Thursday, May 7, 2009
Caiques And Lories Leave Their Marks
By Laura Doering, Editor of BIRD TALK and BirdChannel.com
Join in on Laura's fun and experiences of bird ownership, and share in her adventures as the editor of BIRD TALK in Wayward Feathers.
There’s never a dull moment when lories and caiques are in the office! For Bird Talk’s August cover, we brought in a black-headed caique, a yellow-thighed caique, two rainbow lories, a blue-and-gold macaw and a Senegal. These were all young birds, full of curiosity and play.
I couldn’t resist the caiques, which have been my dream bird for a long time now. “Can I?” I asked their caretaker, gesturing toward their travel carrier. They were out in a single bound and before I knew it, there was a blur of yellow, black and white feathers sliding up and down my arm, testing my watch, then my ring, then my skin. I was their walking playgym.
Then it was the young rainbow lory, who must have seen the caiques in action because he left off where they had been. He was determined to hop up to my shoulder and seemed to enjoy our little cat-and-mouse game of me trying to get him back on my hand.
After the photo shoot, I was back in front of my computer to check e-mails, and that’s when I first noticed the “tracks.” My hands and arms were dotted with skin irritation marks. They didn’t hurt at all, and the funny thing is that I could distinguish the foot marks from the “exploratory” beak marks. Long dashes were from the birds’ feet sliding along my skin, and the smaller circles were from beak pinches. I’ve seen this with my own flock, but they are not nearly as active as caiques and lories, so I’ve never really had track marks like this before. Man oh man, the day I play with a hyper-active macaw or cockatoo perched on my arm, I better bring some bandages and topical lotion!
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Caiques And Lories Leave Their Marks
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