Something Green For St. Paddy's Day

Well, something mostly green anyway - but also red, blue, bronze, pink, white and every shade in between. Meet our newest family member, Lucy, a Maximillian Pionus! She is a very quiet, shy, sweet bird so far.

Since our summer house remodel we really didn't have enough room for the Gouldian Finches large flight cages anymore. So we decided to look around for a nice, quiet, medium sized parrot. A bird breeder in our area happened to have two Maximillian Pionus - just what I was looking for - so we did a swap. It felt kind of weird swapping birds but it works out now that both sets of birds have a better suited home.

We are taking it slow but I'm pretty sure Lucy will work out for our family. Her "brother" Jude on the other hand....not so sure about that yet. Lucy is two years old and pretty much tame - just a bit neglected. I'm pretty sure "she" actually is a she but we are waiting on genetic testing to come back to be sure. Jude is four and very very cage territorial. He must have been someones pet at some point because he does talk - saying Hi, Hello, Uh-oh and Whatcha doin' - that we have heard so far. But I think at some point someone set up this pair to be breeders. For whatever reason that intention wasn't carried out and they ended up with me. I'm pretty sure we got Lucy in time to convert her back into a pet but I think Jude might be just too much for us to handle. He's a very smart bird - but unfortunately he has learned all the wrong things! Right now I have them in separate cages which has been very helpful in getting Lucy better socialized. We are waiting on the DNA testing to come back but if it ends up as I think it will with us having one of each - well then I think Jude would do better in a single bird home where he doesn't have his hormones in an uproar all the time. We'll see...

I was sorry to see the finches go - and I know you guys will miss them too. :) But I hope you will enjoy seeing Lucy just as much.