Pictures of the Found Bird

Tentatively named Blanco or Micah for an ultrarunner acquaintence of Bill's who went missing last week and whose body was found last night... bird showed up this morning....

She looks quite fond of your husband!

Certainly looks well looked after! Hope she is from a store or breeder and not someone's pet. Lucky you (and Bill)!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Tentatively named Blanco or Micah for an ultrarunner acquaintence of Bill's who went missing last week and whose body was found last night... bird showed up this morning....

Poor little fella. I'm glad you were the ones to find him. Breaks my heart that he's separated from his family, looks like my little Einstein

kaeladedah wrote:

She looks quite fond of your husband!

*he. Female white faces don't have white faces.

I'll keep looking on Craigslist for a week or two, he really wants to be with people, but he doesn't seem to have much training. Hard to tell where he came from. I may never get over looking out the bedroom window and seeing that face looking back at me, it was so bizzarre!

You should also take into account that whomever had him prior just let him go because they no longer wanted him. If there's no ads placed looking for a cockatiel, I would say that's pretty likely.

I love him/her!!!

Chico is in love with Einstein, but Mickey

I look positive at everything lately, that bird land on tree April 1st, it have to be a good sign! Smart 'tiel, knew where to land

Yah, I think he has a home. I've done everything I can think of to locate an owner short of placing a found ad.

He's not enjoying quarantine at all. He's very social, but seems completely untrained, just gregarious. He is named Caballo Blanco after an Ultra-runner friend of Bill's who went missing end of last week and whose body was found the same day we found the bird. He's a bit more superstitious than I am. We have a vet appointment for him Saturday. Hopefully he'll be found to be as healthy as he seems to be. No way of knowing how long he was on the loose.

He's VERY flighted and has an annoying habit of flying to your shoulder or head and then not wanting to go back into the cage. I'm worried he'll go missing again during our house move if we don't trim him back, but unlike our other birds he's clearly used to flying, although he has none of the skills I'd want a flying bird to have, such as harness wearing and recall. I'm wondering about trimming him back a little at a time so it doesn't shock him too much. I have to say, though, that so far all the flying he has done has been to get to a person's shoulder.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

He's VERY flighted and has an annoying habit of flying to your shoulder or head and then not wanting to go back into the cage.

CB does this. When he wants attention, he will fly to your shoulder or head and not want to move. Unfortunately, this is often as you're walking to the bathroom, trying to cook, or about to try to get him to sleep.

I wouldn't clip Cockatiels. They are very, very clumsy and suck at moving around in general. Their bodies are built for long flight and ground foraging. Apple sucks at even the simplest task such as climbing the cage bars, and often he'll make a mistake and fall to the floor..

Also- unless you have a window open or Scotty nearby, there is no real need to diligently cage him.. Cockatiels aren't ornery nor go about destroying your items when you're not around. They'll just sit there

I know many many many clipped cockatiels and they all do just fine climbing and getting around. If you decide that's what you want to do, you can consider clipping him in stages so his loss of flight isn't a drastic change for him. If you're not sure how to clip, ask the vet how, then just clip one or two flight feathers at a time skipping a few days in-between clips until he's at the level of flight you want him to have.

And GO's right about them not being avid chewers. It's one of the nice things about them!

Oh - I forgot to say that I'm sorry for the loss of Bill's Ultra-runner friend. I think it's a pretty cool thing you did naming the bird after him.

At this point, I'm more worried about him getting out during the house move and/or getting into the clutches of the cats than I am about him doing damage to the house. We've done our own wing trimming before, we just didn't want to manhandle Scotty that much because of his existing "guy" issues, so we took both to be trimmed last time. We've done Scooter many times and I helped Bill with his Mom's little Amazon. It's more a matter of the psychology than the mechanics. We'll see what the vet says Saturday.

GlassOnion wrote:

I wouldn't clip Cockatiels. They are very, very clumsy and suck at moving around in general. Their bodies are built for long flight and ground foraging. Apple sucks at even the simplest task such as climbing the cage bars, and often he'll make a mistake and fall to the floor..

Also- unless you have a window open or Scotty nearby, there is no real need to diligently cage him.. Cockatiels aren't ornery nor go about destroying your items when you're not around. They'll just sit there

LOL so true. Every time he does a wing stretch, he does a little tumble.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

He's VERY flighted and has an annoying habit of flying to your shoulder or head and then not wanting to go back into the cage. I'm worried he'll go missing again during our house move if we don't trim him back, but unlike our other birds he's clearly used to flying, although he has none of the skills I'd want a flying bird to have, such as harness wearing and recall. I'm wondering about trimming him back a little at a time so it doesn't shock him too much. I have to say, though, that so far all the flying he has done has been to get to a person's shoulder.

More likely he flew out the door by accident than set loose as an unwanted pet. A bird that friendly, that's most likely what happened. People underestimate flighted birds.

Roz, WWYD?

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Roz, WWYD?

??
huh? what do you mean?

You lost me

patdbunny wrote:

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Roz, WWYD?

??
huh? what do you mean?

I think I meant both about the clipping thing with a bird this confirmed in flight and also about possibly finding owners. But heck, he's part of the flock now!

I think they adjust to the wing clip just fine. Eric was fledged, clipped, grew out, then clipped again. They deal. Especially when they're tame.

So, Blanco is back from his vet visit. He appears healthy and normal. We didn't do blood or swabs, just a visual and a fecal, but the vet saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary except that he's a bit on the thin side at 83g.

He did get a wing trim. With moving houses and people coming and going and lots of distractions, the risk of losing him just seemed way too high. So hopefully he won't be overly distressed by his flight curtailment. He still has enough wing power to fly from hand to shoulder. We may consider letting him grow in after this molt.

General consensus is that he's probably young. If he's in his second molt, which is a guess, what is his likely age range? 1? I'll probably use that as a best-guess age for him.

He was a little cranky with me when we first got home. But he eventually decided he wanted his head scratched more than he didn't want me picking him up. Pushover.

Typical cockatiel

ScooterNScotty wrote:

General consensus is that he's probably young. If he's in his second molt, which is a guess, what is his likely age range? 1? I'll probably use that as a best-guess age for him.

I hate that determination - even if it came from a vet. Fact is, once they molt into their adult coloration (6-12 months of age, 1st or 2nd molt) and lose that soft baby look in the eyes, until they're "old/older" at about 15-20 years old, you cannot in any meaningful way guestimate age like you can with a dog, cat or horse.

So the best answer here is Blanco is between 1 - 15 years old would be my best guess.

My husband feels his behavior is somewhat babyish and the vet did admit it was a guess... doesn't really matter though. It's kind of like before DNA-sexing when people assigned their non-dimorphic birds a gender just to have a fuller mental picture.

I bet there is something equivalent to teeth on a horse that could be used but that it hasn't been well-studied enough to realize yet. Everything ages... there must be some evolution...

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I bet there is something equivalent to teeth on a horse that could be used but that it hasn't been well-studied enough to realize yet. Everything ages... there must be some evolution...

My vet suggested doing a blood panel on CB to guesstimate his age. I'm not entirely sure how accurate that would be, and I didn't feel the need to do a blood panel.