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.

I See Your True Colors Shining Through....

What a difference a day makes.  Just yesterday, I noticed feathers becoming more noticeable on Lucky.  Today, you can clearly see the feathers and the coloring of those feathers ... on all three birds! Lucky is the one to the far left - the yellow one.  The younger ones look like they will be red factors. It's hard to believe that these little birds fit in a tiny jellybean-sized egg just 12 days ago.  Now they are as long as my index finger when cuddled up in the nest.

Take a Look at Me Now

Look how big they have grown ... and they are only 7 or 8 days old!

Good Partnership

Lucy and Louie are such great parents.  It's a blessing to be able to watch them feed the little babies ... how patient, gentle and caring they both are.  Louie feeds the babies just as much as Lucy.  It's amazing how they know how to do all this by instinct.

Second and Third Eggs Hatch

Today, the second egg hatches as expected and hours later... Bob notices the third baby pecking his way out of the egg.  Three little babies are now in the nest.  Lucy is such a good mother ... and Louie is a great father as he feeds Lucy and the babies too.

Our First is Lucky

Canary chicks are supposed to hatch 14 days after the egg is laid.  Well, that proved to be true as we spotted the first baby on this morning around 8:30 am!  The little one has no feathers and its eyes are closed.  Surprisingly, its beak is wide open waiting to be fed just hours later.

We decided to move the cage into the family room as it is warmer and we could more easily watch the progress of the babies.  After moving some furniture around, we found a great spot for the cage that would give Lucy privacy yet allow us to view the nest.

About an hour later, we were in the kitchen talking when we heard Louie chirping.  He was clearly chirping very loud to get our attention.  Bob gets a look into the nest and notices that the baby is not there!  He had fallen out of the nest onto the bottom of the cage.  I quickly got a pair of spoons and Bob scooped up this fragile little body and put him in the nest.  We secured the nest with cardboard so no more babies would spill out of the nest. Soon after, Lucy was back on the nest and feeding him.  He was a lucky bird, so that's the name we gave him.... Lucky.

First Egg is Laid!

Today we spotted the first egg in the nest!  What an exciting day!  Lucy is off and on the nest... anxious to see how many eggs she will lay.

The second egg arrives the next day, followed by the third egg on Tuesday, and the fourth egg on Wednesday.  Wow!  I'm hoping that is it... especially for Lucy's first time at being a mother.

When I came home from work later that week, I found an egg cracked open at the bottom of the cage.  It was an unfertilized egg ... so now there are three.  Hope we don't lose any more.

If You Build It, They Will Come....

Once we figured out that our male canary was actually a female, nesting material was gathered and put in the cage.  We started with shredded paper towels, then bought some sterile cotton for nests.  Lucy kept busy building her nest, filling it with cotton, then packing it down.  We kept adding nesting material, thinking she will stop when she is finished.  Well.... she built a nest that was like no other.  It looked like an ice cream cone!

Meet the New Members of our Family ...

Let me introduce you to our new family members ... but first, let me explain how they got here.

Day 1 - December 28, 2011

For the last couple of days, we started looking for a canary to adopt.  We immediately went to the Birdcage after finding out they had a red factor canary.  Red factors look more orange than red, and orange is my favorite color, so we bought the one and only red factor canary.  This canary looked like an orange dreamsicle - he was beautiful!

A couple of days earlier, we went to Walnut to find an antique bird cage for our new canary.  We came home with not one, but three bird cages!  All were great deals and beautiful cages so we had to have all three.  Our new red factor canary looked wonderful in his new gold cage.  We named him "Louie" after the St. Louis Cardinals - the 2011 World Series winner!

Day 3 - December 30, 2011
Bob decided we needed to have a female canary to keep Louie company - and possibly have baby canaries... so we headed back to the Birdcage.  Bob picked out a friendly, outgoing yellow canary with black markings (a hat on her head and eyebrows ... as well as marks on her wings).  With her bold and inquisitive personality, "Lucy" fit right in.

Day 4 - January 2, 2012

Lucy starts singing beautiful songs.  She loves the attention and we love to hear her sing.  Still waiting for Louie to sing ... it's the males that sing and we are wondering if he is too young to sing yet.

Day 7 - January 5, 2012
Bob adds honey to Louie's water to encourage his singing.  He loves the honey water.  We are hopeful he will sing soon.

Day 14 - January 12, 2012
We put nesting material in Lucy's cage, along with a wicker nest.  She picks at the nesting material and scatters it all over the bottom of the cage.  A couple of strands end up in the nest.  Maybe it's too early to build a nest.

Day 16 - January 14, 2012
Louie is still not singing. Bob put nesting material in Louie's cage just to see what would happen.  "Louie" started building a nest within hours of placing a nest in the cage!  So "Louie" became "Lucy" and our singing "Lucy" became "Louie."