Shanlung foraging for birdies // Jackie and clicker training // climate change
extract of above - posted about Dec 2011
Below was a piece I wrote and posted into some forums.
That started a year back or so in http://www.aviannation.com/forumdisplay.php?53-Foraging . That consisted then only of the links. Later on in other forums, I wrote the context in and added a bit more such as in http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthr...ums/13/1/Birds
I had seen birdies in the wild on madly swaying branches. I was very pleased when in a German forum http://www.vogelforen.de/forumdispla...54-Quasselecke , a video of white eyes foraging in the wild was posted to me asking for identification of the birdies and the plant. A truly ideal video to show how birdies perched and hold to thin branches in the wild. Eventually, those birdies and the plant was identifed in yet other forums I haunted. And the foraging for birdies became what you see below. But with photos and videos added into this entry in Livejournal. Only one from each of those Livejournal entries extracted here. A lot more in those livejournal entries and even more in their associated Flickr folders of course.
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Foraging for birdies add so much more to their richness of life. This will make them more content and much happier. And a happy birdie will be that much friendlier and bond that much better with you.
Have a look at the foraging points I did for Riamfada. Also for all other birdies including Oberon, but it was better documented and photoed with Riamfada.
It is too complicated to write here, as without the backing photos, words are not easily understood.
Photos speak better than words.
And you will realised it is a lot easier to do then to talk about.
All these done even for my softbills as well if you have followed accounts of Libai and others.
At the perch
Riamfada foraging
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/107799.html
{PS note how a piece of wood with silicon sealant stuck to the wall holding up the perch as what I wrote about earlier .. and later removed without any marks}
On perch having discovered a delicious Syrian tiny pear grown in Jordan
Staying home with Riamfada & back2room & sharp turning
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/117091.html
Pakistan//mind of parrot//Tinkerbell Mash Batch 9//Riamfada pulling up cup//Villa walkabout
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119016.html
Riamfada love to eat the almonds on the perch. But almonds were in foraging jars. She would climb down to get the almond and then climbed up to eat that almond.
A video tells it better. More fun for her and more fun for us.
Riamfada at home//Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabout 3
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119381.html
Riamfada last few neighbourhood walks //Riamfada at home on perches// Dommie last neighbourhood walk
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/121502.html
You all have to understand that fully flighted birdies in the house can go just about where ever they want to go.
If you do not have places that you are contented that they go to, and they contented to go to, it can be a bloody nightmare.
If the birdie ended up where they should not be, I could righteously toss the birdie to the nice perches for them to chill out
A HUGE added advantage will be the birdie will poop at the places that they like to go and like to be.
And newspaper underneath will take care of those kind of mess.
So my fitting out for foragings was all a nefarious self serving plot of mine to get birdie to like those perching areas, to play there
and to poop there, and to stay out of my hair so I can retain whatever is left of my sanity.
For smaller size birdies such as Libai, this is whats done for foraging.
See him going to especially wobbly perches and eating from there.
Tinkerbell -Summer of 2O11 // Ivan and LiBai // LiBai voilational flights to me //
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/128061.html
Best will be a variety in perch sizes. I used also thin perches, but those perches will always be slanting to approximate thin sloping branches. And also very wobbly as well and swaying left and right and up and down, almost like a mobile.
The birdie will have to tighten its claws around them to stay on them. To reach and get at the foraging stations fixed on those thin branches.
Good for their balancing skills, self confidence as well as allowing them to develop and exercise their clawing and leg/foot muscles as well.
Perches of different sizes from very thin to very thick should be provided.
Take a look at this youtube video of Oriental White-Eye Zosterops palpebrosus passerine song birds feeding in the wild.
As that was shot in Taiwan, the White Eyes that you have seen would have been the sub specie Zosterops japonicus simplex.
See the way they grasp at the very thin swaying branch of the Triadica sebifera or the Chinese tallowtree and you get the idea.