Parakeets

A friend was offering a free parakeet. (Mr. Bird) and I asked my husband about it and he let me get him. We got him and fell in love. He would come and watch American Idol (season 2) with me. We'd open his cage and he'd dance around on the door, especially when Ruben was singing. If the show started and he wasn't in the room yet, he'd carry on in the other room until I came and got him. He loved his American Idol.

Steve decided that Mr. Bird was lonely when we traveled because he would pluck his feathers out. He decided to get him a friend. Which is how we got Lemon Drop Emerald Spot.

(Steve named him this for obvious reasons)

My dad built this cage for an old friend's parrot and later got it back and gave it to us. The birds were in heaven in this cage.

Mr. Bird passed away one morning. We didn't really know he was sick and we were very saddened by this loss. We had never really tamed Lemon Drop Emerald Spot down, so she wasn't as much fun. One weekend I went away on a business trip and came back to find a white bird in the cage with the yellow. Steve had picked it up to be a companion for Lemon Drop Emerald Spot. This one's name was Pinky Snowflake, because it looked like those little albino pinky mice. Well it turns out Lemon Drop was a male and Pinky is a female. They fell in love and decided to start a family.

Since this time, Pinky Snowflake has laid six eggs in the bluebird house that Steve put in the cage and four have hatched much to our surprise. We now have babies!!! These pictures are at about 1 week old.

As you know, we are getting the birds out every night and holding them and playing with them, so they will be used to people. They are taming down VERY nicely. The white one, was the biter in the beginning, and it doesn't bite any more. Friday night, Steve decided to get the birds out by himself in the kitchen. I was watching a movie on TV and didn't know he was doing this. He thought the kitchen would be a good safe place where he could control them by himself. In the family room, they tend to run under the furniture and things. Anyway, he blocked them in to a corner, where it's solid all along the bottom and began playing with them. The green and blue birds are still shy as they are the youngest and Steve looked back over at the birds and noticed that the green was missing. He started feeling along the base, and sure enough there is a tiny hole at the corner of the cabinet, up underneath that is not noticeable unless you actually feel for it. Bye bye Bird. He came into the family room to tell me. Ugh! I suggested putting one of the other birds in the room, to maybe call it back out. He put Movie Star's cage in there, but he's not a very noisy bird. We left the mud room door open where he could hear the other birds and hoped for the best. Went to bed. Next morning. No bird. The inside of the cabinets are pretty solid, so we are thinking about drilling a whole on the inside to see if we can see the bird. We aren't hearing anything from inside at all. We are trying to sell the house, so don't want to rip the cabinets apart. At the same time, we don't want dead parakeet smell in this heat either. Ugh. We are both fretting about all this. Yesterday, after we got home from church we starting pulling everything out of the two cabinets beside the corner. Elizabeth thought this was great fun! She was plenty entertained by all the Tupperware on the floor and started making her very delicious invisible meals... Steve notices that there is parakeet poop on the floor of the cabinet. Interesting. He starts crawling in the cabinet and finds a small hole WAY in the back. This is a corner cabinet, so it's very deep. No bird though. We start looking through all the cabinets, to make sure there isn't a green parakeet in a pot somewhere, but don't find it. Steve gets his round drill bit and drills a hole in the inside of one of the cabinets. Sticks things down there trying to "feel" the bird. Nothing. He drills one in another place. Nothing. He then gets the bright idea to leave the door open for light, and put the bird back in there on the floor. We checked on and off for hours and didn't see or hear anything. Finally, Steve heard something. He flew into the kitchen and there sits the green bird on one of E's Tupperware bowls. Hallelujah! No dead parakeet in our cabinets! Darn bird!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We also now have this bird named Movie Star because he was caught at our out door bird feeder. My husband is a member of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Project FeederWatch and had sent his picture in to the "rare bird spotted" section. They listed him on their site and we thought it funny so named him this. He's in a seperate cage from the others, but right next to them.

Thanks for your report of a Budgerigar at your feeder. Keeping track of
non-native species is an important aspect of ornithology, thus we like to
include these birds in a subcategory of our "rare bird" reviews. As you
may know, Budgerigar is a very common pet and escapes are relatively
frequent. A small population is even present in Florida. Formerly
numbering in the many thousands, this populations has dwindled in recent
years, possibly at least partially due to the monopoly another introduced
species (European Starling) has on nesting cavities. Your report has been
accepted by FeederWatch staff and will appear on our web page as one of
the rare birds seen during the 2004-2005 season.

Thanks again for all your reports and your participation in Project
FeederWatch!