A Sad Day

Today is a very sad day... Louie died.  He had been ill over the past few days and we did everything we could for him.  We will miss his personality and beautiful singing voice.  I can't imagine ever having such a wonderful bird like Louie again.  I miss him already and will always remember him. I'd like to think Bob's mother is listening to Louie's beautiful song right now with a big, beautiful smile on her face.

A New BIG Home

The babies moved into an aviary today ... lots more space for learning to fly and stretching their wings.  They look like canaries now - not much smaller than their parents.  The only difference I see are their tail feathers (the babies' are much shorter) and their skinny legs.

Louie is enjoying his new home...

Moving Out

Had to move Lucy out of the cage today.  She has laid two eggs and although she feeds the babies, Lucy seems more interested in building a new nest.  Problem is ... she is using her babies' feathers to line her new nest! Ouch.  Saw all three birds eating on their own so all should be good.

Batman

Louie was such a good father ... feeding his babies and Lucy.  We didn't like removing him from the family cage but he was bothering Lucy too much - so much that we thought they both may get hurt.  Days have gone by and Louie has calmed down quite a bit, so we put him back in.  That lasted maybe two minutes.  He spread his wings like Batman and tried to run down Lucky, one of the babies.  Don't know what that was all about but we removed him immediately.  All is well again.

Come Fly With Me

Today when I came home from work, I saw three birds in the nest and one on the bottom of the cage... but the one at the bottom of the cage was yellow ... which meant that Lucky (one of the babies) fell out of the nest and  Lucy was in the nest with the other two babies.  Lucky was scurrying around at the bottom of the cage when suddenly, he flew up to the branch.  He looked rather pleased with himself and, I must say, I was impressed too!  What a nice surprise.  I hope to get video soon.... here's a video of all three getting ready to fly:

Getting Stronger Every Day

The little canaries are two weeks old and their feathers are coming in ... it's amazing how much they change in one day.  They are starting to look like birds now.   All three sit up and look out of the nest...so cute!  Lucky is the oldest and the only yellow canary.  The other two are red factors.  One is Rosie and the other is Leon Redbone.

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

We had to separate Lucy and Louie today.  Louie won't leave Lucy alone and will do anything to get to her... including landing on the babies in the nest and constantly chasing her.  After they both tumbled to the floor of the cage, we decided that was it ... Louie is on his own again.

It was a tough decision as Louie helped with much of the feeding and was very protective of the babies.  (Whenever we try to shoot pictures, he tries to get between the camera and the babies! They both stop feeding when we start watching ... freeze like statues.) We kept him close by so he won't be lonely.