Connections and Conservation

If you have a chance to listen to Mr. Daniel Sigmon speak, you should take advantage of it. Jack Pine from HiRedBird ans Robin Sullivan from The Leather Elves are also worth listening to, and luckily you can do that fairly often. Jack has his own YouTube channel where he addresses a variety of topics about exotic animals kept as companions or in zoos. Robin has a page of Facebook and every Friday night she hosts a live event that you can watch and send messages through chat. This last Friday’s topic was The Connection — Conservation and Your Feathered Friend. I had such a great time conversing with fellow bird people.

Fall in Love with Macaws

You see these big, colorful birds everywhere. They are used in movies especially if pirates are about. They feature in most bird shows and people who have them as companion pets love to show them off. I’ve never owned one, but I had the pleasure of meeting a sweet blue and gold at a fund raiser for Free Flight, I’ve interacted with a hyacinth a friend raised from a few months old, and I got to feed a young scarlet macaw while a friend went on vacation. I am not equipped with enough room and time for one of these lively parrots, but I understand the joy they can bring to people.

Birds Not Welcome in the Common Aviary

My flock is mostly made up of calm, sweet birds like doves and finches. I do have to strategize about which birds can coexist with which other birds. I also know I can’t leave male button quail for long with their own offspring, and I can’t leave a male cape dove with their male offspring. I can usually toss the BQ dads into a spare pen by themselves or with other males pulled for the same reason. The male cape dove I can only put in a few places, like with finches. As soon as my latest chicks leave the nest, Silver goes on holiday next door. But these are small considerations and do not make the birds less fun to have around.

Eggs and Their Stories

Eggs come and go in my flock. Some hatch and become adorable babies that grow up to be adorable adult birds. Some don’t hatch and are either saved for a friend with a pet that will eat them or offered up to the local crow flock that helps keep hawks away from my birds. I just started tracking the date the eggs are laid and projecting the hatch dates. Here are some details that amuse me.