What made you know you were a bird person??

[cflanny]

I have several stories going back to when I was 2 years old, my mother always took in stray anything and everything, if there was a lonely animal in need of help they came to us !!

 

This was obviosly passed down to me as in the last few years myself and the wildlife rescue have became great friends. I have had a baby crow who I did everything in my power to help the parents with ( they never left him ) he fell so I kept the dogs in and let them feed him on the ground till he was stronger he lived and hung aroud my yard all the way till I moved ( I STILL GO LOOK FOR HIM), then a baby Red tail who I had to keep in my house for a few hours till rescue came for him SO FUN!!

Last year I went out to my car and there was a yellow baby duck at my gate( no ducks anywhere near me)a seagull crashed into my door, a baby squirrel ran thru my door and made friends with my dog, I have had a dove lay her eggs in my hanging plant right out my door about 15 times almost 5 sets each year ( horny birds) omgosh there are so many more.

 

When I was about 6 we were at the creek and a wild Blue jay landed on my head and the proceeded to bath in a near puddle for hours with us while we enjoyed our day.

 

Anyways I think being a bird person was just somthing I was born with, My friends have called me bird lady for years and have always had birds in my house till the last few years I am so excited to welcome another feathered friend into my life!!

 

So what turned you on to knowing that a bird was somthing you needed or wanted to share your life with ??

[Laurie]

I was not supposed to be the bird person. My husband and son wanted the bird and I agreed to tolerate it. Klaus was home for only a short while before it became obvious he was smitten with me. That's how I became a bird person! LOL

I have always been an animal person, though. I will actually catch a bug in a Dixie cup and escort it outside before I'll squish it (unless it's a fly or mosquito...I take no prisoners in that case...).

[Tycos_mom]

I've always had a bird ever since. I was a little girl. I have no Idea what they are attracted by but most bird even wild birds are not afraid of me. I go outside to fill up the bird feeders and the chickadees and house finches will perch on my hand waiting for their dishes to be filled if I pour a little into my palm they will eat out of my hand. The Steller jays will fly by and take the peanuts out of my hand on the fly they wait patiently for those peanuts daily. When I met Tyco for the first time she couldn't wait to get out of that little cage of hers and even though she had not been handled for 4 yrs and I was to be her fourth owner she stepped up and let me kiss and touch her beak.

I also get called the bird lady. The people in my neighbourhood have budgies, lovebirds and cockateils and I don't know how many times I've been woken out of my sleep because a bird has either broke a leg. or is sick and they don't know what todo. because the birds are inexpensive they don't want to take them to the vet. So I end up taking the bird in and nurse it back to health then give it back. with a lesson on how to care for them. Even the people that do take their birds to the vet usually bring them to me if their on medication because they are to afraid to administer it. I just have a way with birds they seem to respond well to me. Or mabie its because they can sense that I love them.

PS don't worry about germs when I feed the out door birds I have a smock that I keep in the mud room and I throw it on so I don't pick any disesses up and then when I come in I wash with anti bacterial soap.<br><br>Post edited by: Tycos_mom, at: 2008/09/30 03:37

[Nychsa]

One of the Buddhist teachers I study under started an exotic bird sanctuary. Then I found out that my Buddhist teacher actually had his beloved Cackatoos that he treasured so much in India, so for his birthday I got him a little cockatial. That's when I had my first encounter with birds.

 

As the sanctuary started to send out information on Parrots, I felt this tug on my heart strings every time I looked at the birds. I found myself starting to look for parrots.

 

Then one day my two greyhounds and I were at Petco getting dog food and Jiggy, my conure, was in his cage doing everything in the world to get my attention. I asked a Petco employee to let me see him. She seemed a bit aprehensive, but opened the cage none the less. Jiggy jumped right on to my finger and started to coo and nibble on me. The Petco employee told me that she was amazed because he was normally very agressive and a biter. Well, obviously he needed to come home with us, so.. that was it.. Jiggy moved in..

 

Originally I wanted to get an Amazon to join us. After researching various breeders I finally went to visit and see which bird I would connect with. Well, the Amazons wanted nothing to do with me. But the little greys were all over me!

 

Well, ultimately Bella emerged as our new family member and the rest is history! If I had my druthers, I would have a very large outdoor aviary and I would add a McCaw and an Amazon

[LindaMary]

I think it's a blend of nature and nurture in my case - and my father played a big role in it. He was an Arkansas farm boy for his first 12 years, and though we never lived on a farm in my lifetime, he always welcomed all kinds of animals around the house. Daddy had a real affinity for birds, and we had raised quite a few fallen nestlings before I got my first parakeet at age 10 or so. (Yes, I know - "you're supposed to let the abandoned baby die" - but in our family - not happ'nin, folks...) He also fed wild birds religiously, and always put out hummingbird feeders until he couldn't anymore - at which point I put them out for him.

 

So I'd helped raise a few wild birds and had fun trying to train a couple of parakeets as a child, but I think it wasn't until 1982, when I was an adult and raised a baby robin whose nest (and siblings) were drowned in a torrential downpour in CT, that I really connected with my own inner bird lover. Robin was the first bird who really bonded with me (and BTW he succesfully returned to the wild). He's a whole tale all by himself. He was followed within a couple of years by an equally-bonded Sketch (my wonderful little blue budgie (1983-1995), and by that time it was all over for me - I was definitley a bird person!

 

I think that for me the attraction has something to do with the challenge of developing something like a trusting peer relationship with a creature of a different species. I have never been that interested in exercising authority over a pet (not a good dog-owner!) - my affinity for cats proves that too I guess . There's nothing like a "pet" that has wings and an ice pick attached to its face to convince you that a mutual understanding of body language is crucial. Maybe that's another key - I've always loved foreign languages, so maybe I look at bird body language as another fun language to learn. What the birds see in me, I don't know - and unlike some of you - they don't universally love me:unsure: . Still, I've had wild birds land on me more than once while I'm out doing my field work - especially chickadees, of course. And I'm always delighted and so flattered when that happens!:cheer: