Hello Everyone, thank you so much for your kind words of greeting. I apologize that it has taken me so long to reply to you all but when I went to find pictures for you I realized I had no recent photos of Keelo and Ollie and absolutely zero of Pippin (he is not very photogenic) so I went on a quest for new pictures and I think I finally have some winners, I have ONE photo of Pippin that actually turned out without blur, he made it quite the challenge but I was finally able to snap a good picture when we removed him from his cage for a bath. Allow me to introduce them
We'll start with Keelo.
Keelo is my 5 year old baby who was reset. He's not afraid of cameras and by now he's a little bit of a ham. This next image however will be Pippin, as I said we had to catch him right before his bath and so this is really the best we could get, he's quite evasive.
Finally the last two images are of Ollie, he's also something of a ham, getting pictures of him was no problem at all.
Well that's my flock, unconventional but very special to me
I also want to make sure that I answer some of your questions too.
Lady Jane you asked what species these birds are. Keelo and Pippin are both House Sparrows. The house sparrow (
Passer domesticus) is an invasive species bird that was introduced accidentally to America and is primarily native to Europe but is also in Asia and the Mediterranean. They are Urban birds and can be found around most cities, parks, parking lots and homes. Unfortunately they are considered to be a pest bird by some and are killed in large numbers by many people who hate them and who accuse them of chasing off other species of birds from their yards
. We have fed birds outside for many years including several dozen house sparrows and I have never once witnessed a sparrow chasing off other birds in fact they are usually the victims being picked on by larger species such as the Grackles and Starlings who are the true bullies of the back yard. Ollie is a Pineapple Green Cheek Conure.
Teagan I want to address not only your question but your comment as well. Normally wild birds don't reimprint on a person or another animal, it was a very rare thing that happened to Keelo because he hit the car window so hard and I believe suffered brain damage. It was astonishing that he made such a good recovery but it did take a lot of time for his brain to rewire itself to work properly again and it just so happened that something good came out of it and he re-imprinted on me, now we are very close and I'm thankful that my little baby is alright
as to your question you asked if they liked to interact with each other. Sparrows, while they are flocking birds, will defend a small territory that they consider their 'nest zone' because Keelo goes into 'mating mode' in the summer his cage is that zone and he has a tendency to be very attached to it. He and Pippin like to interact with each other but from their own cages only, we don't risk putting them together because Pippin is more feral than Keelo and also handicapped and its likely that Keelo would become territorial just because of instinct. Unfortunately both Keelo and Pippin are terrified of Ollie. Wild birds identify predators by their profile a lot and Ollie's hooked beak and large size screams predator to the Sparrows. So while Ollie would very much like to interact with them and often tries to fly over there we have to keep him off of their cages so they don't get traumatized and there is also the fear that Keelo will be protective of his cage and jump at Ollie at some point which could cause Ollie to react by biting. Having been bitten before I know that Ollie could easily snap one of the Sparrow's legs off and that is a risk I'm not willing to take with any of my birds. Thanks again everyone for your welcome and your support I hope I answered any questions to your satisfaction and I'll be posting Ollie's problem in the behavior section today so if any of you want to read that post and think you can help I'll be very grateful to anyone who has any advice because I just don't know what to do anymore.
Have a wonderful day everyone!