Hi everyone

 

We were sitting in the livingroom the other day watching Lukie eat his leaves, which we hang from a clip for him. All of a sudden he froze with his foot in the air holding the leaf. We wondered what was wrong and went over to see if he was okay. His eyes were enormous and his little heart was beating so fast that you could see it beating in his chest. First we thought he might be going to have a siezure or something, but then we saw the Sparrow Hawk near the window looking at Lukie!. We chased it away but nothing could make Lukie move! He remained frozen in the same position for quite a few minutes. Poor little chap was terrified. We were amazed that he knew that a Sparrow Hawk is dangerous. He soon got over the experience though and was happily playing in no time.

 

Luv

Vonn

Edited December 29, 200618 yr by daz

I guess Lukey has a second sense about him, mine used to freak out when a squirrel peered in at them through the patio window in my previous residence. :ygbudgie:

We once had a hawk in our area for about a week, it was contintly landing on my bird cages and near the aviary, it managed to gouge on of my breeding budgies and it must have pulled the body through the bars but it obviously couldn't get the head through so all I found was a blood soaked head at the edge of the cage. But the thing is for that entire week I didn't hear a sound from the birds(wild and domesticated) and my birds where stone still. We didn't have any wild birds in the garden which was wierd because we live next to a national park. It was a very quite week.

 

The good thing is the hawk hasn't been back!

 

I'm glad Lukie is relaxed and happy again! And I hope you don't have to many more sparrow hawks watching Lukie.

 

Thanks Carri

It's amazing how instincts work. We have ravens and magpies hanging out in our backyard and the budgies just know from hearing the sound of wingbeats to freeze. Whereas they try to get the attention of sparrows and other parrots that visit.

Adelaidegirl - I'm glad the hawk hasn't been back! How awful.

I wouldn't be suprised if the little bird froze after seeing the Sparrow Hawk (Laughing out loud). Although whats quite wierd, every time by german shepherd enters the living room, my 2 birds get very quiet and cautious, although Max is afraid of budgies due to the old inncident with my old Bird Tweety, who used to basically attack Max from inside the cage, as one day when tweety was sitting happily, Max strolled over for a sniff, and NIP! Max Squealed and ran like a baby. Was so funny. Tweety chirped for hours after that.

I had something very similar happen to me Vonn a couple days back and I didn't see anything to terrify them but they froze like that too. In fact so frozen I was able to pick up Pretty which is never happens. So I knew they were petrified. Anyways, you are right it is scary.

Thanks for all the replies - so pleased to hear that 'freezing' in fear is normal for budgies (and humans!! (Laughing out loud)!) This is my first budgie so everything is new to me. I loved your post, Kevin, where you said Tweety chirped for hours after nipping the dog!! Hilarious!

 

Luv

Vonn xx