Lavender Waxbills Throwing Rocks???
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:43 am
I've done some browsing on the internet and I haven't really seen anything that explains this behavior and thought someone here might have some insight.
I put terracotta saucers on the bottom of the aviary and flights with small stones and seed so that the birds can do a bit of foraging while maintaining their claws and beaks. Yesterday morning, I cleaned out the saucers and added clean stone that happened to be smaller. I figured it would be easier for the birds to push these smaller stones around.
Almost immediately, my male lavender waxbill hopped into the saucer and started picking up stones, putting them down, then picking up another. After doing this for a minute or two, he picked one up and started flying around like a jet fighter. He would return to the saucer, put it back in, pick up another, and repeat. After maybe ten minutes of this, he started flinging them around on the floor, picking them up, and throwing them some more. Finally, he started carrying them to the top of the aviary. He may be trying to use them as nesting material because at that point, he started trying to place them down on the artificial plants and, of course, they would just fall to the floor.
As I typed this, I heard three small stones *ping* off the floor.
I put terracotta saucers on the bottom of the aviary and flights with small stones and seed so that the birds can do a bit of foraging while maintaining their claws and beaks. Yesterday morning, I cleaned out the saucers and added clean stone that happened to be smaller. I figured it would be easier for the birds to push these smaller stones around.
Almost immediately, my male lavender waxbill hopped into the saucer and started picking up stones, putting them down, then picking up another. After doing this for a minute or two, he picked one up and started flying around like a jet fighter. He would return to the saucer, put it back in, pick up another, and repeat. After maybe ten minutes of this, he started flinging them around on the floor, picking them up, and throwing them some more. Finally, he started carrying them to the top of the aviary. He may be trying to use them as nesting material because at that point, he started trying to place them down on the artificial plants and, of course, they would just fall to the floor.
As I typed this, I heard three small stones *ping* off the floor.
Maybe he is trying to impress a female. My canaries will pick stuff up off the bottom of the cage and fly to the top of the cage and sometimes it will fall, Sometime they just drop it. Maybe go back to the larger stones. 
