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To each his own, and just my opinion, but I believe that all gregarious species deserve to be with their own kind unless they are a solitary species that only come together for breeding. I can't think of one bird species that would fit into that category, except maybe some raptors and kingfishers, but only at certain times of the year. I would liken it to a human being kept in with a chimp, a gorilla, an orangutan (Hey, they are all higher apes) and a cow and maybe a rat to clean up the scraps.These birds cannot communicate efficiently with each other and I believe that their lives are far more positively enhanced when they have company of their own species. A bird on its own in the wild at least has the distraction of finding food and escaping predators, in captivity they eat, preen and drink, all within about half an hour and then what? Try to sidle up to some other species, who probably does not understand his calls or body language, for some mutual preening, often without success. If one wishes to control breeding, don't give them any boxes or anywhere else to breed.
The worst examples of this are a cockatoo pacing up and down a 60 cm perch in a small cage, or canary or budgie mumbling insanities to a reflection of itself in a mirror and kept by itself permanently in a small cage.That is not a life, it is just an existence. Some people say 'our cockatoo is happy he sings and dances and talks', they are usually mistaking that behavior, when it is actually neurosis and boredom that solitary confinement produces. (Just look at some of the prisons and psychiatric institutions and what they produce.
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If you wish to keep birds in an avairy in the back yard for colour. Try 2 or 3 males of 2 or 3 compatible types. There always seem to be spare males out there.
LML
This has me thinking now ..As a owner of a very spoilt Corella ,whom I think is happy and well stimulated with lots of various activities including a lot of free ranging .
She is not yet a year old and so way off breeding time but what happens when she wants to be with another Corella ?
Will she want to be with another Corella or has she been so human imprinted that the instinct to mate will be forgotten ?
How does it all work with hand reared /companion birds ?
I know this is slightly different to the original topic of single birds as a collection but it still is a single bird isn't it ?
What do others think about this ? Oh not that it makes any difference but we didn't set out to get a companion Corella , we rescued her as a fledgling from septic water during the floods , had to crop feed and she fell in love with my other half ( he fed her ).
So any foreward planning wasn't done as you would do with taking on a bird that has more needs than most .
Is it wrong to assume that she is happy and well adjusted ? Sheesh this is a hard one .
Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.
David Brent
Cockies do seem to imprint on their owners if solo birds. So your biggest risk could be that come breeding age/time she may see your other half as hers and you as a rival.
LML
Benson my hand reared Quarrions are great parents and allow me to handle them and the young without stressing .
I know a breeder of Macaws , Greys , Black Cockies and Alexandrians , all her breeding birds are hand reared which she says makes a big difference when handling these larger birds , they are more relaxed and allow for nest inspections , ringing etc.
Who would want to take on a Scarlet Macaw or Glossy Black with young ? Not me .
Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.
David Brent
The hand raised cockies I know have less natural caution than the parent raised ones and are more inclined to take a piece out of people who wish to look.
LML
Oh Deb, What have I started? Here I go again.
The question of malimprinting of birds and breeding possibilities with those handraised birds. I have had many handraised birds that totally or partially malimprint onto humans or a particular human. Depending on the species this can be reversible or sometimes totally irreversible as in some cockatoos. More intelligent birds (Cockatoos especially) can be very difficult to introduce to another of the same species, seeing the intruder as a foreigner and will attack it with ferocity. My opinion is, do I have enough time to supply the needs of the bird (socially and pair-bonding) for the next fifty years? or is another of the same species better able to do this twenty four hours a day. I think the answer is obvious. I have had many species so malimprinted that they see me coming and get all excited, some even wanting to mate with me by presenting to me(hens) or trying to mount my shoulder or head (male). For the sake of the long term happiness of the bird I have had to sever all contact with the bird and introduce a member of its own species, sometimes very slowly, mostly this is successful. Some birds never malimprint when handraised,(Bulbuls,kingfishers, wonga pigeons) some partially imprint, remaining very tame but instinctively knowing what species they are (male crested pigeons,white headed pigeons,) others very hard to break the imprinting(cockatoos in particular). The longer reintroduction to its own species is left the harder it is to remedy.
Deb, regarding your corella, if you want to introduce another corella to your girl at a later date, then I would set up a mirror (although I hate the thought of budgies or other parrots vomiting on a mirror trying to feed itself, it's better than total isolation) close to her cage to get her at least used to the sight of another of her own kind. She does not know what she looks like.Don't allow her to bite or touch the mirror unsupervised as she might splinter or break it and hurt herself. When she does see another corella it wont be a foreign monster, as she will have seen one before.
I think Tintola is quite right here, but I do wonder to what level different finch species can communicate to one another. Before I start what I assume will be quite a long post, I apologise because it's 10:30 and I'm using a phone to type this, so If my typing doesn't make snense, blame apple!
But anyway! Us humans don't understand other animals, but the language we use to communicate is mind bogalingly complicated! Especially in comparison to the squeaks that finches make. I'm sure each species has their own language thatonly that species communicates in, but how much is shared interspecies? Finches have been shown to use syntax in their calls, but do different species share the same syntax? Also, how long will it take for a finch to learn the language of another finch? In Tropical Africa there are forest Whig are full of monkey, each species fills it's own ecological neche, one feeds near the ground, another in the canopy and anywhere in-between, but all these monkey comunicate with eachother! If one sees an eagle it will call, and all the other speies will see this to mean there I'd an eagle and act accordingly. Now there is no way that finches are as intelligent as primates, but can they make the link between a call made by a Cordon Bleu, which , whenever the call is made, the bird flys around, and the fact that said call is an alarm call? And how similar are the calls of species in the same genus, if we try to talk to someone who only speaks Albanian there are some things that both parties will understand, do all member of Lonchura share a similar level of communication? And how much comprehension is needed to enrich the animals? Because most species don't have as deveoloped a larynx as humans, and birds call with something else, they rely more on body language, can this be interpreted interspecies? The answer to most these questions is that we dint know. No one has found out... But it would be interesting!
But to the actual question, I think that in cage birds as much effort should be put into making them live naturally as possible, and, although I can't thInk of any species that are solitary, I thinkthat a pair will surfise for birds like a Star Finch, but really gregarious finches should be kept in 3 pairs, this includes most Lonchura, Doubly bubblies, red-briers and the like.
I also think it's a different story when it comes to companion birds, if they get played with regualarly and are nearly always enriched they can be happily kept on their own. The problems come when the birds get neglected! And that's where neurotic problems occur...
I have heard of really tame, and after being introduced to a mate and nesting they become quite savage, and loose their companion status.
I will leave you with an anecdote from Taronga Zoo
Taronga zoo has two Andean condors. Lesley, the female, was hand-reared. Everydayrhe keepers would go in the cage and play with her, they would tug-of-war over meat, and when they were clearning the cage out the keeper swirls have to push her away because she would be annoying, disrupting them while rheybwere trying to clean. One day OHNS comes in and deems it unsafe, so the keepers have to take the birds out if they want to clean, have to feed from outside the enclose, and none of the interactions went a head. After a while she became neurotic and would try to attack people as they walked past, and was clearly missing human interaction.
Happily, now, she has become one of the starts of the free flight bird show, this allows her close contact with the keepers again, and she seems to enjoy it greatly!
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