Feathers

A bona fide avian biologist would scoff at this amateurish blog today which is about different types of feathers we have observed.

• Baby white down: this is apparently fast growing, and must require less complexity to develop. It is the fluffy white down that first appears on a baby budgie, and also, the first to grow after an injury (Magoo sprouted this type in his denuded chest area first, but now is getting regular feathers, as pictured above, from her/his best angle!).
• Chest/head/body medium feathers: these are softer than the wing/tail feathers, shorter, and more round. They are the ones that seem to fall out when budgies fight.
• Wing and tail feathers: long, and in our birds, have stripes in a contrasting color. In the white birds Sutcliffe and Mia, the contrasting stripes are a subtle blue-ish, yellow, or gray. On the greenish birds, these are black. On the Lutino (Mary ann) no stripes are seen. These feathers are stiff, narrow, and could make some very nice quill pens. The tail feathers in particular are especially long and come to a lovely point. Several of the flight feathers also come to a long point in the back, and fold across the back of an unclipped budgie.

Since budgies are considered a member of the tribe of broad-tailed parrots (Platycercini), biologists clearly found the tail feathers impressive.

More about color variations and patterns in future blogs!

Say Hello to Magoo!

The poll showed that Magoo is the winning name. Thanks to everyone who voted!
And as you can see, our baby bird is healing very nicely. You can see some white feathers on his/her chest: this is where feathers were pulled off and are regrowing. His/her muttonchops (my name for the feathery jowl area on a budgie) are growing back gradually. The chin remains a bit bare, and there are a couple of smudges remaining from the goo episode. However s/he is doing a good job rubbing sticks with his/her head and beak to clean these smudges. Otherwise our baby is doing great! MIlestones include her/his standing on both feet equally, eating with pleasure, biting us (the human guardians) and flying, once again, with reckless abandon. However, we will be keeping a close eye on this baby, and also, Magoo's compatriots.

Baby Close to Normal!

This morning, the baby was hopping from perch to perch without any problem, using both feet. When he was startled by me, he did stand on the right foot only, so he still favors it. However, the left is fully functional in a normal way. He was also flying around with apparent joy. He and Sutcliffe were generally having fun this morning flying, eating, and generally squawking to their neighbors. The baby is a little "wild one" again! Its good to see he's got his groove back (note, we realize, this baby could be female).
Lessons learned:
1. wing clipping IMHO is not cruel. it could be life saving as
2. there are many risks to a flying household budgie, and they get into those risks FAST!
3. Dilute vinegar solution is safe for budgies in small doses and effective at removing "goo".
4. Being young is good for your health. And I retract my remarks from yesterday: flying around as a baby budgie is not really foolish. He was just acting like a budgie when he got trapped in goo.

Doing Better

The baby seems a lot more perky. He still favors the left leg, and lists to the right, especially in the evening. Examination of his leg shows no obvious injury or deformity. He seems to have a normal range of motion, normal configuration of toes, feet, knees, legs. Its hard to see up into his feathers to see if his thigh might have an injury. Hopefully he will mend himself. However, he enjoys sitting in the food bowl, which must be a good way to rest his little drumsticks. He can fly. He and Sutcliffe have been moved to a "hospital flight cage" which is a long cage, where we have placed the perches extremely close to the floor so that if he falls off, he won't be hurt badly. The nest box is also in there, but chiefly, the baby and Sutcliffe use it as a lookout point (they stand on it) rather than go inside it.

Poll Results Update

What Should We Name the New Baby?
Snickles 10% (2)
Magoo 19% (4)
Nick 5% (1)
Sydney0% (0)
Biddle 5% (1)
Strorks 10% (2)
Dino 10% (2)
Peet 5% (1)
Beady 0% (0)

(will not add to 100%)

It looks like "Magoo" is the winner--especially since Goo seems to be a part of the baby's early life experience!

The Baby Can Now Stand on Perch

Yesterday, when we handled the baby, he was able to hold onto a finger with one foot, or another, but not with both, and could not stand. We placed him in the bottom of the cage, and Stucliffe, herded him and showed him the way back up towards the nest box, but we gave him his final shove back into it. When we go to get him out, he scurries out the front of the box! Today, he was much more skillful, and stood well on a finger. He also has become a good flyer, literally, overnight. This baby is really a prodigy! He is not too tame, though, at least not yet. Today, we put all three cages (1. the nuclear family of Sutcliffe, Mary Ann, baby, 2. Boo 3. Mia) in the same room. There was much flock-related excitement from all. Our ultimate goal: one communal cage (For heaven's sake, this multi-cage cleaning and feeding is making us bonkers). The baby, who was OUTSIDE the box on his own volition this morning, spent the rest of the day in the box after the arrival of Boo and Mia in their respective cages. Mary ann is being quite snarky to Sutcliffe. Its not clear if she is just reverting back to her old self, now that the baby is older, or if having the flock around stressed her out. As experience with Lola showed, Sutcliffe does have a wandering eye (hence, his nickname, "Slutcliffe").

Thanks to all who have voted, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!! It seems that the problem with voting twice has been solved, and votes will only be noted once. Or, at least once per computer.

Note: If you check results, it looks like "Lovey" is winning, but, that is only because I don't know how to resolve the minor glitch that, every time you click "check results", a vote goes to Lovey, even though, Lovey no longer appears as a choice. Free widget poll, what can I say?

We were pleased to see Legal Aid's comment, re: letting the Baby Bird pick its own name. However, it isn't clear to us how to organize that. thoughts?

Baby Handling

We are handling the baby daily. Hopefully, s/he will become tame, but currently, not so much. The baby appears a bit more pale yellow than Boo. S/he is healthy in appearance. Mary ann is spending more and more time outside the nest box. She no longer takes giant "mother poos" as she did when the baby and eggs were being incubated and prior to her fledging. fThe baby pokes her head out quite a bit but has not yet emerged. S/he cannot yet stand on a finger perch; perch standing will be key to emerging from the nest box and subsequently, feeding.

Voting Re-set

We have reset the voting and hope that it works: the widget was downloaded from easy-poll.com. It only allows ten choices. If your favorite choice(s) was/were eliminated, email one of us directly, or send a remark to sutcliffe.boo@gmail.com!

Baby Is Boo-ish, Happy Boo's day and New Year

After a week away from the baby, we are amazed at how much he has grown! His coloring is clearly the same as Boo's (wild type). I suppose this shows that if you breed a yellow (Luteno, Mary ann) with a blue (Sutcliffe, white but in the blue family) you get green (Boo and baby).
We have several new suggestions for baby names, from B (Thanks!).
Rhino
Peet
Beady
Lovey (Mrs Thurston Howell III)
Antoinette (could be shortened to Antoine should the baby turn out to be a man)

C further suggests suggests
Biddle-Barrows (after the Mayflower Madame)
Strorks, after his 1st dog and the rhino in the just so stories
These will be added to the POLL and the poll will be posted de novo: so don't forget to vote!

Some Pictures of Growing Baby! What a Fledgling!