Esso is molting (again!) - but I just discovered something very funny. I held up one of his nice longer feathers that had come out, and he CANNOT resist it!
Even from a few feet away, he will fly over to preen that feather! And the more I ruffle up the feather, the more he cannot wait to get to it. He finally ended up picking up the feather from me and flying it back to his tree! I don't know if he thinks that I am molting and have a feather out of place, or he just wants his darn feather back, but it is funny! He wants the feather way more than millet and certainly will go out of his way to get it. I think it must be part of their hard-wiring. Try it, I wonder if they all are like that!

that is adorable....esso sounds like he really keeps you entertained

he definitely is coming out of his shell a little bit - it has been alot of work, but he is very sweet.

HAHAHA!LOL! I actually have seen that as well with my moms bird Sparky, I picked up a longer feather and stuck in through the bars and she would go nuts for it, she would attempt to preen but end up just grabbing it then grabbing it with her foot and pinning against the perch and try preening it that way, and if she dropped it she would go looking for it. Ifigured it was Sparky being Sparky, I never thought that most birds would do that, but it makes sense they would, whether it's their feather or a friends they just love to preen. SO far I have kept three very nice long feathers from Frodo's molt, maybe I will keep some more and make a cool preening toy from them, I think that might be cool, also might be difficult to keep the feathers attached to something, but I'll figure it out. ANyways thats funny Esso's mommy, Esso is such a pretty bird and as I mentioned I love that new avatar. Jloc

hmmm, Sherbert dropped a huge long feather yesterday. I'll test your theory and get back with you.

Those are some cute stories! My budgie Charlie is going trough her first molt and recently lost a long feather. When I had my birds out I picked up the feather and rubbed it against her face and she loved it. Her face was probably really itchy. She had been rubbing her face on her perch all day! Thanks for posting!
All the best, Kait

Mango's going through his molt and he's lost a few feathers. I was playing with one of his softer feather on my desk and he kept eyeing his feather then took it away! So funny and cute!

well I tired an experiment this a.m. When I was a the park I picked up 6 dove feathers and brouth them back and stuck them in the bars of the cages. I ascertained it's their own feathers they do this with, not just any feather. They pulled thme out of the bars and promptly dropped/forgot about them. I did see Jewel playing with one of his the other day.

Awww...

I tried that a long time ago with my keets and they preened it for a while but then decided they should rip it up. It was absolutely crazy. They shredded the feather stem and pulled out all of the fuzzy things.

Thankfully, they don't it when the feather is attached to someone.

well, it worked with Sherbert. He won't leave his feather alone as long as I hold it. But once I hand it to him he drops it and expects me to pick it up again. ha!