Describe your flock!

[veronica2000]

I only have one bird right now, but am feeling the need for more! (MBS)

Don’t worry, I’m not about to impulse buy any birds, I’m just wondering, how big is your flock? What species do you have? How do they all get along?

I’d like to hear the good and bad about having a mix of different species.

I’m thinking over my life I’d love to have Aratinga conures, caiques, ringnecks, maybe a grey or amazon one day... And also some of the little guys like budgies and parrotlets!

 

[alshgs]

I have 3 right now. A 3 year old male plumheaded parakeet named Tuki. He’s as sweet as can be. A 1 year old male crimson bellied conure named Pickles. He is such a brat but I love him to bits. And a 10-11ish year old female yellow sided green cheek conure named Diego. She’s probably the sweetest of the bunch when she wants to be.

Mine get along most of the time. They are all flighted and usually fly away if one is getting on their nerves. The 3 of them combined are ear splitting! But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m hopefully adding a mealy amazon in the next few weeks if everything works out.

 

[SquawksNibbles]

I currently have my two Budgies, Skittles and Nico. They are best buds. They have a large cage, and yet, they are always by each other’s side, 24/7. They have their little ‘arguments’ but none have lasted over a minute and next second they’re just chilling by each other again. They are not a mixed species pair, they’re both Budgies, so I have no idea how helpful this post will be to you. Anyways, in short, my boys would not be as happy as they are without each other - they are simply just flock birds.

There are many members here who do have birds of different species together - it does work out. One thing I just would not recommend is allowing something like a macaw and Budgie to play together. One strike of that big beak, whether intentional or not, from the macaw can kill a small bird.

But there can be some pretty odd bird pairs. At my nearest bird rescue, they currently have a Cockatiel and Jenday conure pair that, according to their description, MUST be adopted together. So it is possible to have a mixed species flock, it’s just best, at least in my opinion, not to mix birds with such a big size difference. Or if you do, just limit interaction between the two. This is just my view, at least. Hopefully some more members will come along and give you a better answer from their experience.

 

[HolliDaze]

I jus t have dex.. Which I'm sure he's fine with

 

[cnyguy]

I am owned by Ralph, a standard green Quaker parrot who has been with me for 8 years, since he was just 6 months old-- and Scooter, a 14-year-old CAG whom I adopted a little over two years ago.

 

[AkasyaEllric]

I have Ollie, a canary winged parakeet, Diggle, a plum headed parakeet, and Slade, a brown headed parrot.

Ollie is a jerk honestly. I can't have him around anyone because he goes full attack mode biting at feet pretty quickly. I thought he would be fine with other birds since he was defending the other CWP in the cage he was in from us, but apparently that's the only species he actually likes, are more of him. He's probably the most temperamental of the group, just naturally, but we love him. He adores my husband so I probably have a different view of how he is then he does.

Diggle wanted to be friends with Ollie but now he's afraid of other birds, but I think that's something we could worth through the opportunity came up. He's the sweetheart. He loves my daughter but he's not mean to anyone. No one but her can pet him, but he loves to sit on my shoulder and hang out and preen my face and hair.

Slade is an older traumatized bird, I'm his 4th home. We are still getting to know each other, and on top of that he's hormonal, and I've never had a hormonal older bird before. I can tell that he wants more from me but we aren't to the trusting point yet plus, he threatens to bite still pretty regularly. I'm hoping after he's not hormonal that we will be best buds because he's kind of obsessed with me (but it's mutual).

At the end of the day though, they all are different, even within the same species. Ganymede, my other CWP that passed away, loved people and didn't seem to show aggression to other birds unless she was on me, and we were working through that.

 

[Garet]

My flock is crazy. Mims and Guz just like to nap all day, but the rest of them... they're crazy. They actually formed a bonded pair, and Mims lived with my budgie for a little while, since Ciri flew into her cage and I could not get her out.

That's not to say that all birds are safe together. While Ciri was alive, she'd try to pick fights with Yen. Yen also will bully Mims given half the chance. The other lovebirds seem fine with her, but I'm a worry wart. If I'm not there to supervise, the majority of the flock is in my room while Mims and Guz get the front room. Bull and Dorian seem to adore her, but I'm not taking any chances. The little buggers can do some serious damage.

One really odd thing I've noticed is that Mims has started mimicking Yen's 'I don't want to go to bed please let me out of the cage' calls. But she only does it at two am.

Needless to say she had me spooked silly for a few nights.

 

[Doctress]

My first bird was an Amazon... at around 5 yrs old, he became lonely, so we found the Severe macaw at a pet shop. They tolerated each other, but not friendly. They kept their distance and were respectful. The macaw was a handful, but she was good company for the Amazon.
After her untimely death, we adopted a 3 yr old CAG. He was absolutely the right choice. The Amazon is rejuvenated, loves chatting back and forth with his new flock mate, and waits for him to finish breakfast so they can teach each other new sounds and words. They’re both laid-back, which is a change from the high-energy mini macaw.

 

[veronica2000]

@Doctress that is so sweet that they teach each other!

 

[Shinobi]

Awesome

 

[BirdManDan]

That's how it always starts but then it just happens to grow over time. We started with one then with so many rescues needed we went up to over 50. We neeced to rehab and socialize then so they could be renomed as loving and handleable parrots. Now we have 11. We till rescue here and there and get them ready for new homes unless we absolutely completely can't give one up then I am afraid our flook will grow!

​

 

[rocky'smom]

I have 2 cockatiels, Sweet Pea my little lutino female. She is a very good girl, a cuddle bug, and some days a stinker. She will be 4 yr old in Sept.
Then there is my gray male named Bebe. He a rescue that came to me, in the worst shape. He was fed every piece of human junk food possible. What he didn't like he threw to the tray and it was embedded in poop. He was 10 yrs old and I have had him for 2 years. He came with big box of 'baggage' and we are still working towards unpacking and ridding ourselves of the bad things.

 

[rocky'smom]

I have 2 cockatiels, Sweet Pea my little lutino female. She is a very good girl, a cuddle bug, and some days a stinker. She will be 4 yr old in Sept.
Then there is my gray male named Bebe. He a rescue that came to me, in the worst shape. He was fed every piece of human junk food possible. What he didn't like he threw to the tray and it was embedded in poop. He was 10 yrs old and I have had him for 2 years. He came with big box of 'baggage' and we are still working towards unpacking and ridding ourselves of the bad things.

 

[BirdManDan]

Here are pics of some of ours by the pool on a nice sunny day. Bottom left is Pickles the Dusky Head Conure, Top Left is Olivia the Blue Crowned Conure, Middle is Skittles the Jenday Conure and on the right is Rosie the Gallah Cockatoo
Coral our Goffin Cockatoo
Tiki our B&G Macaw
Thunder Black Headed Caique Powder & Puff Blue Quakers we rehomed these because we can not take them to Georgia
My wife is in bed and its almost 5am so I am using an old laptop and for some reason I don't have any pics on this of Maui our Harlequin Macaw, Oddie our yellow naped Amazon, or Billie our other Black Headed Caique, or Sunshine our Sun Conure.
Fence, Snap, Crackle & Pop. our turtles
Cooper our oldest Yorkie cleaning up the feathers.
We have two more Yorkies Baxter and Toby and 4 fish tanks with lots of fish. I think that just about covers the ZOO!

 

[Dona]

I have one sweet baby Linnie, Gigi. I'm fighting the familiar feeling of adding to the flock.

I have had many birds over the years from Amazons to Zebra Finches and everything in between.

 

[Doctress]

@BirdManDan your flock is gorgeous! I plan to add a 3rd bird to the flock, likely a rescue B&G or Harlequin. I think either type would fit in with the laid-back CAG. The Amazon is pretty adaptable, goes with the flow of the house.

 

[BirdManDan]

@BirdManDan your flock is gorgeous! I plan to add a 3rd bird to the flock, likely a rescue B&G or Harlequin. I think either type would fit in with the laid-back CAG. The Amazon is pretty adaptable, goes with the flow of the house.

My wife would love to get a CAG that's her Dream bird. Mine are a Hyacinth and Blue Throated Macaw!! We have never purchased a bird from a Pet shop or an Aviary, all of ours are rescues and we have never had an opportunity to rescue a CAG, BTM or Hyacinth and probably won't, so we might have to bite the bullet one of these days and purchase them.

 

[veronica2000]

@BirdManDan Really great pictures! Have you had issues of your birds not getting along?

 

[cassiesdad]

There's seven birds that own us living here at the house...two budgies (Marley and Omega)...three tiels (Sunshine, Igor, and Mocha)...one Nanday Conure (Buddy)...and one U2 (Milton)

We also have a G2 visiting us from Pittsburgh PA...Elvis...who owns a Roadie friend of ours. (sunnysmom)

Our house is very rarely quiet, and we go through at least two vacuum cleaners a year...

 

[BirdManDan]

@BirdManDan Really great pictures! Have you had issues of your birds not getting along?

A little bit when we have added a new one, but we work on getting them socialized right away and before long they get along fine even though every once in a while somebody will irritate another.