I'd like to introduce the newest addition to our household --- Charlie!
Charlie is quite a personality. He is very docile and is very easy to handle, but is also playful and silly. We spent hours observing bird behavior before picking one we thought would gel with our household. Right from day one we were able to pick him up (without him doing the exorcist number and poking holes in our hands) and he was willing to get on our fingers... well mostly.
By day two, he was out of the cage and running around on the floor evading capture! We don't particularly like clipped wings on a bird, but there were no other options so Charlie is unable to fly at this time. Probably a good thing, he loves to play try and get me under the table! I can't imagine trying to get him off the curtains. His favorite perch when out of the cage immediately became the cross bars under our living room chairs.
Visualize this (I was laughing to hard to video tape): About a week after Charlie moved in, my six foot husband chasing a two ounce animal around the room before finally lifting one of the chairs he ran under, only to be confused as there was no bird. You guessed it, Charlie was perched on the cross bars staring at him, a smug look on his face. He may have been laughing too!
Before you become concerned about Charlie's safety and well being in our house, let me assure you, we are not first time bird owners and we spend considerable amount of time training and working with a new bird (approximately five hours a day are spent training and handling Charlie, the balance of the day is spent interacting and just being with him). His first excursion out of the cage was in a controlled environment where we could keep him safe. We have also been educated (by our vet) on how to pick up a bird and prevent injury and have spent hours of research on birds and behaviors, handling and well being. Charlie will be fed a balanced diet, monitored when he is loose, and have regular vet visits. I advise anyone considering a bird of any type to do their homework and get an education on our feathered friends. They require a lot of attention and can be a lot of work, but if you like birds, it is worth the effort.
Like anything worthwhile, time and patience is necessary. As well as a lot of clean up!
As the days passed and he got used to his new home, his personality began to fully emerge...
He is curious. He is very playful. He loves to do gymnastics (what bird likes to do summersaults?) and hang upside down. He is goofy and has a sense of humor. He has taken to grooming our hair. He likes to tease. He is a bit clumsy.
In his defense, he is just a baby. Less than six month's old.
How can we tell?
First, the stripes on his forehead reach all the way down to his nose (seer). As he grows older, they will recede, like a guy's hairline. Also, his band color, placed around his ankle by the breeder, indicates he was born this year. It's on his right leg, which also tells us he is a male. If the band was on the left leg it would indicate the bird was a female. Another indicator of the bird's gender is the seer (or nose). Blue typically is a male, brown or tan is typically a female. Note: The color sometimes can change during their first year of life, so don't rely solely on this for gender identification.
So no, I wasn't checking his little birdy parts to try and figure out if he was a boy.
Not that it really mattered to us. We were looking at personality traits. Was the bird curious and playing with the toys? Was the bird clean and actively preening? Did the bird display aggressiveness or seem possessive? Did the bird appear to be in good health and were the other birds in the enclosure in good health?
We wanted to bring home an individual who would be happy in our household.
I think we succeeded!
As the days passed and we introduced new things to him, Charlie became more comfortable with his new environment and his new family of ugly featherless birds. We in turn have enjoyed chasing him around, talking to him, taking him for walks in his backpack, cleaning up bird seed (It's EVERYWHERE), and cuddling.
Now a fully integrated member of our family (He has gone camping and gone to work with my husband), Charlie is starting to develop new skills. He will give a claw and shake hands, play peek-a-boo and knows his name. If you call, he is starting to respond. If you want him to come, he will come half way, then chatter and run off...
Maybe we are the ones being trained. Hmmm.
Perhaps we didn't actually pick him, he may have picked us!
Gotta go now, Charlie calls!
