Flock Introductions

Since Sydney is out of quarantine and has been adjusting well to us humans, I decided it was time to introduce her to Lenore and Digby. Digby and Lenore have been able to hear Sydney ever since she came home, and Lenore and Sydney will often chirp back and forth. Digby and Lenore have also seen Sydney several times now.

Because Lenore and Sydney "talk" to each other all the time, I let them meet before I introduced Digby to Sydney. Lenore really liked Sydney. There was almost zero squabbling from the two of them. They sat perfectly content on my knee for quite a while. Since Lenore likes everybody, I already expected the two of them to get along pretty well because Sydney is very laid back.

Moments after meeting (FYI, bird pictures taken with phones usually are no good)

A couple days after that, it was time for Digby to meet Sydney. I knew that if I was going to have trouble with introductions, this was where it would be. I was right. I got Digby out and let her play with Lenore for a while. Then Lenore was ready to go to bed, so I put him in his cage. I spent a few minutes with Digby by herself, then put her on the playstand. I went into the other room and got Sydney out of her cage and just cupped her in my hands against my body.

When I got back to the dining room, I sat down in the chair next to the playstand and just held Sydney and petted her. After a minute, I let her go and she perched on the napkin holder. Then Digby came and sat on my shoulder, watching Sydney. I put Digby on the table and Sydney came over to say hi. Then Digby went after Sydney! She grabbed onto her back but thankfully wasn't able to get a good grip before Sydney flew away and back to the napkin holder.

Digby came back to me for a couple minutes, then decided she wanted to go to Sydney. She walked straight across the table to where Sydney was perched and tried to bit Sydney's leg. Sydney was, again, too fast for Digby. That was the end of attempted introductions for the night. I put Digby back on the playstand and held Sydney until Sydney wanted on the playstand and I switched the birds around. The two girls sat within a few feet of each other, Digby on my shoulder, Sydney on the playstand, and they ignored each other the rest of the evening.