But when placed in the middle of his wooden perch for the final time, with the two flag-furbished bowls to his left and right, Richie decided to finish with a bang.
He started by side-stepping twice to his right, immediately favouring the Australian bowl.
Up to his usual antics - performing for the camera and those watching - the bird faked left towards New Zealand, turned his head to the side, looked in all directions, ducked twice, and finally ate from the bowl.
The Wallabies bowl.
He went back to the Australians two more times, as if giving us the bird, and rubbed it in further with some kind of celebratory dance.
Richie the Macaw from the Bird Barn Pet Store in Henderson, Auckland - unpredictable right to the very end.
An unapologetic genius or a confused clairvoyant? Tomorrow will tell. Some might say he simply confused the two flags. Others will call for his head.
Bird's-eye view
Richie the Macaw's 2015 Rugby World Cup final pick:
Final: New Zealand v Australia
Twickenham, 5am on Sunday morning (NZ time)
Result: Richie picked Australia to beat New Zealand.
Behaviour: After moving to his right straight away, towards the Australian bowl, Richie stops still. He looks around and briefly steps left, as though returning to the middle, but only separates his legs. He turns his head to the side, looks left again and then quickly right, bobs down - once, twice - and on the third movement advances to the Wallabies' bowl and eats. He then picks from the Australian bowl another two times and poses for photos - puffs out his feathers, bobs, twists and turns his head, and spreads and flaps his wings.
Meaning: The Wallabies start strong and quickly gain momentum. A short period of even rugby then follows - with the All Blacks desperately attempting to recover from a slow start - but Australia comfortably run away with it in the end. The 2015 Rugby World Cup eventually secured with three match-winning plays by the men in gold.
