Tuesday, March 03, 2009

the wild lovebirds of midtown Tulsa


looks like a perfect home
Originally uploaded by liberalmind1012.

My daughter took this picture from her second floor apartment near the end of August. She had heard them many times before she finally saw them. She knew their voices from the mated pair I had more than 15 years, as well as the pair I had given my mother (she shortly after traded them in for a cockatiel, thinking it would be a tamer bird).

There are four birds in the photo, the two on the outside of the light, one inside the shade and the one doing lookout on the wire. I suspect that all four are males, just because all my green ones were male and the yellow were female (and much larger).

I gave a friend a mated pair around 1997 that came from one of my many clutches and he adored them. He hung their cage out on his front porch on a lovely day and they opened their cage door and disappeared. He was distraught and went to a pet store to find out if there was a chance he could find them. They told him the birds would be headed for Florida en route to Africa--an interesting story, to say the least.

This flock of lovebirds lives in midtown Tulsa about 4 miles from where my friend's birds escaped more than 10 years ago. The area has lots of very large, old trees and lovebirds make their homes inside tree hollows and the likes, and do not roost on branches at night. Perhaps they are descended from my two adorable birds, Henry and June...