I've seen a lot of advice on birdie health input, but not much focusing on the owner's methods of handling.
I've got some questions and suggestions! I'm unfamiliar with Budgies themselves, but I'm familiar with birds in general and have made friends with both captive and wild species, and of course the parrots i have in my home.
- How much time, roughly, do you spend with her? A half hour, an hour, several hours, etc?
- How do you spend that time with her?
- When you approach her cage, how do you do so? Do you speak or sing or whistle to her?
- Could you share a photo of the cage settup she has? (I did read through this whole thread, so if I missed a pic, my bad!)
- What sort of things does she do when you approach? Do you ever force yourself into her space (ie, putting your hand in the cage to try and ask her to step up or catching her to put her away or let her out, etc)?
Birds are very visual, and very sound, orientated. To a little lesser degree, they are also very scent orientated. One of the ways you could passively work on acclimating her to closer presence with you is by taking a shirt you wore for the day, and laying it on her cage if having a blanket cover doesn't spook her. Most my birds have a blanket draped over the back all day that I use to cover them at night, and save my poor walls from flung fruit and veggies.
Bright lights can be an additional stressor to a bird; they see colors a little differently than we do, and they're incredibly visually orientated. Pay attention to if your budgie has any reaction to clothes or accessories you wear; while you do want to eventually acclimate her to these things, at this stage, it's more important to remove as many possible stressors so your interactions with her can be as positive and set up for the highest chance of success as possible.
It's not something I do often, but sometimes I will dim the lights (not turn the room dark! just dim them or shut them off if I have a lot of natural light in the space from windows) and simply sit near a shy or frightened bird's cage and talk quietly to them. If you're at a loss for what to say, try reading a favorite book aloud for them; the real point is for them to hear a calm, soothing tone of voice from you, as parrots are very sensitive to your emotions and cues, so the tone of voice matters a lot even if they don't understand the words.
Sounds like your little birdie may have made some friends outdoors, who knows how long she was loose for outside -- so from her perspective, she's been caught and held in a strange place with everything unfamiliar. I'm so glad to hear she's been beeping with the birds outside at the window!
Something else you can experiment with is playing forest bird sounds, or other budgie making happy noises for her to listen to. Try to find a video that she seems interested in without over-exciting her.
I might have more ideas if I can get some more info on how you've already tried working with her, but the most of everything boils down to patience, time, and a whole lot of understanding love as you learn more about her. Good luck! <3
Whatever you do, I don't recommend you get her a mirror. It might seem like a good choice, but in the long run, it can cause some bad psychological issues for parrots who think their reflection really is another bird, as that reflection won't behave a way another bird would in response to what your budgie does.
