THE BIRD THREAD - Post birds, discuss birds or even sniff birds.

[anliteralidiot]

Our hen and her chicks enjoying some grass.

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

Here are some delightful shitheads emptying the birdfeeder that I filled this morning.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

I am jealous of the tales of affectionate chickens. My gray, having recently passed through mating season, enjoyed making kebabs out of my fingers and howling like a fucking banshee from Hell at every bipedal creature in his vicinity as he asserted dominance over the earth. Then he chased my fucking cat before I wrangled him back into his cage (and suffered more bites) for the damned day. That was every fucking day (except the chasing the cat - that only happened on day 1 - she wised up and stayed away when the bird came down for his morning shit-fest and breakfast). For a week. A long, miserable week.

He's better now, but still not up to cuddles. Because he is an obstinate ass. And an old curmudgeon who's above cuddles at this stage in his life.

ETA: This is his 'scritch my feathers and I will end you' face.

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Nope nope, falsehoods. Don't believe it. That face is too cute for evil deeds. Those bites are just him hugging your fingers with his beak.

 

[Sithis]

So, one of my elderly neighbors asked me for some help a few weeks ago, since he knows I'm a "bird person"

Dude bought a dozen chicks, half a dozen ducklings, and for some reason, half a dozen fucking guineafowl.

Idk if any of you know what guineafowl are, but as I recently learned, they're basically more aggressive turkeys. Think of them as the Americas answer to emus. This is what they look like when grown:
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Apparently the feed store told him they'd keep the chickens safe and neglected to include the part where they'd probably fly or roam wherever the fuck they want lol this should be an entertaining summer.

It's been like 2 weeks and the little bastards are already as fat as softballs.

So it's been a little over a month and I bring news of an update;
All the birds are now staying outside in an enclosure I helped him build for them. The guineas are getting big and they have their spots and are starting to do alarm calls. The chickens are all fully feathered and are pretty docile and very curious, they're easy to herd in and out of the coop and seem to be healthy.
The ducks have got fuckin huge and the two yellow ducklings have changed to solid white feathers. One of them seems to be the dominant duck of of the bunch and where it goes the others tend to follow.
Unfortunately the old coot accidentally hurt one of the ducks legs while picking it up so it's had a pretty severe limp and hasn't been able to use that one leg. We took it into the vet and they essentially told us the best we can do is build a swing type thing for it and give it therapy and hopefully it'll heal. Idk, my hopes aren't great that it'll ever walk again on it, but he seems to want to do what he can to keep it alive and happy. It's a cute little duck too, it's got to where when it sees me approaching his house it'll start quacking and gets all excited, and it nibbles a bit on my clothes and fingers. Been feeding it some peas and kale but might've fucked up by handfeeding it too much because now the cocky little bastard expects to be hand fed.

 

[SuiSui1]

 

[SuiSui1]

 

[2525ABC]

Our Tom turkey hatched by a broody bantam. As far as he is concerned all his clutchmates are his ladies and he feeds and woos them all day. The banty cockerels are especially disinterested but he takes that as a challenge.

 

[Liquid Marlon]

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

A nice array of morning shit birds. Cardinals, Carolina chickadees, mourning doves, and an ‘I’m ready to make a babies’ summer Tanager. The birdfeeder kept them all occupied enough that even potato camera was able to take pictures.

 

[Santa Fe Swag]

I find cassowaries rather fascinating. They have giant talons and could rip into a person with one kick. I believe they're the most dangerous bird known to man.

 

[Death Grip]

Recently met a very aggressive cockerel, but only towards women. I have the wounds that tell the tale. Total prick of a bird but next time I will be armed with a water spray...
Once saw a cockerel fighting a peacock, fascinating to watch, shame I didn't have anything to document it with photographically but will stay in my brain, until I die or develop dementia. Which ever comes first.
Swooping and swirling around each other.

 

[Gentleburd]

I love birbs, but I sadly can’t have any of my own. I live in a teeny apartment so I can’t keep chickens or ducks, and I have health issues so I know I wouldn’t be able to give a parrot or songbird a good, happy life.
So I live vicariously through everyone else’s pics and videos. They make me smile

 

[Gay Mouth]

I love birbs, but I sadly can’t have any of my own. I live in a teeny apartment so I can’t keep chickens or ducks, and I have health issues so I know I wouldn’t be able to give a parrot or songbird a good, happy life.
So I live vicariously through everyone else’s pics and videos. They make me smile

Buy some wildbird seed, strew it on your windowsill or patio. Or take a pinecone, mash peanutbutter into the crevasses, roll it in birdseed and hang outside your window. OR-
Buy a hummingbird feeder, boil 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup purified water til the sugar dissolves and pour the cooled syrup into the feeder.

You don’t need to own a bird to feed one. You don’t need to capture one of these beauties to help them. Birds are wild. Help them when you can. Try one of these tips and watch them flock. Stay outside or visible during feeding and they’ll know and trust you by the end of the season.

(Trust me, you’ll have a closer relationship with birds you DONT own simply due to the fact they’re wild and meant to be. Just feed them and be around and watch the magic bloom)

 

[Phimosis Jonisis]

Moved to a different country and finally saw a crow for the first time. Those birds are huge and scary looking

 

[Chump]

Hey I have looked at this thread and you guys seem really knowledgeable about keeping birds. I have always wanted to keep a conure in my life time. I know this is like a 30 year commitment. I was wondering if you guys had any tips in keeping them and what the most ethical way of getting said conure is?

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

Buy some wildbird seed, strew it on your windowsill or patio. Or take a pinecone, mash peanutbutter into the crevasses, roll it in birdseed and hang outside your window.

This right here. I always hung a bird feeder outside of my apartment balcony (or patio if I was ground floor) when apartment living. Wild birds are awesome.

Moved to a different country and finally saw a crow for the first time. Those birds are huge and scary looking

Crows are freaking awesome. They may be scary looking, but they're not shitasses like geese or magpies. I'll take a murder of crows over a flock of geese any day that ends with 'y.'

Edit: DMing, Chump. Though might not be too helpful, so hopefully a conure owner steps up to the plate!

 

[Coldgrip]

Moved to a different country and finally saw a crow for the first time. Those birds are huge and scary looking

Wait till you see ravens.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Visited a bird park in North Carolina that had a giant enclosure full of those colorful parrot things that you could feed. Probably the closest I’ve been to a bird IRL, they weren’t afraid of people at all and would come land all over your body. Surprisingly only got crapped on once.

 

[Coldgrip]

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Visited a bird park in North Carolina that had a giant enclosure full of those colorful parrot things that you could feed. Probably the closest I’ve been to a bird IRL, they weren’t afraid of people at all and would come land all over your body. Surprisingly only got crapped on once.

Looks like a sun conure.

 

[Gay Mouth]

View attachment 3230329
Visited a bird park in North Carolina that had a giant enclosure full of those colorful parrot things that you could feed. Probably the closest I’ve been to a bird IRL, they weren’t afraid of people at all and would come land all over your body. Surprisingly only got crapped on once.

This reminds me of the lorikeet exhibit at my local zoo!

For a couple dollars you could buy a little sauce cup of fruit nectar to feed them. 2-4 of them would fly over and perch on your hand cupped around the cup, maybe squabbling a little.

They have these really interesting tongues that are similar to a sponge to soak up nectar.

They would also be happy to land on your head and hunt for dandruff to eat. Cheeky assholes.

In other bird news, a pair of lovers decided to build a nest on my wreath. Any amateur oologists know what species this might be?