Peewees

[den]

Or Magpie-larks.

#5 is happy and eats anything that happens to move towards his mouth. #4 is a bit stroppy and has to be force-fed. He won't willingly take anything I offer. #3, who I thought would teach the others, has become confused, and sometimes takes the food i give him, and sometimes begs from the others.

#5 is much smaller than his sibling and only half the size of #3. I hope he makes it and doesn't get the "soft bone" syndrome that killed my first bird. Boosting the calcium doesn't work - peewees get kidney stones.

Comments

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Neat! Those are cool lookin' birds...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Black and white doesn't describe the colours. The feathers are BLACK and WHITE, with no fading into the next colour. Very pretty birds.

Magpies

[ursuscal.livejournal.com]

Magpies have always fascinated me. Since I presume yours are "wild," I presume that they don't talk? How any animal can memorize and almost perfectly repeat language, sounds like car alarms and answering machine beeps, and laughter is beyond my comprehension. Then again, I was almost bowled-over the furst time I heard a *parakeet* talk! Almost as unnerving as the furst time I saw a full standard Poodle. I always thought they were little tiny ankle-biters, but the furst standard bred I saw could bite your goodies off without effort!

Re: Magpies

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Wild magpies never talk. They squark and "carol" whch is a call somewhat like whistling a tune while gargling water. Tame magpies pick up all sorts of sounds. I knew one that called "PISS OFF!" to the wild magpies. Poor little bugger thought he was being friendly. Nature vs Nurture.

But these are magpie-larks, a different bird. They're only 1/2 the size of a magpie and won't poke holes in your head during breeding season.

"Parakeet" is an odd word, and it took me a while to work out You Yanks were referring to Budgerigahs. If you call budgies that here or in the UK you'd get a blank look, and people would think you'd confused parrots and lorikeets. Wild budgies are a dull olive green with brilliant yellow stripes on the wings. And they are NOT "Who's a pretty boy."

And poodles are disturbing at any size.