. . . birding, photography and living with pet birds . . .
Posted in gull on Jun 28th, 2009
California has a variety of different gulls. Identifying them is further complicated by the different feather patterns exhibited by the young seagulls.
California gulls are everywhere. They’re at the beach, in the parking lots, they’ve very adaptable to human environments.
This is an adult California gull. Note the white spots on the tips [...]
Posted in owl on Jun 27th, 2009
After presenting our concerns to the San Francisco Zoo about keeping the birds tethered and in the sun all day, they replied with the following:
With regard to tethering, the only birds who are tethered full-time are those who need to be managed in that way due to physical limitations. Our long-eared owl (who is [...]
Posted in random on Jun 24th, 2009
I’ve been using Google analytics to track the popularity of this blog. One of the features allows you to see keywords that people used to reach the blog.
Whoever reached this blog by using the keywords “cockatiel beak turns black,” we need to talk. If you’re still reading the blog, please ask questions in [...]
We have been experimenting with playing opera and classical music to placate the birds. And by “we” I mean my boyfriend, because it turns out that cockatiels don’t like my kind of music (Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains, etc.).
They really like operas by Wagner and French classical music. They will stop screaming [...]
For the most part, the San Francisco Zoo is very good about creating environments for the animals that are large and comfortable. The lovebirds, for example, had two large caged areas attached with a tunnel. The birds inside were very happy.
There was one exhibit, however, that was really awful for the birds. The hawks, turkey [...]
Posted in stork on Jun 21st, 2009
Yesterday I went to the San Francisco Zoo. They have some great bird exhibits. My favorite was the maguari stork because he had a fantastic display.
As you can see from the picture below, one of the staff came in to fix the habitat. The stork felt threatened. He started making a [...]
Posted in cockatiel on Jun 14th, 2009
Audrey has very particular requirements for the position of boxes on his cages. This is Audrey’s downstairs cage.
How spoiled does that sound, readers? His downstairs cage?! When we first moved into this house, we tried to give the birds their own room. But they made it clear that the room [...]
Posted in spotted towhee on Jun 13th, 2009
California has these beautiful birds called spotted towhees. They like hanging out in bushes. You may notice that every picture in this post involved some kind of bush. Their eyes are bright orange/brown; the same color as their wings.
The first time that I heard one, I waited for 30 minutes to catch a glimpse. [...]
Posted in Star Trek on Jun 9th, 2009
The cockatiels love Star Trek: The Next Generation. Every night we play an episode of TNG and the cockatiels make happy chirping noises. Conner is especially fond of the ship noises. When the ship beeps, he beeps back.
Here’s a picture of Audrey on his favorite perch. He’s been hanging out there a lot, which is [...]
Posted in quail on Jun 7th, 2009
I went back to Golden Gate Park yesterday. I’m walking back to the place where I spotted the hummingbirds and I look up. Two feet in front of me is this:
He’s a California quail. He’s so beautiful! You can’t tell in this picture, but his breast feathers are really shiny. [...]
