relation with our bird

[Di Wu]

Since my bird flew away and recaptured, I start to think about our relationship with our bird.
Everyone said if we let our pet bird lose outside in the open air, they will soon or later fly away even we have a very strong bond with our bird. yes, many heartbroken stories have proved that.

However, when I lived in China many years ago. I experience complete different stories. When I was a kind, I hand feed a baby sparrow, he bond with me, he free fly inside and outside my house. He spend half a day outside alone and come back. he sit on the roof, on the tree, fly through open windows. He likes a dog. he even didn't have a cage. As a kind, I didn't learn how to train a bird, I gave him food and love. I didn't realize he can fly away and he never flew away.
another story about a magpie. I lived in an apartment in a five floor building in China about 20 years ago. My friend who live in third floor hand feed a baby magpie. The bird get all his freedom, he fly everywhere, form building to building, tree to tree. he even play with other wild magpies. he was completely free and independent. The bird become my friend as well, he visited me several time a week during the summer , he flew into my room through the window, I give him food or toy to play, he flew away and come back next day. some nights,he even sleep in my room, so I need to tell my friend that the bird was with me. I am sure he can never get loss and he trust all the people.
but he shouldn't. At end of the summer, he disappeared for one week, then come back with many missing toes and his beak was broken. some evil man captured him and hurt him. but he manage to escape and flew back home. sadly, he died next day.
So I why we can't have same relation with our parrot? two different creatures, complete independent,best friends. bird can leave his human friend whenever he want. but friendship keep him come back. I believe some where in this world, the kind of relationship is still existing.

[ParrotsForLife]

I dont know what its like to own a wild bird like a sparrow but a parrot they cant be let outside because its not their native enviroment and other birds can kill them.Also how do you a man had the magpie and he escaped you would have to be there unless somebody saw Just Asking.

[liz]

I took a baby starling out of a cat's mouth and named him Friskies. I softened cat food and fed him that and any berry or corn I could get in him. It was hard to get him out of the house when he was able to fly. I would put him out when the other starlings were in the yard but he would come back at dusk to be put in his bed. He eventually went with them but came to the window every spring for many years.

This can also be done with adult birds that are wild. There was a video of wild macaws going to balconies at certain times of the day. They knew food would be waiting for them.
My mother put up a humming bird feeder in her yard but ended up with five of them. Each feeder had one male and multiple females at it. When one would empty they came and hovered at her window to tell her. When she would sit on the porch the would zoom around her and some would even land on her. She never made an attempt to touch them. When she sold the house she left the feeder with written instruction on how to care for the birds.

I guess the wild ones know what their lives are like and enjoy being fed.

We have one member in Asia, but I can't remember his name, who rehabs wild parrots. If someone else remembers his name I hope they post it so you can go back and read about him..

[Wolf]

I don't know that you can't have that good of a relationship with your parrot, but the first thing that comes to mind is that the sparrow and the magpie were born wild and they knew the dangers in their environment and knew how to avoid most of them. This is not true with the captive bred and raised parrots in this country. As far as I know there are no statistics to tell us how many parrots that get out are killed by cats, dogs, or other predators nor any on how many are killed by automobiles. There is also no way of knowing how many are picked up by other humans who then keep then either after failing to find the person who lost the bird or by not even trying to find the birds home. These are the birds that don't make it back home and I am certain that they outnumber the ones who made it back home.
My Grey flew away due to my error, but she circled around and perched in trees that were very close by and I was able to recover her. The thing is that I have so many owls, hawks and eagles as well as crows and ravens that a free flying parrot is in grave dander where I live and because of this alone It is not worth the risk to take this type of chance with mine and I did not mention all of the feral cats or other ground based predators here.
Because of the risks involved I don't recommend taking parrots out without either a cage or a harness.

[Di Wu]

I dont know what its like to own a wild bird like a sparrow but a parrot they cant be let outside because its not their native enviroment and other birds can kill them.Also how do you a man had the magpie and he escaped you would have to be there unless somebody saw Just Asking.

We know a human hurt the magpie because 1/3 of his beak was cut away by a very sharp tools. I didn't mentioned this in my first poster because i don't want people cry. We believe someone did it to prevent biting or as a revenge if the bird had bite him. There are many people with ill mind in this world.

Some parrots do survive here outside in Netherlands, actually, not only survive, they keep breeding. About 70 years ago, a group of rose-ringed parakeet escape for their aviary here, they survive the first winter winter, and now, we have thousands of them living in the parks at Den haag, Amsterdam and other big cities. I live about 70 kilo meter south of Den haag, I believe these birds will come to our city in the next 20 years.

[Di Wu]

I took a baby starling out of a cat's mouth and named him Friskies. I softened cat food and fed him that and any berry or corn I could get in him. It was hard to get him out of the house when he was able to fly. I would put him out when the other starlings were in the yard but he would come back at dusk to be put in his bed. He eventually went with them but came to the window every spring for many years.

This can also be done with adult birds that are wild. There was a video of wild macaws going to balconies at certain times of the day. They knew food would be waiting for them.
My mother put up a humming bird feeder in her yard but ended up with five of them. Each feeder had one male and multiple females at it. When one would empty they came and hovered at her window to tell her. When she would sit on the porch the would zoom around her and some would even land on her. She never made an attempt to touch them. When she sold the house she left the feeder with written instruction on how to care for the birds.

I guess the wild ones know what their lives are like and enjoy being fed.


We have one member in Asia, but I can't remember his name, who rehabs wild parrots. If someone else remembers his name I hope they post it so you can go back and read about him..

This is the way I want to be with my bird!

[Wolf]

Yes some of the parrot species that are from temperate climates may indeed live long enough to learn to survive in your area, but not those from a tropical climate as they can't take a temperature that is less than 50 degrees Faranheit for very long.
I have been reading about the spread of the rose ringed parakeet in Europe, or at least when I can find information on it. I seem to recall that the first ones to escape and go feral were from wild caught birds before the importation of them was banned. These bird would have had the knowledge to find food and water as well as to avoid humans. They would then be able to multiply and establish a territory.
The same thing has occurred with the Monk Parakeet in the U.S. and even with some of the more tropical birds in areas that are warm enough for them. Personally I am glad to see them doing this.

[Pajarita]

Wolf is correct. There is a HUGE difference between a bird that was hand-fed by humans and one that was born and raised by its bird parents. Plus, passerines, corvids, etc are mostly instinctual eaters. They do learn to eat new things by watching other birds but they are born knowing what means food to them and what doesn't. Parrots are not like that. A pet parrot that was hand-fed by humans would not even know where to find food or water (they actually die of dehydration before they die of hunger). Rose-ringed are psittaculas which are very well know for regressing very rapidly to their 'wild' ways so even the pet ones have an advantage over the other psittacine species.