Keeping Up with Our Friends

[MiaCarter]

delray - My grandmother lived in Peabody. I know it well!

Oh, you'll have tons of fun at the witch museum! We went there lots of times on field trips and so forth.

_________

So, here's a funny one. Totally random.
I was perusing Craigslist and found a listing for a Macaw.

Here's what the seller says:
I will not re-home my bird to anyone loonier than my bird. One man actually put her foot in his mouth and "sucked" on it. Honestly what is going on. All we are trying to do is re-home our bird!!!!

That gave me a chuckle! Who sucks on a random bird's foot?
Resisting the urge to call! You don't need a macaw, Mia! But waaaaant! LOL

[delray]

I'm physced miacarter



That's an interesting one.... Lol. Don't see that offer that often....
Whatcha gonna do?! ;) give in, or torture yourself and resist?! ;)

[MiaCarter]

delray -- I can't wait to hear all about your trip! You're going to love it!

Nah, I gotta resist on the macaw. I have 2 budgies that need taming, plus Hunter who needs work.
Plus I need to finish my bird room!
I took it apart and I'm finding it tough to settle on a design for the aviary section. I want to build a large cage/mini-aviary on one entire wall. But I need to come up with a good design that would allow me to divide it into sections if needed. This would be for fostering work. So I could divide the aviary with relative ease to accommodate additional birds.
But I still haven't found a good design.

Once that's sorted, I just need to finish painting, then mount all the cages on the walls. It'll be fabulous once finished!

I boxed up the entire room, pulled down the small shelves I had. All the cages are on desks and fold-out tables at the moment. So a bit of a mess! And adding a large cage would be tough with all the boxes and temporary tables and so forth.
Definitely best to wait until it's done before I add to it!

[delray]

[Sheather]

Hey everyone, great thread idea, just a general chit chat thread!

Currently I am listening to some music/drawing in the bedroom at my desk, with Kari the canary flying laps above my head and singing out the window at the wild birds and people passing far down on the street below. Just vacuumed the bird room, where the other 22 feathered ones dwell, and had some lunch, and now the parakeets are all running around the floor playing tag and hanging upside-down from swings and branches and ceiling fan alike, while the finches industrially build their nests which are staggered amidst the foliage along every wall, and argue over the property lines. The societies are all paired or in trios, while one pair of silverbills has taken one. Then we have Dusty, the odd-one-out silverbill hen, and Zach and Cody the zebras all staying in their own single-bunk domiciles, no company allowed, but socializing whenever outside them, especially being fond of naps high upon the tallest ladder. Steve the canary is practicing his very first actual singing, a squeaky solo directed at his reflection. Max the male Java sparrow is working hard to find just the right pieces of straw and newspaper to bring up to his mate sitting on eggs in the nest, while the spice finch pair cuddle so closely together in the high branches they begin to resemble one bird with two heads. We're all out of lettuce and broccoli, I need to run out for more vegetables tonight or we'll have a mutiny on our hands! At least we still have apples.

This is Kari's pad, in the bedroom.



She's quite happy in here, it seems. She's obviously not one for the social life. If she were, I think she'd try to get back into the bird room, it's only a 10 foot flight down the hallway. She instead sings and flies around the bedroom apparently quite contentedly. She was moved in here initially just so I could cover her cage at night and try and get her out of her egg-laying cycle (with long nights) - which worked - but she seems so happy in here now I've decided to keep her in here at least for now. Her singing, while weird for a hen, is beautiful to hear.



Meanwhile, the other birds live in a paradise of toys and enrichment - and still find more fun playing with the curtain strings than anything.





Zach and Cody.



Wendy, proud male Silverbill.



Spice puffy-dance in the autumn treetops.















Love dem birds. lovezebs MiaCarter delray Sally Ginene finchmix22 KarenB

[MiaCarter]

Sheather -- Aw, love the pics!

I can't believe your Spice finch does the puffy dance!
I never, ever saw a puffy dance or even a peep out of my spice finches. I suspect they were females. Never knew for sure.
I was shocked how quiet they were!

Seems like little Kari has a nice gig there!
Isn't she supposed to be hanging out with her bud Steve with the crazy hair? Is it more unrequited love for sweet little Steve?

I had the finches out for free-fly and sir Hunter the cockatiel took it upon himself to let himself out of the cage via the sliding food ports! (which I don't use) I didn't know he knew how to do that!

Scared me to death when I saw his cage empty, as my mind immediately went to thoughts of neck-snapping and mauling, and I was terrified that he could have hurt one of the finches. (Logic clearly didn't prevail in that moment of terror, as I was sitting at the bar, which is about 10 feet from the bird room doors. I'd have heard any scuffle!)

I went inside and saw the funniest little scene.
Hunter was sitting on top of the cage next to his. (His favorite hang-out spot so far. He seems to have an affinity for the society and zebra who live in there. It's the closest finch cage to him. He sits on top of the cage and watches them. I'd thought maybe a giant bird on top their cage would be upsetting, but they're nonplussed and seem equally curious about him!)

Anyways, he was on top of that cage with five zebras perched around him in a circle. All watching him with rapt attention! Hunter was more interested in the orange leaves that are woven through the bars of the cage.
But it was hilarious to see those zebras perched around him.
They're so curious and bold! It was just so....so zebra-ish!

I wish I'd gotten a photo. Of course, they all moved on by the time I got back with the iPhone!

It only took a minute to coax him back into his cage. That's an improvement from the 10-minutes it took me a the past couple days! He would land on my arm consistently, but would flutter off once he realized he was headed home! He was acting like a little kid. A clear 'No! I don't wanna go home yet!"
But that's actually wonderful, as he's finally engaging and coming out of the cage. I left his cage door open for over a week before he ventured out!
And I thought the finches were tough cookies when it came to taming!

[Sheather]

MiaCarter Steve and Kari have a bit of a bipolar relationship. Some weeks it would be all hugs and kisses, others constant bickering. Neither seems to miss the other at all right now. When Steve has matured and becomes as interested in reproduction as Kari obviously is, I'll see how they do together again.

So funny about Hunter! Seems like how my budgies were treated for the first few weeks. Now they're all part of the family.

[MiaCarter]

Sheather -- Sounds like a normal couple to me! Lovey one minute, pissy the next! LOL

I'd let her live in the bedroom too if she's happier there. As long as they're happy and healthy, that's all the matters! That's what I always say. Even if it seems odd to me!
For instance, I have a couple of really odd cats who live in my master bathroom. The door's open. Nobody's locking them in there. They're free to hang out in the bedroom or any other area of the house. I tried to lock them out one day and they sat at the closed door and yowled. Yet they haven't left the bathroom in months. Literally. They have a litter box and they take their meals in there. So I say, "Okay, do what you will. You want to live in the bathroom, go for it!" LOL (And before it was the bathroom, it was the kitchen island.)

Back to birds....I always laugh at the fact that my birds never do what I think they should do in terms of relationships!

I just moved my bonded silverbill Silva and zebra hen Juliette into a cage with Pippin and Piper, my super-bonded, antisocial zebra siblings. They'd been hanging out outside the cage and I wanted to see how they did as roommates.

In very short order, Piper and Juliette decided they were an "item", both ditching their former partners.

Now Pippin and Silva are lonely!
It made me so upset! I was thinking, "How could you abandon your mates! You've been together for so long! You LOVE each other."
.....and then I realized I'm WAAAY too involved in my birds' love lives! LOL

[Sheather]

MiaCarter My birds' personal lives are always fascinating, haha. As far as societies, Albert, Aurora, and Lyra consititute a trio and always nest together. As far as I can tell, though, Albert and Aurora are bonded, and Aurora and Lyra are bonded (they're sisters), but Albert (nor any male, in fact) has ever mounted or groomed Lyra at all and Albert almost seems to allow her around only because she makes Aurora happy and is, incidentally, a fantastic auntie when there are babies around. But overall, she spends almost all of her time willingly alone when not in the nest. If another bird - except for Aurora - comes up to snuggle, she flies off and goes to rest by herself in some tangle of foliage out of the way. Ever since I got her she has been this way, she seems very introverted, timid, and quite unusual for her species.

Flurry and Errol, societies, are also a couple, and have been one pretty loyally for a year now. Errol of course is not sexually faithful in the least, but he only ever settles down or snuggles with Flurry - finches are not sexually monogamous but do seem to form exclusive emotional bonds.

For a long time Flurry and Errol's son and daughter, Apollo and Lizzie, were a pair, until lately. Once Cirrus and Sylvan came along from this summer's big collective "who-knows-the-parents' clutch, they've swapped. Apollo and Cirrus have become inseparable, while so have Lizzie and Sylvan. This is good, as I think that Sylvan is entirely unrelated to Lizzie (pretty sure, based on markings, he's Aurora and probably Albert's son). Cirrus is probably somewhat related to Apollo but I'm unsure how closely. Her fawn coloring probably comes from Flurry, so she may be his half-sister - but for sure her crest means Albert was dad, not Errol. But whatever, as long as they are happy I guess.

[DanteD716]

I just looked myself and saw that Dante is at "preening" and I think that is next after you reach "molting,".

I miss my 5 gold stars that said proven

[Ginene]

Today was like an early Christmas for my flock. Thought I'd share a pic of all the goodies I purchased from glamgouldians.com. The site is owned and run by Terri. She has awesome stuff, prices and shipping If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely stop in and take a look.

[Ginene]

Me too, DanteD716 ;)

[DanteD716]

delray have fun in Boston! I have been there several times while visiting family I'm Salem. I love the aquarium and the whale watching!

[delray]

Aunt ginene that's awesome. Wish the birds a happy holiday!! ;)

@danted716 thanks!! It's going to be so fun.

[delray]

Sheather awesome bird room and bird adventures as usual. They are livin large bro!!!! Lol good job.