African Greys are just about my favorite birds. More independent, less demanding and less noisy than the cockatoo, not as much destructive either. Although they do like to chew especially on wood - so make sure you "bird proof" your African Grey's environment and most definitely remove any valuable furnishings / decor items from your bird's reach, and offer lots of alternatives (like toys and stuff) to occupy your bird. From my experience, though, the African Greys get over the furniture chewing phase after a while. My 8-year old African Grey Newton shows no interest in chewing -- but was pretty bad when he was one / two years old. Now for that stage we have Happy, who is just about eating HOLES through our sunroom door! Anyhow, African Greys are amongst the best talkers. I enjoy the conversations of my African Greys every morning when I wake up. They are "colony birds" - so I hate to see them alone all day, locked up in a cage. These parrots are far too intelligent to thrive in such a confined / limiting environment, and will develop behavioral problems / neuroses as a result. African Greys are great for either multi-bird households, OR in a household where there is nearly always somebody at home, to provide the African Grey with the opportunity to be "part of the flock". From my experience, they are non-aggressive even to smaller species.
List of members :
Congo African Greys (Erithacus)
Timneh African Greys (Timneh)