The Boulder Bird on the Flying Trapeze
Layla Posing for a Portrait.
Layla would speak to us, but if she does I’d have to pay her the higher “I’ve got lines” rate for actors!
Ignore the picture. Ignore my clever text. WATCH THE VIDEO! My best efforts are fine, but Layla is funnier. I’d say she’s a ham, but then we’d look alike. I don’t want to compete with her for being cute because I would SO lose!
Movie of Layla on her trapeze:
Boulder humans and our animal friends apparently like swinging. Whether from a rope over Boulder Creek or a trapeze in a (generally open) bird cage, there seems to be a shared desire to stay in motion. Momentum at work. See, physics IS fun. Please note that a trapeze includes “rock” AND “roll.” A match made in heaven. This video is Layla, Boulder Bird, swinging on her trapeze. Although seen at least once swinging on the trapeze with no talons on the perch in front of her, generally she keeps her talons on the perch and places her tail and butt on and over the trapeze. Then she rocks and chirps. Draw your own conclusion.
This morning I heard a loud “CLUNK” coming from the cage. I saw Layla at her food bowl eating. Contended. I turned around. Then another loud LOUD “CLUNK.” What was hitting the side of the cage that hard? I watched for a while. THEN I saw her lift the sliding door next to the food bowl about 3″ up, and it crashed down. She did this again. I think she’ll be escaping out this side door at will, and within a week, not a month. She is PERSISTENT! Happily she does well with an open door. And we do well with her and the open door. If I don’t pay enough attention to her, she’ll take off from the cage, fly in a couple of circles, and land on my head. My alleged “thinning hair spot” on top of my head is in fact a cleared landing strip! No more of this “thinning hair” nonsense!
Once we learned that green-cheeked conures generally don’t speak English, I made it a goal to learn to speak “bird.” My understanding is improving consistently and fast. Does ESP play a role? Probably. Also my motivation is high, and I believe her motivation is high. I can understand perhaps 15 words of “bird” so far, and understand her more often than that intuitively and based upon the vocalizations that I already have learned to recognize.
She has a “defcon 4″ alert that is good for a cat or other larger “visitor” in the yard. Defcon 2 is reserved for serious alerts, like a fox in the yard or Amazon at the door. Her normal whistle is “defcon 5” meaning “you did not notice that I’ve been nicely asking for … (fill that in with water, food, put me back on my perch, and more). Before sounding, she’ll stare down at her water bowl or swing (repeatedly) her hanging non-ringing bell. If I don’t notice that, she’ll whistle. If I ignore the defon 5 “back on my cage perch please” whistle, and she’s on my hand, I waited too long, and will get bitten. Hard enough to hurt, and rarely breaking the skin. but leaving marks! I am now wearing a glove on the proper hand. I also anticipate her desire to be returned to her perch, and put her back there before she needs to get insistent. I believe that the biting is part of her language, and NOT aggressive or hostile. That’s easy to say when she’s not hanging onto my finger with her incredibly strong and dexterous beak. The same beak and tongue that gives me gentle kisses can inflict honestly serious pain. I’ve learned (mostly) to accept it as the “price of doing business.” The real challenge is that three of us, bird, bride and Lensworth, have to learn to love each other. Bird LOVES me. Debi rescued her. Debi is the true Animal Whisperer. She is skilled and trained with handling birds as large as Golden Eagles, with kestrels being quite at home riding her hair chopsticks. Her raptor experience came from many years working in the bird ICU at Boulder’s Birds of Prey rehab center.
She started with cleaning mouse cages (raised for raptor food), and after some time there, ended up working with the famous Sigrid in the ICU section. The birds loved her! She’s the one that (with my agreement) rescued Layla. BUT that bird LOVES me! Seriously! No hyperbole! That bird loves me. She is learning to tolerate Debi, and to at least be polite to her. That’s after a year and a half of Debi’s brilliant patience and skill. Even the hard bite to the lip (yup) did not deter the real animal whisperer. Even after that Debi was find with Layla landing on her head, did not flinch, and Layla, knowing a safe place when she landed on it, began to groom Debi’s long thick hair. I was not taking chances and quickly picked up the “hand perch” so Layla could walk onto that (after I untangled talons and hair) without any biting. I’m happy to share that both bird and bride came through that stage of bird behavior and human behavior with flying colors. Flying wings.
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