SRSeedBurners

I only had 1-2 when we lived in Allen last year. Up here I have probably 12-15, maybe more. It's location location location. We now live by a giant lake with lots of foresty areas around. Seems like a hummingbird habitat along with a lot of other birds. Got lucky I guess.

Here's the mob outside my work window. I have three other feeders up and it's the same at all of them. I sometimes feel like a I have a swarm of gnat or flies around my head. It's weird about the video capture, it really slows their wings beats down as I believe the frame rate is only catching ever x number of beats, so it makes it look like the wings are slower than they actually are. ZippityChickensMob.mp4

Our new place is near Lake Texoma and the hummingbirds here are thick like flies. I hung four feeders in the spring and soon the place was a zippity chicken battleground amongst the Ruby-throats and the Black-chinned. This morning I found one in distress. The poor lil guy had gotten into some spider webbing and was all tangled up around his feet and was dragging around a nice little payload which made it very easy to catch him. So I brought him in flipped him upside down and started gently untangling his lil footsies. Hard to believe what a mess he had gotten into. Once that was done, it was time for some obligatory cuddle time with his favorite human. Took him back out to the feeder and he stepped up and flew off. What a cutie. One of those once-in-a-lifetime encounters, although this is actually my third time playing with a little hummer. HummerPet.mp4

Those look like well used, ready for retirement tail feathers. Ratty, hollowed out shafts. Sheesh....Alfie needs to get some new ones in for that dapper look.

Our Jardines has to have his beak dremeled or it will grow out like that. I have my dremel setup in a bench vise so it is completely stable. Then I work the beak around the dremel not the dremel around an angry beak that's going to move. I also use a wooden dowel in the mouth to prevent the tongue from ever making contact with the bit. That also serves to hold the beak open so I can get in there and take beak off. The hardest part for us is catching and turning Rio into a birdy burrito. He knows what's coming and does everything in his power NOT to get turned into a birdy burrito.

I see it now. Dorian is taking inventory of what to target first for when he's out and you don't know it. They always look like they are walking with skis on. So cute.

Interesting. Not available when I click on the link.

They are busy beavers. Our male has to have stuff to get into. He and our female are in a birdroom and I have an old dresser drawer setup with a wooden cutlery tray filled with wooden spoons, spatulas and other toys. He ends up in that drawer making toothpicks, throwing things on the floor, just doing his daily constructionings business. He's a very busy bird but I've got him tearing up stuff he can tear up. My female is fine to sit around and pamper herself all day.

They can live pretty rough lives outside of the right care. Think hard before re-homing her. Have you thought about creating an aviary for her? Inside or outside. I had to do this with mine because I wasn't willing to rebuild all the parts of my house they could get to. They tore up drawers, cabinets, door trim and lots of other stuff in our old home. I ended up building aviaries to put them in during the day and had a bird room with rough cut wood all around the the trim for them to go after. You can even get those really big huge walk-in cages for them.

Huey gets all the girls. That's because he has rock hard abs of fluffers. Tues and Thurs (usually) I get on the bike trainer which is in the attached bird room. Huey always gets excited with the loud music and activity. Here he is busting out some hanging crunches. What a stud muffins... 20210817_112548.mp4

We used to have a similar setup with the birdroom down the hall away from the living room/kitchen area. It was too easy to just leave them all asleep for a bit while we got out of our zombie state in the morning. Now that we no longer have a birdroom and they are all smack in the dining room, there's no avoiding them. Plus, my two Greys sleep in the bedroom with us now. GreycieMae is on a step ladder that has a monster living under it, and Huey has his own rolling perch. They now make note of our coming and going in the middle of the night and if it's near 5-6am, you might as well get Huey up. Greycie likes to sleep in though and will stay put until 7am if I'm being lazy.

Great to have you back. I think we have maybe 4 regular posters here right now but it goes up occasionally. I took a several month hiatus recently as we moved from our place in Allen Texas to a ranch near the Oklahoma border. I think I posted some pictures here a while back. We don't have the nice aviaries that I built anymore but working on setting up some new ones outside. Slow process....

Yep, they love being around while I'm working. Huey basically runs a call center behind me about half the day. He's doing it right now and I just heard the F bomb 🤣

Miss GreycieMae sometimes gets to sit with me in the office. Occasionally throughout the day, I will suddenly get a gentle nip on the back of my elbow. She has worked her way down the back of the chair and wants me to play fight with her. Usually I will play but on days when I'm busy..she takes the pressure up a notch. She crawls onto the arm of my chair and does a flop. Now how am I supposed to ignore this? That little soft belly and those wing pits right there for a tickle tickle. Then out comes the footy of fury 🥰 😍 😆 GreycieMaeDistraction_med.mp4

GreycieMae is my baby. I can do anything with her. I'll post a video of me tossing her in the air on her back. She completely trusts me.

GreycieMae is sizing up her new roost. This little tree is a junk tree growing up underneath and slightly impeding the growth of a massive oak tree where I'm planning to construct Miss GreycieMae's new aviary. Going to cut the branches to where they all fit just under the top wire. It should be a real hit. Greycie will have her very own one-tree forest.

The best I have found is Higgins Premium Mayan Harvest Yucatan. I give it to all my birds from CAGs down to the little guys - conures. They act like I'm bringing out the crack cocaine when they see me with the bag. They only get it once every couple of weeks or so as a treat. I love it because GreycieMae comes back with star anise and spearmint breath. She smells delish after she eats this stuff. Have a look at the ingredients, it's some super stuff.

No way I'd touch that without talking to a vet. I see no reason to risk any side affects.

Whatever I'm eating....beer, coffee, twinkies... Just kiddin. The whatever I'm eating and act like I don't want to share is a surefire way to get them to eat it.

Minutes before birdie bedtime...

Love when they let us give them scritches....

Mine slept in cages in a bird room for years. Our female CAG will have occasoinal night frights and starts violently banging around her cage and winds up the other birds and next thing I know their all panicing. Our male Huey gets frustrated and chews his feet. Since we moved, one of the deals I cut was my Greys get to sleep in the bedroom with us. So now GreycieMae sleeps on the the carry handler of a step ladder that is vet wrapped. Huey sleeps on a rolling perch. They are both as happy as clams with their new setups. Not one night fright and not one chewed footy since moving here.

GreycieMae is convinced my right shoulder was created for her to ride around on. Nothing beats getting into everything Daddy gets into. Loves going into the walk-in pantry and having a look around. Loves having a look in the fridge. Back when we lived in the burbs, she used to ride on a crossbar I mounted on the handlebars of my Townie bike. She went on many many rides to the duck pond and back with me. I'm convinced that's what led to me finding her the day my sister-in-law let her out of the house and she was gone for two days. We found her 1.5 miles from the house sitting in a tree directly beside the bike trail I would take her on. She found us when we rode past one evening looking for her, called out to us and we knew we had found our baby.

We won't go anywhere because I can't handle leaving them alone for too long. If I've been gone all day I start to feel antsy that I have to get back to them.

Do like all the other Californians - move to Texas. I'll sit a birdy! Actually our house in Allen is for sale and has a complete aviary built onto the house. I miss that place already.