Playful Pixel

Petey would not approve

The birds get a small amount of seeds (along with fresh food and pellets) and the seed mixtures contains some dried fruits. The dried papaya is a favourite of Petey's, possibly one of the things he'll consistently eat (with fresh food, what he eats for a week he may not touch the following one).

Last Sunday, this is what the bottom of Pixel's cage looked like -

Quite a few pieces of dried papaya ended up on the bottom of her cage - Petey would most definitively not approve of this behaviour!

Snow day semi-silhouette

Quite a bit of snow fell today and it stuck to our second floor windows (especially the orange room window). I set up the wingdow so that Léa could enjoy the white sight outside.

Is there a bird under the paper?

(These are from earlier in January) 

Is there someone under there?

Why yes! This is more typically something Piper or Petey would do, but it appears Shade wanted to try it out as well!

Léa the smarty-pants

I was on my way out of the birdroom with Piper and Shade and as I walk by Léa's cage to reach the door, I give Shade a kiss on the head and Léa watches us and goes "bisou!" ("kiss" in French).

I found this rather amazing, as I generally reserve "bisou" for Shade and Piper, because it was something I would say to both of them when I was still living with my parents and mostly speaking French at home and it stuck. The other birds joined the family when I started living with the Boy and spoke English at home so they got told "kiss" (or, in Léa's case, "kiss kiss"). I'm not exactly sure how frequently I use "bisou" with Piper or Shade around Léa (I know I do say it, but I think most of it is generally when we reach another room and they enjoy their out of cage time, which is staggered in three groups (Piper-Shade-Zuri, Joey-Petey-Pixel and finally Léa on her own).

So here we are, not only did Léa recognize that "bisou" and "kiss kiss" were associated with the same action, she also made the link that "bisou" gets used for Shade and Piper. Pretty smart of her!

Piper

The master of cuteness in this house.

Soapbox

Twist

Unexpected behaviour this morning

At one point or another, most of my birds have done the "skirt dance". Who do I mean by most? Petey, Joey, Piper, Pixel and even Zuri. I think Léa is still too young for that.

That leaves Shade. Shade who in the eight years (almost nine!) that I have had her has never shown any inclination towards that behaviour. I wasn't upset about it, quite frankly I was happy, as I thought if she doesn't feel the need to do the "skirt dance", she's probably less likely to want to lay eggs. In a way, I think she was always more focused on herself than on any biological need; Zuri would try to get some of "that" attention and she would willingly accept any food he may want to offer, but that was it. If he got more insistent she turned around and walked away from him.

So it came to a surprise to me that this morning, while sitting on my shoulder, she starts making that very specific noise and dropped her wings. Why now? This happened just as she was to go back to her cage, so that broke the "dance" mood. I'm not quite sure what triggered it, but I guess I'll have to pay extra attention from now on.