Odd behaviour during storm

[Betrisher]

Well! That's been an unpleasant half-hour!

It's been hot and humid all day with thick cloud cover that wouldn't blow away. Once the sun set, we all thought it might get a bit cooler, but no. Instead, distant thunder began rumbling from the west and within a very short time, the heavens had opened! It was an extremely violent electrical storm, complete with high winds, hail and a lot of big branches falling from our large trees onto the tin roof.

We get storms like this all the time during summer, but there was something about *this* storm that really got up Rosetta's nose! She nearly went spare, rushing about her cage, tossing her necklaces on and off, screaming her head off and absolutely refusing to come to me, preferring instead to twist up her swinging rope and then scream as it untwisted and she span round and round.

This behaviour didn't fly terribly well with the Beaks, who looked on in stunned silence at first. After a really loud clap of thunder, both erupted and commenced to shriek in harmony with 'Setta. Three upset birdies isn't my favourite thing, y'know? I did the only thing I knew to do: I stuffed them all shamelessly with sunflower seeds. That seemed to do the trick, because once they knew I had sweeties the Beaks stopped screaming and left Rosetta to enjoy her operatic shrieking. Nothing I could do would calm her, so I sat down next to the cage and sang to her. Eventually, the thunder stopped and she slowly calmed down. She's swinging back and forth on her rope now, whistling to herself and chirruping with the Beaks.

It was awful! I've never seen any of the birds act like that in a storm! The only difference is that I've stopped covering the cages with canvas of a night. D'you think I should, maybe, cover them again at bedtime? Just for the feeling of security? It's not as though anyone's exposed to the weather, as the storms come from the west and our deck points east. My poor birdies! I might go out again, now they're calm and hand out a few more sunflower seeds.

 

[Laurasea]

I wonder if it was because it was an electrical storm, that you had such a strong reaction?

 

[SailBoat]

Storm intensity and how close the lighting occurs will clearly effect birds. The combination of very bright (close-by) lighting strikes and the quickly following very loud clap of thunder will set them-off. Add a storm that this tracking over your location (one strong thunderhead following another and then another, etc. will keep them stirred for an extended period. It will likewise effect Humans.

With the slight reduction of the brightness of very intense lighting, covering would likely not help much!

Training of serve thunder storms (one following another) are not common in our area, but they do occur at least once each year. This year our storms have included extreme high wings with training storms being more common and that only adds to the noise levels. Power outages has been on the rise as well, as tree trimming budgets have been reduced. So, an Amazon commenting on the noise has been on the rise at our home as well.

Understanding that they tie into our emotions, providing comfort in both being with them and yes, comfort food helps...