The Birdhouse Banter

Hosts Bryn Griffiths, Ian Sprague and Janine Couture explore the fascinating world of parrots, their behaviours, and the challenges faced by captive and wild birds. This episode covers hormonal behaviors, the parrot crisis, and tips for bird care.

Key Topics
  • Hormonal behaviors in parrots
  • The parrot overpopulation crisis
  • Bird diet and chop preparation
  • Cleaning bird feeders and environment
  • Fun facts about bird sexuality and behavior

Titles
  • Understanding Parrot Hormonal Behavior and Care
  • The Parrot Crisis: Overpopulation and Rescue Solutions
Sound Bites

  • "Birds get frustrated because you can't fulfill their needs"
  • "Most behaviors are cues, not just hormonal"
  • "Birds can be gay and form same-sex bonds"
Chapters

00:00
Understanding Hormonal Behavior in Birds
11:07
The Parrot Crisis: A Growing Concern
17:15
Jasper's Story: A Case Study in Rescue
21:21
Maintaining Bird Feeders for Health
26:24
Fun Facts About Bird Behavior

What is The Birdhouse Banter?

Welcome to The Birdhouse Banter — brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse.

Join host Bryn Griffiths and co-founders Ian Sprague and Janine Couture as we talk birds! Our team brings over 100 years of combined experience and a whole lot of passion for our feathered friends — whether they're soaring wild or perched right at home with you.

We are Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. From quality products and expert advice to supporting bird rescue right here in our community — Meika's Birdhouse has you covered.

Bryn:

Welcome to Birdhouse Banter brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse, Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. Hey, everybody. It's Brent Griffiths. Ian's with me. Janine is with me.

Bryn:

It's the Birdhouse Banter, and today, we're kicking things off on the chirp. Today, we're talking about my parrot is hormonal. Who wrote this? Who wrote this on the script? I did not write that.

Bryn:

I don't have a parrot. I don't know anything about this. Who wants to pick this one up for me?

Janine:

Is my parrot hormonal? Okay. Well, we get that question a lot. We have a lot of people that have behaviour issues when a bird gets hormonal. They start to the the birds get kind of frustrated because you can't fulfill that need for them.

Janine:

So, yeah, you can control that by diet. You can control that by lighting. You can control that by humidity. But, yes, if your bird is starting to get, you know

Bryn:

Excited.

Janine:

Excited and egg lay. And Aggressive. And, yes, aggressive sometimes. That could be a hormonal thing.

Bryn:

Okay. How noticeable is it?

Ian:

It's super noticeable when it when it happens. K. I think, you know, from where I come from anyhow, in my mind, I think a lot of times it's is it really hormonal, or is your bird just being a jerk? Right?

Janine:

Because And not necessarily is your bird being a jerk. Are you not listening to its cues? Sure.

Ian:

Right? Like That's how it always works.

Janine:

But Yeah. So it's not necessarily the birds being a jerk. It's the fact that are you putting your hand in its face when it doesn't wanna be handled, or are you touching it in a way it doesn't wanna be touched?

Bryn:

Or Are you saying there's an element of dumb at play? Sometimes here with people they don't know, they don't recognize it?

Janine:

Misunderstanding, maybe. Maybe a lot of laugh. Yeah. So some people who have who just get their birds just don't know don't know the cues and don't know what certain behaviors mean.

Ian:

So And also, in my opinion, anyhow Okay. Never mind now. I like how

Bryn:

you set that one up.

Ian:

Go ahead. Yeah. No. It but I think it gets over it's it's it's a it's an overused excuse.

Janine:

It is. Time. Yeah. They'll blame everything on hormones.

Bryn:

Okay. Sure.

Janine:

It's not hormonal seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year.

Ian:

Yeah. You know? There's gonna be times a year where, yes, your bird has a tendency to be hormonal, but it it it gets used as the as the excuse for everything. Well, you know

Bryn:

Is this an excuse somebody would use to bring the bird in?

Janine:

Or to surrender.

Bryn:

Okay.

Ian:

Yep. Could very well be. Yeah.

Janine:

We've had that before. It's laying too many eggs or it just won't stop biting

Bryn:

or What they do is next to last summer Jack's

Ian:

They can only Yeah. So can't give you the finger. They got feathers. Right?

Bryn:

So So how long does this last for if you're going through a period of this? Normally,

Janine:

a couple months. Like, maybe six to eight weeks, you can have a hormonal bird in the springtime when the daylight hours are longer, when the temperature is a little bit warmer. You can get it in the wintertime too. It's like, sometimes it's diet related when you're offering too much protein or stuff like that. They can get, they can get quite hormonal as well.

Bryn:

With the way things are here in, in Canada where we do not have long daylight hours in the summer, and sorry, the winter Yeah. Does that change does that change the way a bird might react a little bit in this particular situation?

Janine:

Yes. It it can. Yeah. It can that cockatiel man is He's trying

Ian:

to sing. He's just singing.

Janine:

He's talking to his cat. He's hormonal. Oh, Oh,

Ian:

there we go. Yeah. Okay.

Janine:

Well, he's trying to court that little bird.

Ian:

You can

Janine:

see he's, like, whistling right in her ear, like

Ian:

That's alright.

Janine:

And she's like, oh, she's not. Yeah.

Bryn:

She's having absolutely none of it.

Janine:

Yeah. Sounds familiar. She's like, Get away from me.

Bryn:

That's where I am

Ian:

in my life. No.

Janine:

Yeah. Daylight hours here do make a difference. We have extremely short winters, so you should be offering Short winters.

Bryn:

Long winters. Where do you live?

Janine:

Okay. Short days in the winter.

Bryn:

There we go.

Ian:

Short

Janine:

daylight days in the winter. Long winters, but short light. Uh-huh. So you wanna be offering a UV light for a certain period of time during the day so that it can, you know, they can regulate

Ian:

Yeah. There's one right over your head. Yes. So the

Janine:

light right there. So and then, yeah, in the summertime, you wanna be able to have a blackout blind because we have such long days in the summer.

Ian:

Yep.

Bryn:

Yeah.

Janine:

Have a dark, dark room where they can, you know, sit and relax and not get

Ian:

Well, they're photosensitive. Right? Yeah. Subtle changes in daylight intensity or daylight hours can throw them either into a hormonal state where they're they wanna lay eggs and have babies, or it can also throw them out of it. Okay.

Ian:

Right.

Bryn:

So these cues that they will throw at us, like you were just talking about these two courting, and and I'm looking over and watching, and if the female doesn't say to the male, you I don't want you loading the dishwasher. I would never have picked it up, quite frankly. But that sorry. That's at my place. Sorry.

Bryn:

Nonetheless, but picking up on the queues for people, I gotta think that's that's not easy. Right? You guys you guys know exactly what's going on around here?

Ian:

Well, most of the time.

Janine:

Yeah. You know? Well, we see it day in, day out. Like, this is our life. We watch these birds every single day.

Janine:

So, yes, you can't help but learn something about them.

Bryn:

So Okay. So you're in a situation like that. You just gotta ride it out, or you've mentioned there's a few other things that you can do to get through that period of time. But what else is there that maybe we're missing?

Janine:

Yeah. You can

Ian:

go ahead. Really?

Bryn:

There you go. You too. I just saw this in the cage a couple moments ago.

Ian:

Okay. Okay. I'll do it. Alright. So so again, like we were talking, I think before we've we've talked about abundance.

Ian:

Right? So if you have a super hormonal burden, he's just, know, truly hormonal, and and you're getting a lot of aggressive behaviors or behaviors that you're not fond of, you know, try knocking back not knocking back the amount of food they get, but the variety of food they're getting back. So maybe instead of looking your chop instead of, like, our chop, normally, there's what between eight and ten ingredients in there. If we're getting a bunch of hormonal birds, maybe we'll only put Three or four. Ingredients.

Ian:

Okay. Alright.

Bryn:

So Could you guys explain to me CHOP? Because we talked about this on the last episode, and I think I nodded my head like I knew what you were talking about. Now I'm not gonna do that. I'm not faking it any longer. I need you guys to explain to me what CHOP is.

Janine:

So CHOP is like a fresh meal that we give the birds every single day. It consists of a variety of different vegetables and grains and fruits and and, herbs and stuff.

Ian:

And it's all chopped up into a big salad.

Janine:

Yeah. It's like a big veggie salad kinda thing. We can give quinoa or cooked rice or cooked vegetable pasta in it. So it's a mixture of stuff, and and it's a variety. So you get, like, either one day we have broccoli, cucumbers, peppers, quinoa, and something else, whatever you want, like radishes, anything.

Janine:

The next day, you're gonna do apples and cucumbers and Wow. Yakima or whatever, anything like that. So, yeah, it's just a variety of of veggies.

Bryn:

How many birds in here?

Janine:

In that cage?

Bryn:

No. Not in just this cage. I'm talking about in here.

Janine:

Okay. I think we have a little bit over 75 right now.

Bryn:

Okay.

Janine:

So gone down a little bit.

Ian:

Yeah. But

Bryn:

What time do you have to get up in the morning to do the chop to make everybody happy, including the hormone hormonal birds.

Janine:

So Ian, I'm lucky enough that does all the chop. He's been doing it for the last twenty years.

Bryn:

Okay.

Janine:

So he's a seasoned professional at it. He makes

Ian:

everything. A hunch.

Janine:

Yeah. He makes everything by hand, chopping it by hand. Yep. Shit. Usually takes you about a half hour to forty five minutes depending how many birds we have.

Ian:

Yeah. I can I can power through it pretty quick?

Janine:

But That's how long it takes you to make it. And to feed everybody, it takes about an hour and a half to two hours.

Bryn:

So When you have one bird that's going through the hormonal experience and you know that you've got a few of these, and I'm sure every day it's a new adventure. Right?

Ian:

Oh, yeah.

Bryn:

For sure. So so how much do you change up that food? A lot compared to everybody else?

Ian:

Yeah. So if we are having a bunch of hormonal birds Yeah. You know, if you wanna say it. You know, Janine will generally tell me Yeah. Through through our conversations during the day that

Bryn:

I've done something wrong. Is usually correct.

Ian:

No. She doesn't doesn't hold it back or anything. She says it's for her. Up and, you know, and I need to do better.

Janine:

Speaking of hormonal birds, we have a budgie trying to mate with a dove right now.

Ian:

Very confused.

Janine:

That is a very confused bird.

Bryn:

Yeah. I would say so. So There's a bit of a size difference there.

Ian:

Yeah. You like, yeah, you like some big. Okay. Oh, jeez. Anyways,

Janine:

so, yes, we change.

Ian:

By the

Bryn:

way, we have a lot of fun doing this podcast. I gotta tell you.

Janine:

Yeah. We, yeah, we change we change it up quite often. Yeah. So And there's also a pellet you can change too.

Ian:

Oh, absolutely.

Bryn:

Yeah. I was just gonna say, is this something that can kinda calm everybody down little bit?

Janine:

Yeah. There's Okay. Yeah.

Ian:

There's So we have all the birds get a pellet also in their cage because if they don't wanna eat this, they can eat that. Like, we it's all about options. We wanna give them lots of options, but we wanna only give them healthy options. Mhmm. Right?

Ian:

So if they're not wanting to eat the chop or they're they're they're they're too wound up to to eating a a variety of meal of food, then, you know, we'll cut back the variety and stuff like that. They may be not interested in that at all, but then they can always go to the pellet. And so the pellet, if they're hormonal, will go from a high potency pellet, which is a high protein pellet Right. To a lifetime pellet, which is really low protein, kind

Janine:

of To an alternative diet,

Bryn:

which is

Ian:

like alternative diet where, you know, basically

Janine:

Yeah. No protein. Nothing.

Ian:

Yeah. Wow.

Bryn:

If you have any questions about this particular topic and you want some answers, drop on in to Mika's Birdhouse. They'd be happy to answer any of all of your questions. You bet. Guess what's coming up? We're gonna get to the house in a moment.

Bryn:

But in while we take a little bit of a pause, you can talk to that budgie. That's not

Janine:

I know.

Ian:

That's just not right. That's what happened. Naughty naughty. I

Bryn:

just that that budgie needs the severe talking. Yeah.

Ian:

I'll knock him down.

Janine:

Alright. Time

Bryn:

to check-in with Janine and find out what's happening at Mika's safe house. It's amazing what we'll talk about during the break. So I just was talking about the pirate crisis, and I realized, no. It isn't. It's the parrot crisis.

Bryn:

Ian, straighten me out a little bit. What's going on here?

Ian:

So the parrot crisis, like I said, we can I was talking to you before? We could do a million episodes of different parts of this, so we'll start small with this one. Okay. So the Parrot Crisis basically is there are more parrots than than than there are homes.

Janine:

Okay. Okay. Captive parrots. More parrots

Ian:

to Captive parrots. That's just the part I'm going on.

Janine:

Okay. You're going on the captive part.

Ian:

I'm gonna go on the captive parrot side.

Bryn:

Okay. Yeah.

Ian:

Go ahead. I'm waiting. Carry on.

Bryn:

Let's see what

Ian:

he's got to say.

Janine:

There is definitely a crisis in captive parrots, you know, and budgies are parrots too. Just for anybody that needs to know this, budgies are parrots too.

Bryn:

Even the even the ones that disbehave.

Ian:

Yeah. Even even that even that. Yeah. Okay. What's happening is is that people are are purchasing birds and not being able to keep them for a host of reasons.

Ian:

We can that's a that's a whole other story. Okay. But now they have to have a place to go. So what's happening is is that a lot of parrots are being surrendered to shelters, either big ones or little ones or or or all all over the all over North America. It's it's the the out of all the shelters in North America, all of the bird shelters are full.

Ian:

K. All of them. Right. Right? And and so that's really the crisis.

Ian:

But at the same time, they're still breeding them. They're still selling babies. They're still going into all this other stuff. And so there's babies being put through stores or or as as baby birds, plus backyard breeders that are that are breeding birds and they're

Janine:

It's just not stopping.

Ian:

And it's just it's just like we're getting

Janine:

And it's young birds. Of course. You know, like, these birds live for so long.

Bryn:

I was just gonna get into that. Yeah.

Janine:

For so long. And if you're surrendering them when they're two years old, like, they're gonna be going through home after home after home. You know? So Yeah.

Ian:

And then there's the other birds that that that it's all ties into this. Now there's birds that are accidentally gotten out of their house.

Janine:

Okay. Definitely.

Ian:

Well, let's just

Janine:

Okay. We'll give them everybody the

Ian:

benefit the doubt that they've accidentally escaped from wherever they were. But now where they're supposed to go is the shelters. Shelters can't take them because they're full of all these other birds. So it gets to be this big, great, huge backlog, and and and then you have a a huge, overpopulation in shelters, and it's still going. It's still the what's going on behind

Bryn:

Well, it's

Janine:

it's like cockatiel.

Bryn:

Yeah. I thought the budgie was up to no good again, but

Ian:

that's you

Bryn:

know, we only have one here. We're in a low budgie event. Anyway,

Ian:

never mind.

Bryn:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So finish off your it's yeah.

Ian:

So the the these birds these birds have nowhere to go. And and there's people that are that are not like, I I don't know what the hell to how to properly say this, but they're they're they're acting as a shelter. So they're having birds, maybe an unhealthy amount of birds in their homes. Right? Because they've they're just picking them up off the street.

Ian:

Not not trying to help them. You know? And I don't wanna me to say it in a bad way. But then all of sudden, it gets to a situation where, okay, I need to get all these birds out of my house because I can't have this. I can't have 50 budgies in my house.

Ian:

Right. Hey. You know, I I live in an apartment or whatever. Then all of sudden, we get slammed with at at the shelter

Janine:

Mhmm. And then flush.

Ian:

Shouldn't say we get slammed. Janine gets slammed with here's another on top of everything. Here's another 50 all at once.

Bryn:

Okay. So obviously, we have a crisis, but that leads me to the next question. What do we do about it, Janine? Like, I mean, how do we handle this? Is this fixable, this problem?

Janine:

I wish that it there was, like, a I wish there was a easy answer.

Ian:

Yeah. Well, there's a couple.

Janine:

There is a couple, but it really doesn't make everybody happy. Yeah. Answer is stop breeding. Right? Yeah.

Janine:

Good. That needs to stop. Stop breeding, especially the birds that we have so many in the shelter, budgies, cockatiels, conures

Ian:

Yeah.

Janine:

Quakers, ring necks. You know, like, that that's the easiest way right now.

Ian:

That's the that's the fastest. And the other answer to that is adopt, don't shop.

Janine:

Yep. Adopt, don't shop.

Ian:

Just Get the birds out of the shelters.

Janine:

So that we can help the ones that are really in need, not the ones that are just given up

Ian:

on Except for that one budgie. But there's nothing wrong with any of these other ones.

Janine:

He loves everybody. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with free love. Well

Ian:

That one needs

Bryn:

to get a cage.

Ian:

Unless you're a dove. Yeah. I don't know.

Bryn:

I always felt about it. That's a that's a tough one. Yeah. Okay. Well, if somebody's got further questions on what's going on with Parrot Crisis today, and you're right.

Bryn:

They drop on in to Amicus. So what's the what's the best email address to get a hold of you?

Ian:

It would be info@goosebirdhouse.com.

Bryn:

Got it. Okay.

Ian:

Yeah. And then, like, again, when we when I was saying earlier, that that para crisis topic also translates into the wild birds, but we can do that Another episode? Other other time.

Bryn:

So let me get to the safe house story. I'm not talking about the developing story we have going on right now with the budgie. I'm talking about Jasper. Who is Jasper?

Janine:

Jasper is a green winged macaw, and let's this kinda ties into the parrot crisis as well. Jasper, the macaw, came to us because her owner passed away. So there was five birds total, and and, yeah, we had to go get them out of the house because yeah. I know that cockatiel. Yeah.

Janine:

Move the move the female over.

Bryn:

Generally, that's how it works best.

Janine:

There we go.

Bryn:

There we go.

Ian:

I can't move anybody over.

Janine:

Okay. Well, never mind then. Just relax over there. Yeah. Everybody.

Janine:

Yeah. Jasper Jasper the McCollough, this is what we mean by, like, the parrot crisis. We had five birds that really had no home. The owner did not wanna give these birds up. She just ended up passing away.

Janine:

So where are these birds gonna go? Like, if we're full, we can take them. Like, thankfully, we have a little bit of space right now, but, yeah, we got, two Quakers, two cockatiels, and a macaw. Jasper came from, a breeder, a commercial breeder, and we actually know Jasper's relatives. So we ended up getting a test done on him because Jasper's relative had a heart condition, and we wanted to make sure that she didn't have the same heart condition.

Ian:

Yeah. Kind of a weird it was a weird heart condition for a macaw to have anyhow. Right. And and so when we we saw that Jasper came from the same facility, we were kinda, well, we better get You better get it checked because check. You know, that we don't need to have

Bryn:

And what's the word on Jasper?

Janine:

Jasper is healthy. According to the extra testing, there was only mild thickening of the heart, which is not of no concern to anybody. No none of the vets or specialists were concerned. So we're very lucky. Yeah.

Janine:

Very lucky.

Ian:

But they did suggest that before Jasper is rehomed or or, you know, finds a family that we we do another test, and then, you know, it'd be something that you would do periodically.

Janine:

Yeah. Every year or two just to couple years. Just to monitor.

Ian:

Yeah. Yeah. Because it's it's it's there, but it's not severe.

Bryn:

Mhmm. Hey. One of the things we always grab a bite to eat before we come into the studio here, which is not really a studio as you probably hear. But nonetheless, it's we were talking today about when we talk about various birds, like we're talking about Jasper, maybe somebody's interested in Jasper but might hear this months later

Ian:

Yeah.

Bryn:

It doesn't really matter because you guys always have you know, the safe house is always full with with lovely birds that that need a home. Right?

Janine:

Absolutely. Yeah. So if Jasper's not here, then

Ian:

You said it. What? I said absolutely. Okay.

Janine:

Womp womp.

Bryn:

There you

Janine:

go. Yeah. So no. If Jasper's not here, when you always have so many other birds Yeah. So

Bryn:

just Exactly.

Janine:

Just as awesome as Jasper.

Bryn:

So don't don't be put off by that. Hey. Great. Thank you. You know, like you say, so so much great work is done in the safe house.

Bryn:

So

Janine:

Thank you.

Bryn:

If you come by here can people go through there? I was gonna somebody asked me that about two weeks ago.

Ian:

Not not not unescorted.

Bryn:

Okay. Yeah. No. But you know what I'm saying? If they came in and said, well, I keep hearing how great the safe house is and how necessary it is, sadly.

Ian:

Yeah.

Bryn:

I'd I'd like to be able to just at least take a peek in there. Like, would would you be able would you I don't know if you wanna promote this or not. But

Janine:

Yeah. In some cases, yes. We usually do it by donation.

Bryn:

Great idea.

Janine:

Yeah. We have we could do tours that and you get yeah. Yeah. Super. Tour with a donation.

Ian:

Yeah. It's one of those things where we have to be kinda careful and kinda prepared for these things.

Janine:

Yeah. No small children. It's really loud in there, and some of the birds are dangerous. So

Ian:

They can be dangerous. Yeah. And and and also, there is people trying to do their job in there too. Totally. You know, know, workplace.

Ian:

We have, you know, a group of three or four people come through and we're stopping and we're looking at all the birds. All of sudden, the ladies who were trying to because let's Clean and socialize. Let's be honest.

Bryn:

They're they're

Ian:

they're doing a lot of work. Know? Exactly. All the work. Wow.

Ian:

So

Bryn:

Well, somebody's cleaning the feeders. Hey. Speaking of which, we'll get to that when we come back. Okay. It's now time for the seed and time to wrap things up.

Bryn:

We run a clean show here. I don't care what this budgie's trying to pull, but nonetheless, when I say clean, I'm talking about cleaning your feeders the right way. Who wants to take this one?

Ian:

Eib. Oh, she's pointing at me.

Bryn:

That's right. You're on stage.

Ian:

Yeah. Here we go. Alright. So when we're talking about, feeders in our yard, you know, to to I think it's important that we always in between filling, you know, have a good look at them and and maybe give them a quick wipe. If if it's a hopper feeder, you can take just take the glass off, just give it a quick wipe, and and and you're good.

Ian:

But every couple times a year, I think it's time to do a really good dunk and and clean. Yeah. And and that's when you would get look at using, like, like, a five to 10% bleach solution and water. And just with a lot lots of little brushes, we have we have big brushes, little brushes, all everything on on the wall there. And you can just get into all the nooks and crannies and clean everything out and, and just with that bleach solution and just give everything a good good cleaning.

Janine:

It keeps the seed fresh. No mold growing. It keeps all the the birds healthy. They don't get conjunctivitis or

Ian:

Spread it amongst their

Bryn:

friends. Yeah. So that's indoors and outdoors?

Janine:

Outdoors specifically. Well, indoors. You have to indoor bird feeders, you clean every single day. Right. Yeah.

Janine:

With soap and water every single day. That's there's no getting around that. But, like, outdoor bird feeders, no. You do it every every few weeks.

Ian:

Yeah. I mean, I I like, for us, we normally do it every two months.

Bryn:

Well, we talked on a previous episode about the fact that I'm overfeeding. I've kinda stopped that. You know? So so now I'm I make it so they have to work a little harder for the food. It's just not a a a, you know, a

Janine:

A buffet.

Bryn:

Yeah. Basically. Yeah. But but the biggest one for me is I I pulled the feeder off the tree because it's hanging from a really nice branch.

Ian:

Yeah.

Bryn:

But I've been taking what's left over the seed and just putting it into a garbage bag. It's never gonna go back in that feeder. And then I'm we're washing it down with a hose. Yeah. But, clearly, that's not enough.

Bryn:

No.

Janine:

It's it's good for it's good for the in between deep cleans, for sure. Like, that's better than than a lot. So yes.

Bryn:

Spring and fall is when I'm doing a little better cleaning job.

Ian:

But Sure.

Janine:

Yeah.

Bryn:

You know?

Ian:

That's good.

Janine:

And you also wanna make sure that it's really dry before you put any seed in there as well because it will get the seed either germinated or moldy.

Ian:

So And if you see things growing out of your feet Yeah.

Bryn:

You know you got a problem.

Ian:

Yeah. You've gone you've gone a little too far. But it's, you know, then the same thing goes with with, you know, your your bird, bass, or anything like that. Once in a while, just you gotta You gotta scrub it. Know, take the time and give it a really good cleaning.

Ian:

Yep. Because, you know, some of the some of the diseases and stuff that that we could be inadvertently spreading, yeah, is, is real. Right? So it just takes one one house finch with a with a with a goopy eye.

Bryn:

And Is that something that people just aren't thinking enough about? Because, I know we had this discussion at our house. We're looking at it, and I said, I gotta give that feeder a bit of a rinse down, and my better half said, oh, how important is that? I I said, I think it's really important. Well, now I'm learning it's not really important.

Bryn:

It is essential. Yeah.

Ian:

Part it's part of a game.

Janine:

It's just like us. Do we wanna eat off a dirty plate? No. Right? They don't either.

Ian:

Yeah. Exactly. And it's and it's it's in for the overall health, you know, the idea about of having birds eating in your yard and all that is so you can enjoy seeing them. You don't wanna see them looking like they've been Ill. Yeah.

Ian:

You know, cast them road warrior or something like that with, you know, stuff all over the face and you know? So you you want them you want them to be happy, healthy birds and and and you want to see them regularly.

Bryn:

One last thing about cleaning the feeders. What about cleaning beneath the feeders? Because I always worry about seed that's been sitting on the ground

Ian:

for a

Bryn:

while, and maybe it rained overnight. And Yeah. And now I'm seeing some I'm seeing some growth come up out of

Ian:

it. Vegetation.

Bryn:

Yeah. So which, for some reason, I never had that problem last year. This year is becoming an issue. I don't know if this is the weather we've had early in the spring or whatever it is. But to me, I I think I gotta be very conscious of what's on the ground, not just what's in the feeder.

Janine:

Well, yeah. There are some feed that you can get that will not germinate, so you can get, like, a garden friendly feed that won't germinate under. It'll just decompose kinda thing.

Bryn:

Is that is that a good one?

Janine:

Yep.

Ian:

Absolutely. Yep. It's exactly the same?

Bryn:

You said it. Absolutely. Anyways,

Janine:

no. It is yeah. That's a really good one. But, yeah, no. If you wanna make sure that your stuff is clean under the feeder as well, because other animals eat at the bottom.

Janine:

You know, I've seen rabbits and squirrels and stuff eat under there. So giving that a rinse, you know, cause birds poop on the ground too. So you wanna kinda clean it.

Bryn:

I'm convinced I'm keeping an entire vole family

Janine:

Yeah.

Ian:

Very, very

Bryn:

happy all the way through the winter. Oh, yeah. Mhmm. Quite frankly. So but that's just the way it is.

Bryn:

Yeah. Okay. You know what it is? It's time for? Fun Here we go.

Bryn:

Well We're getting better at this.

Janine:

Let's let's talk about love is love. Right? So Here we go.

Bryn:

Oh, here we go.

Janine:

This is This is an it's an interesting fun

Bryn:

fact is finally relaxed. He's listening to you.

Janine:

Yeah. The budgie is listening. Well, did you know did you know that birds can be gay? They they can have same sex marriages. It's documented scientifically amongst 1,500 species of animals, that, you know, animals can be gay.

Janine:

They've noted, penguins, like, two male penguins will adopt a chick or adopt an egg and incubate it and raise a baby, you know, two dads. Same with flamingos. They've raised two males have raised babies. So, yes.

Ian:

No. I just where do they get the baby from?

Janine:

Oh, that's either the penguin has been eaten by a sea lion or whatever they're called. I don't know what they're called. Those big animals that eat things.

Bryn:

It would be an orphan.

Janine:

Yeah. They get

Bryn:

a whole

Ian:

city thing.

Bryn:

They could

Janine:

be an orphan. You know? They could be an orphaned egg.

Ian:

Leopard seal.

Janine:

That's what it is.

Bryn:

That's that's the one.

Janine:

There was a lion. I knew there was, like,

Ian:

a a They're the

Janine:

cat and seal. Yeah. But yeah. No. It was like so the parents could have died or they could have just abandoned it or whatever.

Janine:

And, yeah, a little gay couple will

Bryn:

I did not know that.

Janine:

And I think that is absolutely amazing.

Bryn:

Hey. Before we wrap things up, so we split these two birds apart. Yes. And the so the one is outside of the cage. The other one who's been making all the noise is inside the cage, but has figured out where the one is outside the cage already.

Ian:

Yeah. Oh,

Bryn:

yeah. We might have to leave the, we might have to leave the studio, the room. Yeah. Hey. You two, thanks very much.

Bryn:

Always fun, and, that's it for today's episode. So, hey. Hope you had some fun with us.

Janine:

Bye.

Bryn:

Hey. Thanks for joining us today. If you're a birdbrain like me and you don't wanna miss our next podcast, then check us out on any of your favorite ear candy sites like Apple, Spotify, Google. There's lots of them out there. Make sure you tell your friends and make sure you follow or subscribe to our podcast.

Bryn:

That way when a new one drops, you'll get the new one right to your home perch. And, also, if you're not as the crow flies and you can't drop into our location, check us out online at mica'sbirdhouse.com. That's it for the Birdhouse Banter. Have yourself a great day. Let's get chirping.