. Vet held him and promised round the clock care. My mother and I left, the staff went to lunch, and Peepers chewed off his leg, and died. My family has never had another bird - as sweetpea said, they really need a lot of intellectual stimulaton and are pretty sensitive. We had no idea the bird had bonded so deeply to the dog, we weren't even aware it was possible, but it happened, and it made everyone in my family miserable.
I'll stop my terrified rant about birds. I apologize.
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