Friday, April 25, 2008

The caiques and Max

Beeps has been rather aggressive against technology lately; even more than usual. This means I haven't been able to take as many pictures of him, as I only have a short window and then he tries to jump the camera. I don't want to get in the way! I'm probably jinxing myself, but it's been several months since I've gotten a bite, and I want to keep it that way!

Last night, Beeps was playing with toys on the side of his cage, and I wanted to get a picture. His toys are so colorful, and he is so photogenic, that I thought it would look nice. He got wind of the camera, and turned to look at me. This was snapped about 3 seconds before his eyes started flashing, which was followed by head jerking. Had I not put the camera away, I would have had a little visitor beeping and flying towards me.
I'm sure I've mentioned before that Max and Calypso get along fairly well. The romantic in me imagines this is because he saved her life a few years back. What other explanation could there be that he gets along better with a bird from a different continent than one of his own species?

Here is Max on Calypso's cage. She spends much of her evenings here, only returning to her own cage occasionally if she wants to eat a pellet. She goes inside his cage and play with his toys (even when she has the identical toy in her cage). She drinks his water and eats his seeds. But she won't eat his pellets. I find this fascinating since his pellets are in a bowl and easily obtainable, while hers are wrapped in paper and hidden around her cage.

And Calypso doesn't seem to mind at all! If one of the other birds accidentally lands on his cage, he immediately chases them off. But Max is welcome. He'll occasionally wander over to her cage to play with her toys or eat her seeds. I find it amusing when Max is on his cage and Calypso is on hers. However, there is no physical interaction -- they keep a safe distance away from each other.

I love these finger traps that Max has in her foot. They are quite inexpensive, and every single one of my parrots loves them. Of course, what Rocky, Max, and the caiques demolish in a minute takes Daphne months! Calypso dropped his finger trap right before I took this picture, but for about 30 seconds, all 5 parrots were playing with the same toy.

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