This is Tweetie, about six to eight months old.
An unbelievable transformation took place after we
decided to move Tweety and Bobby into a new aviary that had just been
built. From the moment a small cage was brought into the aviary, that she
and Bobby shared with three Rainbows and Blue Streak, Tweety practically
jumped into the cage. This was used to move her to the new aviary.
Bobby followed a few minutes later.
Tweety then, as the first bird in the new aviary, took control, flapped
about in excitement and started cooing and singing. A totally different
bird now full of life, obviously very happy and excited at the new home.
She no longer avoided human company, she would respond with much cooing
and beak chattering when talked to and more surprising would jump on a
shoulder and refuse to leave. She would chatter away, whistle and lean
forward to listen and watch lips move as she was spoken to.
Heather was also able to take her out, on a shoulder, to the garden and
walk around or do gardening and Tweetie would be happy to continuously
chatter away. Getting her off the shoulder was becoming a real problem.
This image shows Tweetie in a much better physical condition. Her tail
feather have re-grown and the clipped wing looks much better although it
does not seem to fold correctly over her back. She has one wing that
sits up prominently and one that tucks under, this gives her an unbalanced
appearance but not seen to effect her ability to fly. No more fluttering
to the floor with a thud, she can now almost perfectly fly, just a bit
wobbly.
Her eyes have now developed a darker orange ring in place of the light
grey ring and her body mass has increased by near twofold.
10 August 2000
Sadly, today, Tweetie died, it appears that she had become stuck in her
water bath and drowned. At 11am she was her normal self and at afternoon
feed time about 3pm she was found dead in the water bath. It is likely that
she was unable to escape because of her broken wing that meant she could
only fly a very short distance and could only flutter downwards. She could
not fly off the ground. Tweetie will be greatly missed.