In my backyard

The evening of the day I posted about activity at our birdbath, I returned home from work to find this:I don't think a bird would have been strong enough to topple it, so I'm suspecting it was some larger mammal who was thirsty.

Luckily, we had another birdbath, waiting in the wings:I haven't seen anyone use it yet, but hopefully they will soon!

Last night, we had another new animal sighting in our yard: woodchuck!I watched him for over 10 minutes, eating the weeds in our yard. Then, something must have scared him as he took off running behind our shed. Maybe he's the one who took out our birdbath?

Pleco

We only get a pleco sighting every few months. We have gone over a year without seeing her. But she was out last night!She blends in so well -- nature is amazing. She's grown quite a bit since the last time I saw her. According to the websites I found, she should be full-grown now.

After dinner relaxation

Thomas was relaxing on the couch, when pretty much everyone decided to fly over to be near him:Calypso and Steve (who don't like Thomas) obviously stayed on (Calypso) and in (Steve) their cages. It makes him happy to be so loved!

Adding another bird to your flock

I got this question from Brittany in the comments:

I have an African grey, a blue and gold macaw, and a lovebird. I'm headed to Iowa for school in a couple weeks and am taking in a double yellow headed amazon (hoping it is just fostering for the couple who just had a baby and aren't managing well) after I get there. Do you have any advice for adding another bird to your flock? My grey plucks feathers when my schedule changes so I'm a bit worried about him, but my other two seem to just go with the flow.

First, I saw a picture of Sunny (the double yellow headed amazon referenced above) when I went over to Brittany's site to link to her, and he is absolutely gorgeous! Also, time for a confession: I LOVE amazons! They have such amazing personalities. They are flamboyant and let you know exactly how they feel. Don't tell my parrots, but I am currently having an extra-flock relationship with an amazon at the rescue where I volunteer and he has rekindled my love of these amazing creatures (also with a severe macaw, though I have mentioned him on the blog before)!

Brittany, you are in for a fun adventure! I must also add that, more than any other species of parrot, amazons are surrendered to the rescue due to new babies. Brittany, I hope for your sake that it does turn out to be just a foster (if that's what you want), but given my experiences, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to not be temporary.

Of course, every bird is an individual, but I will be making some species generalizations that I have observed during my years at the rescue.

First, of course, is the issue of the new bird's health. Since Brittany is a vet student, I'm mentioning this more for anyone who stumbles upon this, but you want to make sure that the new bird is healthy and won't infect your flock with anything contagious. Doing a quarantine in your house is ideal, but not always possible. In any case, you want to get the new bird to an avian vet as soon as possible for a check-up and to make sure they are healthy.

Second, especially in cases with mixed-sized flocks, is to be very aware of the damage that birds can do to each other. Once again, Brittany is already aware of this due to her experience and having a small, medium, and large bird in her house already, so this is more for other people who may find this. I have known of many cases where a beak or toe has been ripped off by another bird, sometimes resulting in death. It is very important to closely supervise because it only takes a second for something to happen.

Now, on to the fun stuff! The biggest thing I've learned through integrating birds into my flock is to watch the bird's body language and don't try to push them too far, too fast.

Generally, this shouldn't be as big of a problem with an amazon as it is with a grey. I wish I'd had this blog when I introduced Rocky and the caiques to our house to have as a comparison with Stella's and Steve's introductions. From what I can recall, Rocky was strutting around like he owned the place less than a week after coming home, and the caiques also quickly adapted.

At the rescue, many times amazons are talking and singing and begging for attention within a day or two of arrival, whereas the greys tend to open up only to certain people, and it takes them longer to do so.

In addition to watching body language, try to make yourself as valuable to the new bird as you can. That's what we're doing with Steve right now. I keep his favorite foods (pistachios, cashews, peanut butter, peas, apples) out of his food dish. He gets them directly from me, so that he starts to associate me with good things. It's a way to build trust.

Parrots are very empathetic and pick up on our body language. I try my best to never be angry or worried in front of my parrots, but especially not in front of a new bird with whom I haven't yet had time to build trust.

One of the great things about amazons is how expressive they are! Over the years, I've interacted with over a hundred amazon parrots, and they just can't hide their feelings. This is great because you get instant feedback if you're pushing the bird beyond its comfort zone, and it makes it much less likely for you to get bit as long as you heed the warnings!

I'm not sure if anything I've written will be helpful, Brittany, since you have so much experience already. Just watch Sunny, follow his cues, and you'll do great. I can't wait to see your progress on your blog!

Oh, and that amazon smell, and the way they dance, and their ecstatic reaction when showered, I could go on and on...

Checklist

Usually I get home at least 30-60 minutes before Thomas does. I feed the parrots dinner, get them a bit of exercise, and get them through the initial pent-up energy they have after being in their cages all day.

Yesterday, Thomas got out of work early, so I was only home for about 10 minutes, leaving the parrots still extremely wired.

He could not believe Rocky's behavior. Thomas asked him if he had a checklist of naughtiness he had to work through.

I had just let Rocky out of his cage when Thomas came home. Rocky went immediately under the food cart and started eating the wood on the aquarium. Thomas distracted him, so Rocky ran over to the wall and started chewing wallpaper off. Thomas distracted him again, so Rocky ran into the back bedroom and climbed up the clothes dryer.

Thomas asked him, "What else do you have up your sleeve? Attacking my wife? Eating the tiles in the bathroom?" Then he made Rocky flap until he was panting, which made Rocky behave better.

I'm hoping Thomas didn't give him a good idea about the checklist which he will attempt to complete today!

Steve at three weeks

Yesterday was Steve's three week anniversary with us, so time for another update. For the first few weeks, I mixed his seed and pellets in the morning, allowing him to eat what he wanted. (He gets fresh vegetables at night, but I don't like leaving the produce in their cages all day while we're at work). However, he wasn't eating any of his pellets! Yes, I count how many he gets so I can keep an eye on things.

Yesterday, for the first time, I only gave him pellets in the morning. And he didn't starve -- he ate them. So I did the same thing today, and will likely continue only giving him pellets in the morning, like the rest of my parrots.

I feel it's especially important for him to start eating pellets as they have the nutrition that should help him heal. He gets Harrison's High Potency and a few Harrison's Power Treats. I'm planning on slowly starting to make him forage for them -- I'll update here on that.

In the evening, with a slight veggie beak:And showing me his nervousness, by chewing his nails:I took a video of this, too, to better show what it looks like:

He is so gentle when he takes food from me. Here is a video of him taking a pistachio from my hand:


One thing we've been doing lately is I'll put a small bit of peanut butter on my finger and offer him my hand. He gently licks the peanut butter off. I would certainly not do this with a parrot who had shown any inclination to bite! But Steve does not have an aggressive bone in his body. My goal with this is to get him acclimated to my hands, so he associates them with good things.

Last night, I thought this entry would have ended here, but there were some developments this morning. Steve was eating breakfast (pellets) and the cage door was open, in case he chose to come out. Thomas approached his cage a bit too quickly for Steve's liking, and Steve fell out onto the floor.

I had him step up and placed him on a perch near me. He ate a little peanut butter off of my finger, and we just hung out.
I needed to keep him close to me so that Max couldn't buzz him. He sat on my lap as I finished reading the paper. I then asked him if he wanted to step up on his cage (I thought he'd jump at the chance for safety!) but he chose to stay on me.

I then brought him into the bathroom with me, and he sat on the sink as I brushed my teeth. I left him in there, alone, for a minute. My plan was to go put the rest of the birds in their cages and see if Steve would want to perch on the shower curtain rod while I showered.

I never got that chance. Thomas walked into the bathroom, and Steve freaked out, flopping down to the ground and running over to me. Thomas observed, "he really doesn't like me!" Since I felt Steve had been through enough today, I postponed the shower attempt and instead placed him on his cage door. I expected that he would run into his cage, to the safety of his favorite perch, but he instead walked up to the play top part of his cage. He was just full of surprises this morning!

Steve, on his play top:I found out that Steve lived with a single woman before being surrendered to the rescue, so he doesn't have a lot of experiences with men. For some reason, he is much more afraid of Thomas than he is of me.

Thomas is going to have to work on this. If we want Steve to be successful in his next home, we need to get him to the point where he can cohabit with people of both genders!

Bird bath

It's been so hot outside that we've set up our bird bath again. I had taken it down since our backyard water source from our house is not working properly. Thomas thinks he just needs to replace a washer, but it's been a few years and he still hasn't fixed it. He promised he would soon, especially seeing how much the birds are enjoying the bird bath!

In any case, this means that I have to bring jugs of water outside every day to replace the dirty water, plus it's inconvenient to wash the bird bath (and it takes longer, exposing me to mosquitoes); however, the outside birds have been providing us with so much enjoyment, we're going to keep it up, and hopefully Thomas will quickly fix the washer and make this task easier!

Last night, a couple of black-capped chickadees were drinking:
This morning, shortly after I replaced the water, one of our fledgling robins flew up on the basin:And then jumped in the water and proceeded to bathe:
We've also seen American goldfinches, house sparrows, and mourning doves drinking from this source. Hopefully this will help them to cool off!

Nesting

No surprise here, but Rocky continues his nesting behaviors. Over the weekend, I found him on the table, covered in a towel:Then, chipping wood on top of the towel:
Shredding newspaper on the towel, while attacking the towel:
He then threw his towel on the floor to continue his nesting:
Later on, he climbed up Thomas's pants:And an unrelated picture of Calypso, eating a nut:
For whatever reason, I didn't take many pictures this weekend. I seem to go in spurts. Steve hasn't made any progress from last week. I'm hoping that by staying in his cage, his mutilation will continue to heal. Now to get to the point where he wants to come out of his cage and spend time with us!

Grey updates

When I got home yesterday, I found this at the bottom of Steve's cage:Evidence of toy playing! To the left, you can see the toy where he pulled out the paper. If he looks a little squished in there -- this is all his doing. He moves his toys closer to his perch.

In this picture, he is biting his nails, which is something that many greys do when they are nervous. Stella used to do this a lot, when we first got her, but now I haven't seen it in over a year. This is one of my major signals to back off, which I did right after I took this picture!
As for my greys, Max was happily eating Thomas's breakfast leftovers this morning when Stella had to fly over to investigate:
And then participate:
Later, Thomas opened the freezer to get some ice cubes for his water bottle. Stella loves it when the freezer is opened, and usually flies to the top of the freezer. However, this time she flew right in:
And then Max flew to the top to see what was going on:
These greys are just so nosy!

Scurrying and laughing

Last night, Rocky was throwing a fit in the living room. I decided to get it on tape, since I think it's pretty funny. However, once he sees the camera, he stops, so I went in the hallway. Max happened to be walking around, so she came scurrying towards me, then I was finally able to get Rocky to come into the hallway also. Unfortunately, I stopped filming a second too soon, as he said "Bye bye!" right as I hit stop. I always think it's funny when he tries to get me to go away by telling me goodbye!



I started filming again almost immediately in case he said "Bye bye" again, but he didn't. Instead, he came towards me. He generally walks right next to the wall, which causes problems for him when he's trying to show me how big and scary he is!

I think he backed off at the end as Thomas suddenly came up behind me, and Rocky knows better than to try an attack when Thomas is around.

After this, Thomas grabbed Rocky, who started laughing. He's doing so a little less uproariously in the video than he was before he saw the camera, but it was still funny.