rainy day happiness

[PanZon]

I live in Tucson AZ where we get some decent summer rain and its warm. When i put my feathered friends in the aviary outside, we always shower them down and fill the bird bath to play in. I was wondering about putting them outside in the rain? Not a hard downpour, but they are tropical birds. Would they enjoy (or at least feel "at home") seeing some lightning, or hearing some thunder, and getting real rain? Has any of you tried it? Are our birds so far removed from nature that it would just be traumatic?

 

[weco]

Your last sentence went part of the way to answering your question, though I'm sure any bird would be spooked by a thunder clap directly overhead or relatively close by.....lightening would probably get a similar response from birds not used to it.....

While a bird has a natural flight response, adjustment to different noises and effects of different sudden light flashes is a learned response, as might be to rain.....companion birds are hatched and raised in controlled settings, so any relationship/response to a bird's original settings/habitat would pretty much have to be learned and understood as hand raised chicks imprint on their human feeders rather than on their parents, even though their association may be to their like sounding siblings.....

Would that get me a better grade in psychology/sociology?

 

[Kiwibird]

We used to live in Arizona, and I'm familiar with the summer/monsoonal rains. When it was NOT a torrential downpour, we would let Kiwi sit out in the rain sometimes, and he loved it. He was closely supervised as conditions during those storms can change very quickly from fun for a parrot to near drowning them or huge gusts of wind. Kiwi has never been afraid of thunder, but many birds are so I would be there to supervise and "save" them in case the thunder is too much. And I wouldn't leave them out there for very long either. Just enough to get wet and then back inside.

Just a personal opinion, but I think the more a parrot can be exposed to "nature" the better! It's good mental stimulation for them There nothing nicer than to see a bird native to the RAINFOREST dancing around in the actual rain!

 

[svheartsdesire]

Ivan,the Greenwing who has taken over my life...will sit out in the rain and talk and go through his "sound" vocabulary...I swear he's 10% more colorful the next day,than when he gets his indoor shower...we live in Fl and the whole porch area is screened..Bill

 

[MrsKay]

Your last sentence went part of the way to answering your question, though I'm sure any bird would be spooked by a thunder clap directly overhead or relatively close by.....lightening would probably get a similar response from birds not used to it.....

While a bird has a natural flight response, adjustment to different noises and effects of different sudden light flashes is a learned response, as might be to rain.....companion birds are hatched and raised in controlled settings, so any relationship/response to a bird's original settings/habitat would pretty much have to be learned and understood as hand raised chicks imprint on their human feeders rather than on their parents, even though their association may be to their like sounding siblings.....

Would that get me a better grade in psychology/sociology?

Agreed

I would introduce my bird slowly to new settings so as not to frighten