The Birdies are Fine!

7.13.20

Hello Birdie Blog friends,
It's been way too long that I have posted an update about "First Birdie" and her siblings, "Boy" and "Girl".

Not them, but almost exactly what 

Girl (L) and Boy (R) look like

Just to recap, First Birdie fell from her nest Spring 2013. She was probably only a day or so old, as she didn't have any feathers, her eyes were closed, and her fall from our porch roof eave nest injured her neck, so I never thought she would survive and thrive as she has! She and I learned together how to feed her, and raise her into the "perfect" female sparrow she is today, 7 years old now! She is in her own condo cage, and periodically I let her out for fly-abouts, but I really don't want the poopy trail in areas she flies. Really not that much poop though. She hangs out around us, flies through the kitchen and likes to sit on things that show her reflection, like the water dispenser on the refrigerator, of all things! She's super healthy, her feathers are perfect, and she loves to be hand fed little treats such as biscotti, eggs, fruit, bread. 

A year and a few months later 2014, another newborn sparrow fell from the same nest. We put the baby back in the nest, but out she came again. I realized there were 2 other babies in the nest, and just couldn't let nature's fate let them fall again, so I brought them inside and raised "The Triplets". Turns out there were 2 girls and a boy. It was so interesting watching them grow and mature and see the male sparrow darker color points come out. I bought a large Aviary type cage for them, and all seemed fine. 

Well over time, Boy became a "typical male" and began wanting to court and mate the females. Sadly with being enclosed in a cage, however large it was, the girls couldn't really escape his attention and antics. One of the girls wound up more pecked on then the other so I separated her in her own cage. Sadly, she stopped thriving, and died a few days later. Makes me so sad he picked and pecked on her so much, and I didn't separate them sooner, but I always lean to following Mother Nature, and how things would be in the "natural environment". That was several years ago, and things seemed ok with Boy and Girl in the large cage until recently. 

So here we go again, Boy pecking and picking on Girl to try to court and mate. I felt so bad for her, as he pulled her little feathers out on her head, trying to hold her down to mate. Of course in the wild, uncaged environment, she would fly away, and do fine. So I took her out of the big cage, and separated her into her own cage. It's been several months, and they are doing fine. It's "funny" seeing Boy court her through the cages, but not able to get at her. I know she is Very Relieved! Happily all 3 birdies are doing just fine, and thriving. They sing and chatter all the time, often to an "annoying" point. The more voices in house, the louder they get. Singing along to all our voices. They are especially chatty when I'm on the phone, to the point where the person I am on the phone with, thinks I'm in a bird aviary, zoo or the Rainforest.

Be right back, going to add their pictures for you...

So Many Feathered Stories to Tell!

11.10.17

Hello Birdie Blog-

My deepest apologies for ignoring you! The feathers have been flying, but only in good ways :))
I have several great stories to tell, and I will be back very soon!

I'll tell you the story of "Domino the Rooster" going to "Jail"!
Then the Hen's protest!
And an update on Birdie and the Triplets!

I'll be back :)) Thanks for checking in!

All our Feathered Friends! Sparrows, Pigeons, Doves, Chickens.. Oh My!

Hello Birdie Blog followers, if you are still out there following!

So many pictures, so many stories, so little time, so much poop! 

But here's a little sample of our feathered adventures:

First Birdie flitting around the house.
She is so healthy and so beautiful and so happy!
"First Birdie" is 3 years old this Spring!

She's always helping me home-office!
She loves to peck at the blinking status lights on the computer.

Here's First Birdie taking a birdie bath. She knows the term when I mention it, and she has a sweet, high pitched tweet tweet when I bring out the water bowl. It's just so amazing to see her wild instincts adapted to human interactions. She truly is imprinted totally on me as her momma. She flits around the bowl in the water, then flys off, then repeat and repeat. Then she grooms and preens her wings, while perched on me or her cage. Amazing how she knows the term "birdie bath, birdie bath", when I say it!

Funny how she developed a liking to CostCo Biscotti. 

She just loves this treat and when we let her out for her fly-abouts, 

she always comes to us, sits on the table
and waits expectantly for her Biscotti treat.

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2 of the Triplets

Girl above, Boy in front
They're 2 years old now!

 Boy, Girl, Girl
It's not easy to get pics of the Triplets!
They're so busy flitting around all the time!

It's interesting now, how Boy leaves 2nd Girl alone, but goes after Girl 1. Originally Girl 1 fell from the nest individually, and next Boy and Girl 2 were "rescued" from the falling nest. We're not sure if Boy sees Girl 2 as "sister" and leaves her alone, or if he sees Girl 1 as "girlfriend" or invader? Most of the time, all is calm and everyone gets along great. But periodically, Boy is relentless with Girl 1. I've put a box at the bottom of the aviary for her "hide" in, from him. She's a tough lil gal, and definitely "fights" back and doesn't let him dominate her. We're not sure if he's trying to mate with her, of if "3's a crowd" in there? There's no "fighting", just a lot of flying, flitting and chasing periodically. 

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The pigeon that fell down our chimney!
Only at our house lol!

So back a few months ago, we heard some unusual noises in our fireplace. No fire on, everything was off and cold! When investigating, we discovered one of our many wild pigeons had slipped from the rooftop chimney opening, into our fireplace. We just couldn't believe what we were seeing, and wondered how we would get this guy back out. We left him there overnight, hoping he would figure out a way to fly back up and out by himself, but no such luck. I happened to not be well at the time, with a high fever, so this made it even more challenging. But I put on some ranch gloves and quickly, but calmly grabbed the pigeon before he knew what was happening, and whew! I caught him and was able to set him outside on the porch, near where all his buddies were roosting on the cable, phone wires. Soon he flew up up and away, and seemed to be just fine. When the flock flies in for their daily grain, I often wonder which one he is... 

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Love these beauties that come to visit us

and steal the Hummer's syrup.
Mr and Mrs have only visited a few times this year,
but what a treat it is seeing them!

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So of course when a teacher friend of mine wanted to do a science incubation project in her classroom, I said YES, to adopting any chicks that hatched. 

Little Blondie here, from a green egg, is an Araucana 

Born Sunday June 5, 2016

Next baby..

Born Monday June 6, 2016
Little Charcoal here, from the Brown egg is a ??, we'll see..

Sadly, the 3rd egg did not hatch. Most likely not fertilized.

Aren't they just so adorable!

Here they are snuggled into their surrogate "Swifter" momma hen! Novel idea I came up with, as I felt so bad they didn't have a real momma hen to snuggle into. They just loved it, but eventually I had to change it too often from all the poop, so I gave up on that as they grew their adolescent feathers! 

Amazing how fast they grow and begin to "act like real chickens"!

When I lift the screen to clean the pen, 

they learned to look forward to that, and practice flying and roosting. 

Learning to roost!

How quickly their fluff is disappearing

and their juvenile feathers are coming in!

Soon they no longer needed the heat lamp at night,

and it is was time to introduce them to the warm sun

First time outside and loving it!

 And just days later, even more adolescent feathers
Growing, growing, growing!!

 Look who is so fascinated with them.
Not sure if Pawsy is thinking "chicken dinner"
or is just fascinated with them.
They're totally safe, not to worry! 

Just look at the beautiful feathers coming in!

They're growing so fast now, and truly look like chickens! I know that sounds silly, but they look like miniature chickens, not fluffy little chicks anymore. We are currently getting their outside hutch and coop ready, but we'll keep them inside at night for quite some time. Just like the sparrows, it's so fascinating to watch their natural instincts come through, immediately and naturally. They instinctively want to roost, peck and scratch the ground or whatever substrate they are on, groom, preen and well... just act like chickens! I am always so fascinated with creatures raised by humans that just "know" how to be their species without their natural parents introducing life skills to them. Nature is so perfect and fascinating! We think the beige blondie is a hen, and the charcoal spotted is a rooster. Time will tell!

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So many species of birds fly in now.
Do you see the special furred visitor, gathering seeds,
along with the doves, sparrows and finches

This picture (above) was much earlier in the year during late winter, before everything had begun to bloom. You can see the stem of last year's sunflower that we hadn't taken out yet. When we did, it wasn't long before another sprouted, and it has become this amazing multi-flowered, one stalk multi sunflower plant. We've never seen anything like this! Have you? Click the picture to see the bees enjoying the pollen!

And then this huge multi-flowered sunflower plant happened!

 So beautiful. So many flowers. So amazing!

We have the bird seed in little containers in this area, 

and have so many species visiting us. 

Wonder what type of sunflower seeds these are in the bird seed!

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Now that it's summer, and the weather is consistently warm and nice, I often wonder if I should put the Triplet's aviary outside, let them fully acclimate, then give them the option to fly free. I am very torn about this, as they are only used to us, the inside environment, may not have natural bird immunities, or full defensive protective mechanisms, and all 3 of them do have disabled twisted feet. But I wonder what they would prefer, if they could communicate their wish? I just don't know if they would be able to fully protect themselves from predators...  They of course know nothing other than their current environment, and they do have it quite wonderful, right by the window, and lots of room to flit around. We as humans of course "see what they are missing outside", but they don't. It's just us humans projecting what see they are missing out on, seeing the wild sparrows outside. They're happy inside, and we know that, as they don't exhibit any unhealthy behaviors. They sure look and act very healthy, happy, active and are quite bonded to us... But we wish they had never fallen from the nest and had been successfully raised by their bird parents and were free and wild like all the others right outside the window... Oh, the ironies of life...

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Sadly, this beauty hit our window really hard 

and didn't make it. We had a lot of this species in the Spring,

But haven't seen many in recent months. 

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Thanks for reading our Feathered adventures. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, or just let us know you've stopped by to look at our fun feathered friends, inside and out. I'll be updating with more pictures as the Chickies grow and change more every week. Can't believe they're a month old now. They seem so much older all of a sudden. Pecking, flying, roosting, tweeting and clucking. Just so amazing to think of their origin, incubated in a classroom, then on be cute fluffy chicks without a mother hen, but "knowing just what to do, to be a chicken"! They're a month old this week!

Breathe deep and inhale Nature's beauty every day. Every creature matters and has a purpose on this earth! They know their purpose and just do what nature intended them to do, instinctively, intuitively. I feel so fortunate to be a part of  the rescued sparrows lives, and now the chickies, and being able to witness their growth and development from innocent baby to happy functional adult. 

Birdie Update Coming!

Birdie Update Coming!

This beautiful Dove pair visits our outside

Sparrow seed dish frequently! 

Birdie Birthdays Coming Soon!

Happy May everyone!

Life just "flys" by :)) So much happy flittering and fluttering around our house!

"First Birdie's" birth-day is coming up this month! Wow, she'll be 2 years old. She's doing great and just as happy and beautiful as ever. She loves visiting and hanging out with us when we're at the kitchen table. I just crack up as she loves pecking at my old shinny computer. Such a "vain" girl she is ;) She'll take any opportunity to view her reflection, and peck at the tiny computer lights.

 She's so funny!

It's like she has no "boundaries" and everything is hers!

 Especially anything where she can see her reflection!

 First Birdie gets to free-fly around our family room, but it's so interesting how she is happy and content to stay by and in her "condo". She shows NO interest in getting too close to the Triplet's "condo". But I do know she is very happy now to have her own species to chatter and hang out with... albeit at a distance.

The Triplets are just as sweet and cute as First Birdie of course! Each one has it's own identifying personality traits. So amazing to have been able to participate in nature's most wonderful and fascinating life events, witnessing their growth and development from just days old. They all have foot deformities, but it doesn't inhibit anything they do. I wonder... how would their "disability" have affected their functionality and life span in the wild??

The first one (of the Triplets) to fall from the nest, is most attached to me (Girl). She loves to be hand feed. The other girl and the boy are a bit more skittish, but are very interested in all the different flavors I offer them such as fruits, veggies, grain products. The Girls boss around Boy, and it's funny to watch him react to being bossed by his sisters.

Top to Bottom: 

Boy, Girl, Girl 

BOY!!!

His beak is all black now

and he grows more black beard feathers all the time :))

They are very happy in their huge aviary cage. It's right by a large window, so now that the weather is so warm, I open the window and it's beautiful to hear all 4 birdies sing with all the wild birds. I suspect many of the sparrows visiting/living in our yard, are their relatives. Of course we feel bad they are caged, but they know nothing different, and don't exhibit any "frustration behaviors". They are super healthy, preen their feathers, take birdie baths, and poof out their feathers when they are relaxed on their perches, and they eat A Lot of seed! All these behaviors show how happy they are. 

I know now why sparrows are in the "song bird" family. Wow do they sing! So cute how First Birdie now has a whole family to chatter with. I don't think she was familiar with her own tunes before the Triplets came along and began chattering and singing so much.  Funny too, how they chatter and sing so much when there is a lot of human chatter and the TV is on.

Recently our "rescue zoo" added another family member. Poor Charlene was an owner surrender at the local animal shelter in Nov 2014. I had been watching her status for some time hoping she'd be rescued/adopted. But seeing she was still there this March 2015, I just couldn't let her be PTS. She's 11 or 12 and most adopters (sadly) prefer younger cats, kittens. So Charlene has joined our other 2 kitties in their very own "cattery". Every "species group" at our little rescue has their own "secure" environment", as it would mayhem around here, if everyone was free to roam! Not to mention the safety factor. Of course we would LOVE nothing more then to let everyone run around free... but could you imagine..

 Can you believe this darling kitty was surrendered??!!

 And continuing our Bird theme, look at this beauty we saw at a winery that also rescues all kinds of creatures. I have always LOVED peacocks, and would love if one flew in to stay at our house!

We are so fortunate to have this stunning pair visit our hummingbird feeder. This picture just doesn't do them justice, with their naturally BRILLIANT colors!! "Mrs" on the left, "Mr" on the right. 

We have so many spectacular Hummers this year. I haven't been able to get good pictures of them, so here's a selection from online representing the stunning lovlies that come to visit us, drink the sweet nectar of our flowers and clear sugar water we fill the feeders with.

Happy Spring everyone! 

May your skies be blue, your nectar sweet, and the sun shine in your life always. 

May your "feathers" provide you the freedom to soar high, and live your life blissfully with your favorite "flock".

 

Triplet Aviary Happiness! And we may have some boys!

Hello Triplet Birdie fans-

Sadly I hit the dang delete button on my phone and lost the Triplet's first pictures in their Aviary mansion! Ggrrr!! It's not easy to take good pictures of them anymore, as they are so flitty, flighty and busy and their cage is facing a big window. They appear to love their BIG aviary mansion house and are eating up a storm everyday and taking darling little birdie baths. Wow, do they eat a lot! The floor around them is a "seed carpet"... so we've decided to use the fabric cover we use at night for warmth, also as a lower cage curtain during the day. Who knew 3 little rescued sparrows would eat so much, and their split seed hulls would be sprinkling our floor like a dull glitter carpet. I'll get pictures up soon of The Triplets in their aviary mansion!

Devlopmentally, the Triplets, aka Trippies aka Trips (they chirp back to all my silly little nick-names for them), are doing great! It's so interesting how I think I "taught" First Birdie how to take her first drinks of water and learn to take a bird bath, peck for seeds, etc. But the Triplets seemed to just learn on their own and mimic each other's actions. But of course this makes sense, as First Birdie didn't have any sparrows to observe, learn from, mimic or imprint to, but the 3 Triplets would just do whatever each other did, and just by bird instinct/internal "wiring" figured out what to do by watching/interacting with each other. We of course created the perfect learning environment for them, as when they were weaning from the hand feeding, there was an endless supply of seed, spray millet and a shallow amount of water in the little trough. Ah, nature never ceases to amaze and enthrall me!

The Triplets are molting a bit and loosing their baby feathers. I think I see some black chest feathers coming in on one or two, so I'm thinking (hoping a bit) that at least one will be a boy! They don't stay still long enough for me to really study them, and they do look so much alike, it's not easy to differentiate them. Their innate flee and flight button works too perfectly in this case! They will perch quietly though, and move closer to me when I do repetitive, high pitched familiar words (birdie, birdie, birdie; babies, babies, babies; Triplets, triplets, triplets; Trips, trips, trips). No doubt, I Am The Bird Momma!

Here's some great pictures of the difference between male and female sparrows.

These are NOT my Birdies! Found these online:

Female, right. Male, left

 

 Male showing the beautiful black beard feathers

 Female with her soft beige tones

Male with his dramatic darks

What an experience this has been! I do feel really bad, and sad, they were abandoned or not initially cared for properly by their sparrow parents, but they are as happy as can be with us. 

It's so interesting, as all three of the Triplets have deformed feet! Two with a middle foot turned upward and the claw sticks up too. Cute but sad. All of them have one foot curled inward too. So perhaps "Mother Nature" "knew something"? I can somewhat tell them apart from their little deformities. Otherwise, they are perfect! It will be much easier knowing who's who if they're not all beautiful tawny, fawny, beige girls. But if they are, 4 sparrow girls in our house is just fine with us!

Miss First Birdie is PERFECT! Unbelievable after her fall 7-8' fall and subsequent damaged twisted neck. No permanent injuries, and everything about her perfectly functional and perfectly perfect!!! Since she was raised singularly, she is quite a bit more bonded to us and we let her free fly around still. Can you imagine the AMOUNT OF POOP if we let all 4 fly about the house! First Birdie's condo is not anywhere near the size of the Triplet's aviary mansion, so we feel a bit more guilty for her being caged. But the funny thing is, we open the door to her cage daily, and most days she doesn't even come out, as she's so content in her house. And when she does come out, she flies to us to check in, gets a treat, flits around a bit, and then goes back to her house. It's cute how the Triplets start chirping and chattering when First Birdie flies out, so this sure lets us know that there's definitely a relationship and communication between the 4 of them, but it seems that First Birdie is not at all interested in getting close (in physical proximity) to the Triplets.

Here she is visiting with Jim, and leaving him a "present" on his shoulder!

Have you ever seen such perfectly beautiful, perfect feathers!

We call these "love droppings" 

First Birdie loves to come visit and perch on us

but she's not interested in being held

 Just look at that perfect Birdie with her perfect feathers and perfect feet!

We just looooooooooooove all 4 of our Birdies! They are so adorable and so happy. They chirp and tweet back and forth to each other, but First Birdie doesn't ever fly close to the Triplet's house. 

They also chirp and tweet endlessly, especially when there's lots of human chatter in the house and the TV is on. This must be from when they were babies, and closer to the TV, thus they are bonded to the human voice as part of their "flock". 

We still feed them the moistened dog kibble baby food for protein, and they have an endless variety of seeds, millet sprays, fresh water, sandpaper covers to file their beaks on, and various perches to perch on and mirrors to play with.

They enrich our lives so much, and even though we lament what happened to them, and know the outside natural environment would have been most ideal for them, their safe inside aviary mansion is the next best thing!

My dear friend and amazing artist Kathy

made this beautiful birdie painting for me!

Pictures of Triplets coming soon!!

Chirp Chirp, Tweet Tweet :)