DAS Member Breeds Red-Legged Honeycreepers

This is a young Red Legged Honeycreeper.  The legs will get more red as he gets older.  These birds are not very common in aviculture and I am told they are even harder to breed.  My breeding pair had three young ones, laying only one egg at a time.  I ended up with two males and one female chick.

I have two dogs, and have had many birds over the past 26 years.  Here, we take pet-naming very seriously.  “Leo” means “bold, brave lion”.  Isn’t that a hoot… budgies have so much attitude!  So this grey spangle budgie became “Leo”…

When I was single, living in my own apartment, I had a cockatiel named “Happy”.  Two doors down, my neighbour had a Mynah bird named “Leo”.  Leo had a beautiful mural of tropical foliage painted on the wall behind his cage; his owner was an artist.  It’s a wonder the landlord didn’t kick us out for the noise!  I could hear Leo all the way down the hall saying, “Leeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooo!"  Of course, Happy was delighted with this, and screamed in reply… and screamed, and screamed, and screamed!  It wasn’t until after I decided to name my new budgie that I suddenly remembered Leo the Mynah bird.  I haven’t thought about him for 20 years – when I moved out of the apartment to get married.  Of course, Happy came with me and my canary, Simon.  The rest is bird-history!

I’d like to introduce Sierra to you.  She is an African Grey Timneh who is now 13 years old.  Like all Greys, she is quite the chatterbox.  As soon as she hears the water going into the kettle, she calls out, “Want tea?”, and when the kettle pops off, you hear her calling out, ”Teeeaaaa’s ready!”  If you happen to pass near her and she spots you munching on something yummy, she’ll try to wear you down with, “That good?  Mmmm.  Want some?  Wanna bite?  On your perch, in your bowl.”  When she sees the dog going into the kitchen, it’s “Wanna go out?  Good girl!”  And no one can go into our front hall without her wishing them “Bye-bye!”, but she never says it when people are just arriving.  When my cockatoo starts squawking, she scolds her with “You be loud!  Too loud!  Be quiet!” 

Don’t let anyone tell you that these birds are just repeating what they hear and don’t know what it means.  There are just too many times that their comments are totally appropriate for it to be accidental.  So watch your words around a Grey… they are watching, listening, and may end up repeating what you say.

This is Tristan who is a Meyers parrot.  These birds tend to be ‘small but mighty’.  They seldom back down from anything, and seem to think that they are one of the BIG birds.  Tristan will check out anything with no fear. 

This little fellow is very Canadian… if I want to scratch his head, there is a ritual that I must go through if I don’t want to be nipped.  I hold my finger above his head and say, “Eh?” whereupon he responds with the same, “Eh?” and then he will lower his head for a scratch.  He especially likes to have his eyes softly rubbed.

It’s surprising how different the character of every bird is, even those of the same species.  Never expect birds to react the same way or act identically, just because they look the same.  Just like children, every bird has a different personality.

Meet Leroy!  I have rare opportunities to travel to the Club meetings.  On one occasion, a member had an odd, tiny parrot, on her shoulder; I was intrigued!  The meeting began before I had a chance to ask all the questions racing through my mind about this small bundle of feathers… I overheard only that it was a “Parrotlet.” 

When Parrotlets were featured in an issue of Bird Talk magazine, I remembered the tiny parrot at the club meeting.  I read the article, and was even more intrigued.  When I decided to add a new baby to my home, I researched everything I could find about Parrotlets.  Leroy is my dream-come-true bird!  He’s funny and feisty and friendly.  He’s quite quiet and excitable!  He’s cute and comical and cuddly… and incessantly HUNGRY! 

Meet Casper.  He is a Whiteface Pearl Pied Cockatiel.  Even though I had no intentions of breeding my Cockatiels, Casper found himself a very beautiful Whiteface ‘Tiel Hen, in the aviary.  In the absence of nest boxes, this pair decided to lay and incubate their eggs on the aviary floor.  With such desire to raise a family, I gave in, retrieved the eggs and showed the pair that I was putting them in a nest box.  Mom and Dad soon took over incubating the eggs in the box.  They turned out to be perfect parents and raised six gorgeous Whiteface Cinnamon Pearl Pied youngsters.

Introducing Kaeli, a Goffin’s Cockatoo… otherwise known as the Houdinis of the bird world. Kaeli is the only one of my birds with a lock on the door of her cage.  There used to be a bar that crossed over the door, and a hook that held the bar down in place, but Kaeli managed to open the end that held the hook to the cage (I couldn’t do that even with pliers!) and throw it away, then lift the bar and open the cage. After the third time, we had to resort to a padlock. But Kaeli is also the bird that will sit quietly on the hand of a young child, and has been to my daughter’s classroom (she’s a teacher) to meet all the kids. They loved it almost as much as Kaeli did!

Kaeli is as active as any cockatoo, and gave me a real fright one day. When I glanced over at her cage, I noticed red streaks on the wall behind it, on the perches and on the food cups. Taking a closer look, I was terrified to see blood slowly dripping from one of her wings!  The one thing we all fear when we’re alone is a broken blood feather, and that’s what had happened. My white bird was now red along her wing and I was alone in the house. I ran to the drawer in my end table where I always keep a pair of needle-nosed pliers, down to the birdroom to snatch up the 'Quick Stop' and upstairs to grab a towel. Opening her cage and whipping her out, I sat on a chair and put her on my lap on the towel. Any of my other birds would have fought, and would have needed to be wrapped in the towel, but Kaeli is much more trusting and accepting.  I was able to extend her wing and find the bleeding shaft, hold the wing securely with one hand while I tightened the pliers on the feather shaft, and with one swift yank I removed the bleeding shaft. I then sprinkled on the Quick Stop and applied pressure. It didn’t take long for the bleeding to stop, and a disaster was diverted. Through all of this, Kaeli sat quietly, allowing me to do what needed to be done. She was calm and unconcerned throughout, while my heart was beating twice as fast as normal and I was terrified that I’d lose her. Thank goodness this happened to the one bird in my flock who would accept it all without any argument. I think that if she was human, she would have been yawning through the whole thing!

Cockatoos are certainly a special kind of bird!       

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From left to right: Hubert, Webster, Quincy, and Elliott. These four beautiful Gouldian Finches belong to Lori Welbourn who says, “They are very quiet, yet active, with colour moving all about, smaller than a canary, and really cute”.  This photo appeared on the front cover of the DAS February Bulletin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *