I just saw an ad from an animal trainer in which a parrot is given a folded dollar bill in its beak. A small handkerchief is held in front of the bird then removed. This Bill has vanished! Again with the Handkerchief and the bill reappears.

Yup, the bird does all the work and executes the vanish and appearance. I'll bet it could be trained to switch the bill for a Fiver also.

Has any magician used a bird in this manner -- actually performing the effect?

It goes up his wing!

Hey -- no methods in open forum ;-)

Naw, he palmed it in his beak....

Attach a small magnet on both the hank and the bill. Train parrot to touch the hank with and without the bill. Train parrot to retrieve the bill. Use clicker training for this. I can teach this in less than 1 hour with my parrots.
A simpler alternative is to have a small pocket sewn in the middle of the hank. Parrot inserts the bill into the pocket for the vanish. For the appearance, parrot simply takes out the bill again. All you have to teach are 2 behaviors for this effect.

Thanks Lou. The parrot in question does hide the bill under its wing, but your suggestions have me thinking of new effects I can do with my wife's Service Dog. With the right kind of gimmicked scarf an object could change color, shape, vanish and reappear -- then I vanish the dog!

I was, of course, kidding. As in "It just goes up his sleeve..."

Didn't mean it to be an actual reveal.

I could see how you might get a parrot who has a natural tendency to preen under the wing trained to do this. But sticking it in the pocket does seem a bit easier a train to me. Anyone with real bird training experience want to weigh in on that?

Cool ideas on the dog. And he's already trained to ignore the audience when "working"

Going under the wing got me thinking REALLY bizarre ideas... like a jacket-pull for a bird attached to his harness....

I saw a magician that had trained his bird to pick the spectator's card out of the deck. It really fooled me the first time I saw it, then saw him showing the same trick to someone else, and he was doing a classic f**** on the bird!

Heh.

The Womacks actually have a "marked deck" solution with a msrk so small and subtle only the bird can see it

Amazing! Any one with Experience to Train that behavior to your Parrot? I own a Congo African Grey Parrot and Want to teach him that!

In general for bird training the Womack's DVDs are great.

Very cool. Is there a video of this?

Dana Daniels uses a parrot in his parlour show. He recently needed to change the parrot since the great Luigi (his first bird) left him for ever between two shows in the Magic Castle.

He uses his bird for different effects and comedy.

Oliver.

Oh dear. if you see him, express my sympathies. These fellows become like children. (Brains of about a 3 yr old, moods of a two year old. They get under your skin.)