At Pin’s 80th the other day, our vet (bird people! As far as the eye could see!) asked if we wanted another baby budgie. Rijke said that this pretty little fellow spent the last three weeks at the clinic, waiting to see if someone would claim him. It was getting to the point where she was afraid she’d have to turn him over to the local shelter, but–

“On my way, I remembered you’d be here. You’re not just a bird lover, but a sucker! So I thought I’d ask if you’d be interested.”

Guilty. Guilty as charged. >.>

She seemed surprised I accepted him so readily, but. We have room. We’ve got the love. And with both me and Kim here all day, working from home, we have plenty of attention to give.

I’m a bit worried about his cere, as brown is not a good sign at all for a male budgie. We’ll ask Pin to check him over, just to be safe. With the amount of brown on it, it obscures the colouration of his cere below, so I can’t get a good look to see whether he’s been misgendered. I’m hoping he has been, but I’m also happy to do what it takes to get him as healthy as he can be. Or, failing that, give him the happiest life I can.

He appears to be active and pretty curious. I’d put him about a year old. He’s been through his big moult and his irises are fully developed, but he appears a bit on the small side. I’m really excited to see what his personality is like when he feels comfortable enough to express it!

In other news. Adira may be in line for a name change. She’s been exhibiting behaviour lately usually associated with males, from flirting with me and — during one amusing moment — deciding to bark at a bead that had fallen between the grate of her cage. I’m also noticing more yellow feathers. We’ll start calling her Londo if it turns out she’s a boy, but I won’t do that until her moult finishes. I’ve made a point of not calling her Adira in case a name change was necessary, but. God. It’ll be interesting wrapping my head around her being Londo. >.>

However! She’s starting to talk! At the beginning of this month, she caught me off guard with an “I love you!” Since then, she has been saying “Gimme a kiss” pretty regularly. I’m trying to get her to associate saying that with my attention, as both Kosh and Vir were pretty amazing about using words to get specific things they wanted. But I don’t know if a cockatiel is capable of that.

We’ll find out, though!

Kosh, on the other hand, has been perfect like always. Little guy is in his cage right now (It’s Adira’s turn to be out to wander and play) just singing up a storm. He’s a complete sponge: he picks up on everything around him. Recent new words have included “hungry”, “sparkly”, and “oops!”

My favourite, though, was when Adira freaked out (she’s pretty skittish sometimes) and Kosh, who was out at the time, flew to the top of his cage and just started saying “It’s safe! It’s safe!”. I mean, he’s got a wicked sense of humour, but Kosh is a very gentle little bird.

Even if he finds Adira’s antics hilarious sometimes. >.>