A sweet little birdie called Lovejoy 💖

[LaManuka]

Lovejoy has been muscling in on Jem’s territory lately, namely their dad, and in typical lorikeet fashion he does not take a backward step. He’s flying SO much better now too so there’s nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide any more

 

[LaManuka]

Lovejoy picked a very cold wet day to have a bath, but have a bath he did and this time I witnessed it, YAY!!

 

[SailBoat]

The Rooster loves his water and it appears that the more the better!!
Happy you were able to witness the splash fest!!

 

[LaManuka]

Oh Mr Boats it was just so cute the way he dabbled his tiny toesies in the water! Hopefully he'll go for the full body dunk when the weather warms up a bit

 

[LaManuka]

Today’s dose of cuteness - these two are getting friendlier by the day

 

[saxguy64]

Awwwwwwww! Lovejoy looks like he's saying, "Hey Val, wanna come play with me?"

 

[LaManuka]

Oh poor Val! He's going through a VERY heavy moult - he's looking pretty rough around the edges and is a bit grumpy right now too. He even lost both of his long tail feathers so he's also got a whole stumpy tailed thing going on too. Grumpy and stumpy, that's Val at the moment! But he still sings ever so sweetly, and when the two of them sing together it's a beautiful thing

 

[zERo]

So is Val an English budgie? Lovejoy looks the same size, is he actually the size of an australian budgie.
What's a Varied lorikeet average weight?

Sorry for the questions, lol, just curious

 

[Rozalka]

So is Val an English budgie? Lovejoy looks the same size, is he actually the size of an australian budgie.
What's a Varied lorikeet average weight?

Sorry for the questions, lol, just curious

Answer:

Oh poor Val! He's going through a VERY heavy moult - he's looking pretty rough around the edges and is a bit grumpy right now too. He even lost both of his long tail feathers so he's also got a whole stumpy tailed thing going on too. Grumpy and stumpy, that's Val at the moment! But he still sings ever so sweetly, and when the two of them sing together it's a beautiful thing

Don't worry Val, your cousin Zenek has a heavy molting too - now a bit less but not far ago I could see his naked skin between his pin feathers

 

[SailBoat]

Good that they are sharing 'Dad' and not fighting over him. That likely is one of the underling reasons for the developing relationship. Then, you have the win, win approach that Lovejoy is using to win everyone over.

Julio is showing all the signs of a full-out molt just around the corner as the weather and Sun continue their transition to Winter in the Great White North. It will be interesting to see if Julio turns the indoors white, before Mother Nature turns the outdoors white!

 

[LaManuka]

So is Val an English budgie? Lovejoy looks the same size, is he actually the size of an australian budgie.
What's a Varied lorikeet average weight?

Sorry for the questions, lol, just curious

To be honest we're really not sure of Val's lineage. We got him from a local pet shop a few years ago when we were looking for a little pal for Lilly the purple crown at the time. We had had another purple crown/budgie combo back in the 1990s and they were bestest little buddies. But that lorikeet was a rooster and we figured with Lilly being a feisty little hen we'd better get the heftiest budgie we could find, and that was Val! It turned out that Lilly really was not going to play nice with him at all. I do think that Val is treading with some caution cos he remembers Lilly's lousy attitude, but as my avian vet told me, varieds in general have MUCH better manners than purple crowns so happily these two are proving to be much more compatible

Looks like @Rozalka beat me to the punch with the specs on Lovejoy's species - he hasn't been weighed since he was at the vet's for his wellness check but I suspect he's reached his cruising weight already. I'm not sure he'll get much bigger, I get the feeling that the remainder of his 19cm length will be made up by adult tail feathers when he grows them in

 

[LaManuka]

Good that they are sharing 'Dad' and not fighting over him. That likely is one of the underling reasons for the developing relationship. Then, you have the win, win approach that Lovejoy is using to win everyone over.

Julio is showing all the signs of a full-out molt just around the corner as the weather and Sun continue their transition to Winter in the Great White North. It will be interesting to see if Julio turns the indoors white, before Mother Nature turns the outdoors white!

Oh Mr Boats, those pics with Dad were taken during a rare moment of detente between Lovejoy and Jem. Lovejoy really doesn't like Jem very much, and despite being a third of his size he generally zooms over to tell Jem to push off if he sees him land on either me or his dad! So far, Lovejoy's attitude towards the rest of the flock is MUCH better than that little terrorist Lilly's was but there's just something about Jem that he doesn't like - I guess you can't win 'em all

Poor Val, seriously he's lost so many feathers this time around I could have used them to make another bird. Maybe it's an indication we're in for a hot and humid summer and he felt the need to disrobe a bit. If HRH Julio loses anything like the same proportion of plumage you'll have yourself an indoor snow storm for sure!

 

[LaManuka]

Well it's been a big morning for Lovejoy! He's finally getting more accustomed to having a bath although getting video of that is still pretty much impossible unfortunately. You'll just have to take my word for it that it's stinkin' cute! He got some fresh grevillea flowers for the first time in probably a week too, and an added benefit of that is that when he eats them he smells as sweet as they do

 

[SailBoat]

His name continues to prove to be a very sound selection!
Julio, stops all activities when the phone appears and sounds like HRH Lovejoy has adopted the same response!

 

[LaManuka]

Julio, stops all activities when the phone appears and sounds like HRH Lovejoy has adopted the same response!

Oh yes he most certainly does, Mr Sailboat! Absolutely pointless trying to get video of him in the bath, and the following is what usually happens when I try to get some footage of him and Val playing together - he does LOVE that camera!

 

[SailBoat]

I can see where that would be fun with Lovejoy! With Julio, at 500 grams, that is a crash of size!

 

[LaManuka]

Uncle Steven, I imagine if Julio crashed into you like that you might require a stitch or several!

 

[Inko-ai]

Aw, Lovejoy is absolutely precious!

 

[LaManuka]

Lovejoy says to say "Thank you @Inko-ai, you're very kind!" Jem the cockatiel however says to say "You don't know that little terrorist very well, do you?!"

 

[SailBoat]

Uncle Steven, I imagine if Julio crashed into you like that you might require a stitch or several!

With great luck it's more a face full of feathers and a full-on Amazon wing hug. But it is on the smack side of a hug as his landing target is the phone and I am a bit behind it so the claws are down as he tries to lift-out for another attempt. Generally, I get one of those looks: "What, your not smart enough to move!!"