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 Getting Better

The baby is getting better. His chest almost has a full set of feathers again; only his mutton chop feathers (The fluffy feathers budgies have on the side of the cheeks) and a few patches under his chin remain a bit bald. His beak is working fine; he bit K last night with respectable malevolent intent it seemed. We were thrilled of course.

He does seem to be favoring the left leg: he doesn't stand on it as much as the right leg, and while budgie legs are always blue-ish, the left leg seems more blue-ish than the other. This seems to be new since yesterday. Nonetheless, all parts of that leg are moving normally in in a healthy configuration, it seems, even his toenails. He is eating, and Sutcliffe continues to feed him. He also took a crap on K, another glorious event.

As noted by yesterday's commentator (but also, a very special tator), C, the young have a tremendous capacity for recovery. Its a good thing, as they also tend to be somewhat foolish. (Wow, does that last remark mean that we human guardians are becoming old grouches?)