birds

Anybody who knows me will say that I might be a little obsessed with birds. Actually, I might be a lot obsessed with birds. When I was fifteen years old, I started volunteering at the local aviary. I learned how to work with a variety of birds such as hawks, eagles, parrots, emus, pelicans, and toucans. We trained them, fed them, played with them, and cleaned up a lot of bird shit. I fell in love with the class known as Aves. I volunteered and eventually worked at the aviary for three years before I said my goodbyes and went to college, where I started working in an avian lab that specializes in Columbiformes.

I have a little flock of my own at home composed of six birds between myself and my roommate. She has an African Grey, an Eclectus parrot, and a Lovebird while I myself am owned by a Cockatiel and a Turquoise Green-Cheeked Conure. Now I'm going to bore you all with how much I adore my birds.



This is Manny Calavera. He's named after this game. I got him the summer before senior year of high school as a hand-fed baby. I was originally going to get another baby I'd seen from his same clutch, but when I saw his adorable cinnamon color and his friendly demeanor, I fell in love. The breeder told me that he was the only baby that waited for her at the very front of the cage, peeping to be let out every morning before being fed. I took him home to his cage and let him settle in for the night. The next day we were the best of friends.

Manny is SO CUTE. I love cockatiels. I LOVE COCKATIELS. At first I thought I wanted a Lovebird for many years, but then changed my mind at the last minute. He knows how to say, "step up", "good boy", "hey baby boy", "gimme a kiss", and something else garbled that I can't make out (but I'd like to think that it's "I love you"). He's an amazing flier, despite never having learned, due to his amazing cockatiel primaries. His favorite game is "the sound game", which is a game where I start out with a sound (or he starts out with it) and then he copies it (or I copy it). We do this for awhile until one of us changes the sound. I tried to get it on video, but Manny's too camera shy (he can ALWAYS tell when there's a camera out. Always). Basically, he's the perfect bird. Except for the fact that's he a scaredy cat and can fly all too well, so there's always the fear that he'll fly away (which happened once and it was terrifying).



His favorite place is sitting on top of my laptop.





Nicknames include Manny, Mr. Man, Man, and Manners



This is Maeby Baby (or just Maeby). At first, I was convinced that she was a he, so I named her Vlad. She remained Vlad for a few months until the breeder called me with her sexing results to let me know that she was female. She is exhausting but entertaining. As much as Manny was a perfect first bird, she is a handful of a second. Conures are known for being little clowns, but I never realized how incredibly full of...personality Maeby would be. Especially Maeby since she's a Green-Cheeked and they are known for being pushy. Pushy, bossy, and bitchy. But I love Maeby Baby A LOT. Her favorite game to play is one where I put one of her jingly balls (yeah, laugh it up) on top of her cage and she throws it off. Or pushes it around for a bit playing "beak ball" and then chucks it off. I pick it up and it restarts the cycle. She also enjoys plunging headfirst into my macaroni, climbing up my pant-leg like an arctic explorer, and ripping up my physics homework . She often gets tangled in my hair, from which I have to excavate her while she bites me.





She also really loves head rubs.



So there are my birds! I have been neglecting them as of late by leaving them in their cages all the time while I frantically rush around going to school, work, doing homework at my favorite coffee shop since I can't focus at home, and (rarely) exercising. But my new goal is to have them out every day for at least an hour. Never past eight though, since that's "technically" their bedtime. I'll just have to start doing some homework at home and force myself to focus so they can be out and playing while I get things done. I also want to do enrichment twice a week for both of them. Probably Tuesdays and Thursdays. This includes foraging for Manny, foot toys for Maeby, games I play with them, etc. Also training on these days, Manny trick-training and Maeby basic manners (she still struggles with those).

I'm excited to get this rolling.