When a lovebird comes knocking on your door...

[Craig]

Hi everybody! A little over a month ago a lovebird showed up on our back porch, looking at us through the glass door. He couldn't fly at that point, so we gave him some water and kept an eye on him--it is possible one of the gross feral cats in the neighborhood almost got him but he wasn't obviously injured. It was very hot outside, so after an hour or two we got him in a basket and brought him in. My girlfriend went to get him some food and started calling him Monty, thinking he might not make it through the night. We posted a picture on Nextdoor and some lost bird Facebook groups.

We got lots of dubious advice and a few attempts to birdnap him, but couldn't find the owner. I took him to the vet who confirmed he was an adult Fischer's. The leg band he was wearing was unmarked, so that was no help. They clipped his wings since he'd started to fly around the house, we were having a lot of trouble getting him back in his cage, and we know he's been a fugitive at least once before.

The vet called a few days later to let us know blood and stool tests came back negative... and that Monty is a lady bird. Oops! We got her a bigger cage and she seems healthy and relatively happy.

She is really not tame at all and has been extraordinarily stubborn. I didn't realize bird ownership requires a Ph.D. in bird psychology!


I've tried to get Monty to to eat pellets with no luck at all so far. Nutriberries, no help. Avicakes, nothing. She just picks her favorites out of the seed mix we bought the day we found her, and loves a millet spray. Fresh fruits have been mostly a no-go as well.
She seemed pretty P.O.ed at us for clipping her wings. She's still slow to come out of her cage, we can leave the door open for hours before she wanders out. When she does, she is obsessed with the sliding glass door we found her outside of. It's still not clear to me whether she wants outside or she's looking at her reflection. I think it's the latter. Eventually she gets tired of pacing the length of the door and either hides in a corner or goes home to her cage.
Inside the cage she mostly just stays perched or on a platform in the corner. I'm a little concerned she spends too much time on the platform but I think that might be because it is higher than the perch? She's gotten better about my hand in the cage; if I place a millet spray on her platform she still cowers in the corner but doesn't run away. She's neutral on most of the toys we've tried but definitely likes the ones she can destroy/shred. I hope they're made of safe materials because she chews the heck out of the shreds, I can't tell if she's trying to eat them.
She's a beautiful, sweet bird and if she just hangs out in her cage we're okay with that, but she seems bored a lot to me and sometimes anxious. She doesn't seem to have much desire at all to interact with us, so I don't even know how to encourage that behavior. My amateur bird shrink take is that she must have come from somewhere where she was paired up or with other birds. It's a nice day out today so we rolled her cage outside for a while and she yelled non-stop for an hour. It made me appreciate how quiet she is inside, thankfully.


I will gratefully accept any tips, tricks, or advice you might have to help Monty live a happy life in her new environment. Thank you all!

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to Lovebirds Plus Community! Kudos to you for taking in this lovebird!

Hard to say how Montie (excuse the change in spelling to make the name feminine.... :)) found her way to your door but she was probably looking for someone to help her from a dangerous situation. I'm glad you took her to see a vet and you know she's healthy. The band on her leg could suggest that she was part of a breeding pair and somehow escaped. Is the band just a plain ring or is there anything on it at all? Lovebirds are very strong fliers so she could have traveled many miles before finding herself at your door. If you have any pictures, we would love to see what she looks like. To upload pictures here, you need to upload them to an online storage site such as Imgur or Flickr and then copy/paste the image URL here.

Sometimes it can take a parrot psychiatrist to try and figure out what's going on......or just a lot of experience with parrots. The reason Monty won't eat food other than her seeds is because what you are offering does not look familiar so she sees it as inedible. To introduce new food, add a little bit everyday to her regular food and, eventually, she will try it. With Avi-Cakes, break a piece up into small pieces and add it to her food dish. Ditto with Nutriberries. The favorite flavor for my flock is El Paso but they like others, as well.

She is very new to your home and she is still learning by experience that she is safe. Put yourself in her position. When you are in a new place and know nothing/no one, you are afraid of the unknown. She will settle in as she learns and I'm betting before it's all over, she will want to be velcored to your person 24/7/365! Parrots usually shred, but not swallow, what they destroy. One place for safe toys is My Safe Bird Store. They have some fantastic shreddables and my flock adores pretty much anything I give them. Swings are notoriously loved by lovebirds. All of mine have one. Bells are another favorite but I use the ones that look like cylinders with the clapper well out of reach so it can't be removed and swallowed. Keep giving her attention and she will begin interacting with you. It won't happen over night but be consistent. Your efforts will not go unnoticed.

To get her to go back to her cage, use a perch. Most of mine are perch trained, as many parrots just plain don't like human hands. I respect that. Tell her "step up" and put the perch near her chest. She may not do it immediately but, again, keep trying and always use the command so she knows what you expect her to do. The attraction to the door is probably the reflection she sees. Mirrors, in particular, are not good for lovebirds, as they can bond with a reflection that appears to be real but is not.

Hopefully, this will be helpful.

[Craig]

Thanks Linda! Here are a couple pictures of the pretty lady:

https://i.imgur.com/h0MiApn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rxumhKR.jpeg

[linda040899]

Thanks for sharing pictures! Monty is a very pretty Blue Fischer's Lovebird and I'm guessing she loves to find the highest perch around to hang out on. As far as lovebird personality, Fischer's tend to be more shy than their Peachfaced counterparts but they do make fantastic pets! It's obvious that you care a lot about her and she will return your love for her 100 fold. I've had lovebirds for many years and I will always have one. They are truly characters and their antics can keep you laughing non-stop. :)

Be patient with her and you will find she will begin to trust you and feel safer. Let her come to you in her own time.

[Craig]

Thanks again Linda. I just wanted to answer your question about the band: she had a plain, copper colored band on her right leg. It didn't have any engraving or markings. The vet didn't have any ideas what it could have indicated and recommended that we remove it, so they did.

[linda040899]

I have a feeling that the copper colored band on her leg was there for identification purposes. She may have been in a flight cage and had a mate that died. Some breeders will put identical colored bands of pairs so they know who is matched with who. I used bands when I was breeding but got away from them, as I've had leg bands get caught on any number of things so it's best without them, if possible. The only bird I have whose band cannot be removed is my Congo African Grey. She's an import and her band identifies her as such.

[Craig]

Sounds like a possibility to me, based on her behavior it seems (to me, admittedly a novice) that she really misses a mate/flock. Lots of staring out the window, calling, and sometimes seems "upset" and crawls around like she wants out of the cage badly. I hope she can learn to be happy with a people flock!