Our birds

2007-08-11

Birds. It's really a coincidence me and the wifey got into birds. Wifey likes cats. Me allergic. Fish are too boring although beutiful to look at. Reptiles, eg snakes, creeps me out and wifey alike. Dogs are not an option because we have irregular hours at work and a very small apartment, besides the fact that a dog needs walking on a regular basis. Enter the idea of a bird.

I've always fancied parrots, so this was a natural starter. Wifey thought this was a great idea, so presto we started looking into parrots. We quickly realised that a full-size parrot like a grey jacko was both expensive and would likely drive our neighbours crazy as they are pretty loud, not to mention seriously expensive, so we figured on the smaller parrots like budgies. Here I voiced an opinion that I wanted something bigger than a budgie that wouldn't hop and skip around so much, but rather act like its bigger sibblings, so we researched some more and came up with cockatiels. According to all texts on the internet and in several books, 'tiels are gentle and easy to handle and a perfect starter-bird, better so in fact than the otherwise common budgie. Cockatiels aren't too big either, and they have a very gentle personality. We had a winner!

So we shopped around for cockatiels in our local petshops and came across a lutino 'tiel that was sooooo beautiful, never mind it was rather old and was a little stand-offish. We wanted this particular bird, so we bought it. Tito became our first bird and we doted on this bird like it was a baby-child. We soon wanted more birds and decided on another budgie, Pinochet. The little budgie got on well with Tito but we felt a partner would be in order so we bough another budgie, Bill. Then I wanted another companion for Tito and we bough Bamse (or rather he picked me...). Then one day Bill suddenly died and Pinochet began screaming so we got her another companion, Pinochet. The partnership between Bamse and Tito never took off, so we got another cockatiel-male, Jena and these two seem to accept each other better. We now had five birds.

When we bought Bamse we realised he'd been living next to a finch-cage before so he sang like a finch, a very pleasant low cooing so we got interested in getting a pair of finches as well. After some time we found a pair and cheap at that, so there wasn't any real reason not to get these birds, so we did. Romeo and Julia came to live with us as well!

Then one day I when I got home after work I found Tito lying on the cage-floor bottom and things went really haywire. Jena's beloved partner was gone and he started screaming for her for hours on end. Wifey and me decided this couldn't go on, or the neighbours might start gathering outside our door with torches and pitchforks in a mob, so we went 'tiel-shopping again. We found a likely breeder and called and sure enough, the breeder had some tame female-cockatiels for sale and we could come over and have a look. We brought Jena along so that e could have his say as well.

The breeder currently had an older rescued female from a negligent previous owner and a younger one as well. We put the older bird in the transport-cage with Jena, but it seemed like he didn't fancy her, so we put the other female as well. Suddenly Jena seemed more attracted to the older bird and completely ignored the younger one. There's nothing like a little competition I gather... ;-) So we went home with Saphir, the ugliest bird on this end of the galaxy, but oh-so-social. She readily climbed up on my finger and handling her is a proverbial walk in the park.

And that's where we are today, three cockatiels, two budgerigars and two zebra-finches.. Currently we have a ban on buying new birds, as we're running out of space in our living-room for cages!

2015-02-28

It's been a while since the last update, and most of our birds have passed away due to sickness or old age. The only remaining one is the ever-whistling Jena. Currently I'm trying to re-socialise with him since his partner died some months ago. It's slow going as he's been with a real 'tiel partner for so long. At least he obliges me with climbing up on my finger, although he seems to prefer my shoulder.

This year, 2015, marks Jena's about eleventh birthday!

2023-01-03

The work-from-home (WFH) regimen of 2020, due to COVID restrictions, meant I needed an office at home. Since Jena inhabited the only possible area in the living room with his great big cage, either he or I had to go.

We chose Jena to move out. Some friends of ours already had a female cockatiel, and the friends let us know that the she-tiel would love to have company once more since her previous mate had departed to bird-heaven recently.

Said and done, Jena found a new home with new owners and the previously cockatiel-infested cubby-hole, aka niche, off of the living room was trtansformed to my new WFH office.

We now sadly no longer have any birds left.

	Family name	Pinochet Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Pinochet
	Alias	The Bitchy Budgie, The Belsebudgie, The Budgie of Doom, Pinochetan, Skrikhalsen.
	Race	Budgerigar (with english blood; big bird)
	Gender	Female
	Birthdata	Bought 2004-06-15, approx 12 weeks old at time.
	Description	Big half-english breed. Yellow-green with gray on wings.
	Tame	Hand-tame sometimes. Depends on bribe.
	Misc	Easy to bribe with spray millet. Bites hard but without letting blood, if she's unsure of the surroundings. Doesn't bite as hard as before, at least not me. Could be that my intensive handling has softened her up a bit. Mutters most of the time. Holds the morning serenade. Chirps in the morning till she's had the breakfast and you've spent a little time next to the cage. We should have known what we were getting into with, when she tried to gnaw her way out of the box we transported here home in... "Budgies are not at all aggressive" my foot!! Used to be best buddy with Fidel. After Fidel's death, we moved her to the cockatiel cage and now she sounds like one too...

	Family name	William Clinton Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Bill
	Alias	Bill
	Race	Budgerigar
	Gender	Male
	Birthdata	Bought 2005-01-11, approx 12-18 weeks old at time. Dead february/march 2005.
	Description	Blue base with white and black areas.
	Tame	Hand-tame.
	Misc	The most endearable budgie to date! Left us all too soon.

	Family name	Fidel Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Fidel
	Alias	Fidel
	Race	Budgerigar
	Gender	Male
	Birthdata	Bought 2005-08-09, approx 3 months old at time. Dead 2008-01-04.
	Description	Green base with black areas on wings and tendency to blue on tail-feathers.
	Tame	Not at all, but was once. Kinda'...
	Misc	Chatters away most of the day. The flock's master-chatterer. Very fluttery. When released, makes through the whole living-room in record-time. Flies very good. Holds the morning-serenade. Best friend with Pinochet and His Royal Protector of the Budgie-cage. Territorial is just the first name... Has learned to screech like a jackdaw to our dismay. Wifey spent a small fortune to have Fidel recovered from a crop-infection. After a weeks medication he seemed to be well. A few weeks later he got the same thing again and slimmed down fast and most noticable. At the vet' we decided to let Fidel go to the final sleep. He will be missed.

	Family name	Tito Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Tito
	Alias	Tito
	Race	Cockatiel
	Gender	Female
	Birthdata	Bought 2004-07-17, approx 8-9 months old at time. Dead midsummer 2007.
	Description	Lutino
	Tame	Not at all.
	Misc	Beautiful bird with a majestic grace, but rather introvert. We never managed to get in contact with her. Maybe lutinos aren't entirely properly wired, or was neglected in her early days, to become almost autistic. Loved to hang upside-down while spreading her wings, generally considered to be a sign of hapiness with cockatiels. Go figure... Was generally low-key but screeched very loud when she got into the mood. We initially though she was a he, thus the name. When we installed the daylight lamps in the livingroom, we saw the striped tailfeaters; indication of a female.

	Family name	Idi Amin Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Bamse
	Alias	Bamse
	Race	Cockatiel
	Gender	Male
	Birthdata	Bought 2004-11-10, approx 2 years old at time.
	Description	Normal darkish gray with pearly suggestion on back and wings.
	Tame	Oh, yeah!
	Misc	Crappy posture, but very social. He picked me out at the petstore. We wanted to buy another bird first, but who can resist a bird that trots up to you and wants his head head scratched? Never mind the much higher pricetag... Extremely social and evidently impressioned on humans rather than other 'tiels, prefers our company before the other 'tiel's. Extremely curious. When I tinker with anything in the livingroom, and he's out, he likes to land on my shoulder and slide down my arm to whatever I'm doing and "help out" or taste. They say birds can't express feelings but this bird sure can. Keep toast and biscuits away or you'll have this 'tiel on it in no time. 8-] Loves cheese for some reason... Ridiculously fond off red paprika and corn flakes. After having had paprika, especially the red kind, he's all red around the beak and looks scary because of this. Has tendecies to bring up pre-chewed food for me... As far as Bamse is concerned I'm his best buddy/mate(...).

	Family name	George Bush Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Jena
	Alias	Jena
	Race	Cockatiel
	Gender	Male
	Birthdata	Bought summer 2006, approx 2 years old at time.
	Description	Normal gray. Googly-eyed and thin.
	Tame	Yes, hops up on my finger, hand and shoulder. Refuses anything else but a stick with wifey.
	Misc	Holds the morning and evening serenades. Fastest flyer of them all; races round the livingroom walls like a Nascar. Landing is a different story... Likes to perch on wifeys magazines and books to her dismay. Loves to gnaw on sticks, preferrably fresh ones, and especially snip off leaves - it's like a mania Excellent holder of stuff with foot like the bigger parrots. Apparantely right-footed. Mate with Tito until she passed away and called for her for several days to come back. Found a new life with Saphir.

	Family name	Romeo Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Romeo
	Alias	Romeo
	Race	Zebra finch
	Gender	Male
	Birthdata	Bought winter 2006/2007, approx 2 years old at time.
	Description	Normal zebra coloured.
	Tame	No.
	Misc	Fluttery little critter. Starts the morning serenade as soon as he sees a suggestion of first-light. Positively loves to bathe.

	Family name	Julia Srbu Kjellgren
	Call-sign	Julia
	Alias	Julia
	Race	Zebra finch
	Gender	Female
	Birthdata	Bought winter 2006/2007, approx 2 years old at time.
	Description	Normal coloured
	Tame	No.
	Misc	A little more reserved than Romeo. Loves to bathe.