milti_girl
09-07-2006, 08:02 AM
Hello, I'm from India and I'm new to the forum.
In my college there is a birds park and they have a cage of cockatiels. There are nine of them in the huge cage -- 7 are the grey type and 2 are Lutinos. I like going to observe them everyday. I've never owned birds before, and I'm curious about some puzzling behaviour the birds have been showing.
For one thing, I really don't know who's who. Who is a boy and who is a girl. I know that, in the grey breed, females have a yellow spotted under-tail pattern, but six of the seven seem to have it. Only one fellow, Orangey, is definitely a boy. Maybe the others are babies, but I don't know -- they look medium-size. I don't know what their age is.
It's even more difficult to tell the sex of the birds with the Lutinos. I've called one of them Lily and the other Ducky (assuming one is a girl and the other is a boy) but I think both are boys.
Both seem to be very very silent, minding their own business and not particularly getting in any other bird's way. Ducky loves to swing upside down by himself, or peck at the birdseed, or dip his feathers in the water and shake them out. Lily likes being in her own corner minding her own business too, and she seems to be the friendliest of them -- I mean, friendly towards humans. She apparently likes my voice, because when she hears me chirping or whistling, she drops whatever she's doing and comes right up to my wall of the cage, and begins to climb it with beak and toes. When I blow at her lightly through the cage, she likes it ruffling her feathers. The others fly off in nervousness when I poke my pinky into the cage, but she loves to give it little licks and test it out with her beak. She doesn't comes to anyone else when they call, or hang onto their side of the cage and bite at the wire. Has she already learnt my voice/whistle though it's been just 3 days?
One more thing that surprised me was that Lily has a broken tail feather that another bird just loves to groom. The feather seems to have some dried blood on it. And a bird I've called Brownie likes to run behind Lily, plucking at the offending tail feather. Sometimes Lily hardly notices, but most of the time she's scuttling away from Brownie's beak. Brownie is very persistant. If Lily climbs to the top of the cage, so will Brownie, at twice Lily's speed. I don't know if it causes Lily pain. Brownie is a girl bird, and I'm not sure what Lily is. Why is Brownie so intent on pulling off Lily's injured feather?
One more thing I'm interested in knowing is, what does the crest straight up mean, and what does it mean when it lies flat on the head with a little curl at the end? Ducky's is forever flat on his head, and Lily's is flat on her head just when I whistle to her. When Brownie begins to worry at Lily's tail, Lily's crest cautiously comes up.
The birds had a fright today -- I think it was a loud sound. Anyway, at Pecky's warning call, eight of them zoomed up to the topmost beam and sat in a line together. They were moving their beaks but I don't think they were making any noise - just moving the beaks, sitting with their feathers ruffled up. Some of them looked half-asleep, but some others were very alert. Lily was on the ground (poor baby!) It took her a while to realise that the others were up there sitting huddled together, peering out of that wall of the cage. Eventually she made her way up there too, and sat at the very end of the line.
Is this how their fright reaction is? Why do they open their beaks with no sound? I've seen Lily also do that a lot -- as if she's yawning, but it goes on and on.
I have SO MANY more cockatiel questions. I've been checking websites to get answers.
In my college there is a birds park and they have a cage of cockatiels. There are nine of them in the huge cage -- 7 are the grey type and 2 are Lutinos. I like going to observe them everyday. I've never owned birds before, and I'm curious about some puzzling behaviour the birds have been showing.
For one thing, I really don't know who's who. Who is a boy and who is a girl. I know that, in the grey breed, females have a yellow spotted under-tail pattern, but six of the seven seem to have it. Only one fellow, Orangey, is definitely a boy. Maybe the others are babies, but I don't know -- they look medium-size. I don't know what their age is.
It's even more difficult to tell the sex of the birds with the Lutinos. I've called one of them Lily and the other Ducky (assuming one is a girl and the other is a boy) but I think both are boys.
Both seem to be very very silent, minding their own business and not particularly getting in any other bird's way. Ducky loves to swing upside down by himself, or peck at the birdseed, or dip his feathers in the water and shake them out. Lily likes being in her own corner minding her own business too, and she seems to be the friendliest of them -- I mean, friendly towards humans. She apparently likes my voice, because when she hears me chirping or whistling, she drops whatever she's doing and comes right up to my wall of the cage, and begins to climb it with beak and toes. When I blow at her lightly through the cage, she likes it ruffling her feathers. The others fly off in nervousness when I poke my pinky into the cage, but she loves to give it little licks and test it out with her beak. She doesn't comes to anyone else when they call, or hang onto their side of the cage and bite at the wire. Has she already learnt my voice/whistle though it's been just 3 days?
One more thing that surprised me was that Lily has a broken tail feather that another bird just loves to groom. The feather seems to have some dried blood on it. And a bird I've called Brownie likes to run behind Lily, plucking at the offending tail feather. Sometimes Lily hardly notices, but most of the time she's scuttling away from Brownie's beak. Brownie is very persistant. If Lily climbs to the top of the cage, so will Brownie, at twice Lily's speed. I don't know if it causes Lily pain. Brownie is a girl bird, and I'm not sure what Lily is. Why is Brownie so intent on pulling off Lily's injured feather?
One more thing I'm interested in knowing is, what does the crest straight up mean, and what does it mean when it lies flat on the head with a little curl at the end? Ducky's is forever flat on his head, and Lily's is flat on her head just when I whistle to her. When Brownie begins to worry at Lily's tail, Lily's crest cautiously comes up.
The birds had a fright today -- I think it was a loud sound. Anyway, at Pecky's warning call, eight of them zoomed up to the topmost beam and sat in a line together. They were moving their beaks but I don't think they were making any noise - just moving the beaks, sitting with their feathers ruffled up. Some of them looked half-asleep, but some others were very alert. Lily was on the ground (poor baby!) It took her a while to realise that the others were up there sitting huddled together, peering out of that wall of the cage. Eventually she made her way up there too, and sat at the very end of the line.
Is this how their fright reaction is? Why do they open their beaks with no sound? I've seen Lily also do that a lot -- as if she's yawning, but it goes on and on.
I have SO MANY more cockatiel questions. I've been checking websites to get answers.