FINCHforum

Occasionally, our cat tries to stalk our wild bird. Yesterday, my husband and I both witnessed Peep fly in a circle, walk around the floor of his cage, then twirl in place very quickly. Our cat was completely mesmerized by all this. When he decided to pounce, Peep flew to a perch and chittered at the cat. We swear that it looked like Peep was giving the cat the finger, if he had a finger.... Are we crazy?

P.S. The cat cannot actually reach Peep in his cage.

I don't think you're crazy. My tiel doesn't back down from my dogs for anything. The finches seem to have made up there minds about the dogs too.

Some birds get very stressed by the presence of cats, since cats instinctively want to hunt the birds, and the birds instinctively know the cat is an enemy. A friend keeps a cat in her bird room, and her birds are so used to the cat that they ignore it, and it never bothers the birds. My birds pretty much ignore my cats except for the one inside/outside cat, which wants to hunt them. They seem to know the difference between my cats as to which ones to be stressed by and which one (Maggie) is a definite danger to them.