by Pajarita » Tue May 22, 2018 10:52 am
Liz, let me see if I can explain it better:
Gimpy sat on the egg because it was there. If there had been no egg, he would not think, wonder, ponder, wish or pine for one. Same with Tommy and Tammy, it's breeding season and there is an egg so they sit on it.
As to Andy, you don't really know if he is 'whimpering' and much less if he is actually missing Maggie. For all you know, he is not missing her and he is just vocalizing in his own way. Birds -like all animals- are VERY pragmatic and practical when it comes to losing a mate, a nest, a baby, a parent or a friend. It's not that they don't love them and that they don't mourn them in their own way but life NEEDS to go on same as always or the species would die and nature made certain that this doesn't happen by giving them a very straightforward approach to loss.
Same thing with Jackie... You are just endowing her behavior with your own interpretation of things with absolutely no proof or basis. Hens don't lay down in front of males to let them know they like them -males are the ones that do ALL the courting and the hens simply accept them or not. I am not saying that she is indifferent to him -she might very well like him a lot, for all I know- but saying that she 'knows' he is sad and decided the solution to this is for him to take her on as a mate is a bit too farfetched and outside the natural behaviors of male and female tiels.