Birds of a Feather...

Well here you have it....the newest addition to our family! A beautiful cockatiel for Harrison that we named Chirp!

I had promised Harrison that if he was good for one whole month I would get him a budgie for Valentine's Day. (whoever said bribes are bad was obviously not a parent!) He was not just good...he's been amazing and made me so proud. However I was still making him hold out until Valentine's Day to prove himself. That was until my dad got wind of the promise, and my mom had to go out of town on the weekend to a funeral~suddenly it went from a budgie (a cheap $30 bird!) for Valentine's Day to a cockatiel (not a cheap $30 bird!) right now!!!

We went to Petland (our 1st mistake!) and checked them all out. We narrowed it down to the 3 friendliest ones, by a simple test done by my dad ~ he stuck his hand in each of the 3 cages and pulled out the bird that hopped onto his hand first. We lined up all 3 birds in front of Harrison and had him choose. I guess physical attraction does play a role even when you're only 3 yrs old, as he quickly weeded out the 2 less attractive birds and immediately went for the one with the most beautiful coloring. (also the loudest of the 3!) Personally, I liked the quiet less colorful one! However he is gorgeous~all grey, with white stripes on the edge of his wings, a yellow face with bright orange cheeks and yellow and grey head feathers.

We brought him home and named him Chirp, as that's what he first did in the store, and it suits him and seemed appropriate for a bird. Harrison had the names Flower and Chocolate picked out, which are fine too, however just to be sure I offered a couple of other names and he changed his mind to Chirp quite willingly! He is a very friendly and tame bird, for the most part. As you can see from the pictures he lets Harrison handle him. Harrison is mastering the skill of bird trainer and teaching him the commands "step up" to get him on his hand, and "step down" to get him back in the cage or onto his perch. He is also amazingly calm and gentle when handling him, which is just what Harrison needs to practice, so it was a very good choice. Plus it makes him feel good to have some responsability and be able to look after something, since he'd love a baby brother or sister, but for now Chirp is going to have to fill that role!

We are having a lot of fun getting to know the bird and his personality. He likes attention and being held a lot. He doesn't like going in his cage and spends the whole day sitting out on top of it, or on Harrison's shoulder while he watches TV, or on his perch that we bought for him which we move from room to room with us! For those of you that join me on MSN I now have what I call the birdcam set up for viewing while we chat!!! It should not surprise me that Harrison would be drawn to the one with the most personality~ afterall, birds of a feather stick together!!!