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The Bird Diaries Part 1: A Star is Born

© Mary Wilson

This series will chronicle the life of a pet cockatiel, one of the babies from my very first clutch of baby cockatiels from Ghost and Solina. Ghost is a whiteface male, split to cinnamon, while Solina is a cinnamon female split to pied. They are a new couple, this being their first clutch, and were obtained from a friend of mine. I miss feeding "babies," and thus, returned to breeding small hookbills.

It's Monday, June 26, and I've had a hard day at work. I come home to the raucous sounds of my pet pionus' and quaker in the living room, and after waving and promising to return, go back to my bird room. I tap on the nestbox, and Ghost emerges looking slightly peeved at my daily ritual. They have laid a total of seven eggs. Of the first three, two proved to be infertile and they tossed them aside to lay four more. As of today, they are sitting on five eggs due to hatch anytime.

I lift the lid of the nestbox, and Solina looks up at me. She hisses. Reaching in with a spare perch, I gently move her aside. One egg has separated itself from the rest. I see fluff through the hole in its side, and realize it's the body of the cockatiel still curled inside. I look for a few moments, hope that the little baby is in the process of hatching and not stuck, then remove the perch and gently close the lid.

I am awestruck by what I saw, a baby bird in the process of hatching. Ghost rushes back inside the nest box, and I feed the finches and the expecting parents before returning to the living room to let my pets out of their cages for the evening.

That night, at 9 p.m., I check the nestbox again, worried a bit that the little bird had trouble hatching. I peek inside, and he didn't. He's curled beneath mom, little yellow fuzz on his body. A star is born.