Lana

I have hand raised a number of gouldian finch babies and they have grown up to be wonderful, friendly little pets. Even after they are weaned and move into the aviary, they often fly to me and land on my shoulder or head when I enter the aviary. Lana, the white breasted gouldian finch in the above photo, was not one of my hand-fed babies, but she's a friendly little girl just the same. In the aviary she would often fly to me to play with my hair or shoelace. Unfortunately in our Florida winter home there is no aviary and the birds have to spend a couple of months in large cages. My tame birds are allowed out of their cage every evening because they readily hop onto my hand and let me put them in their cage when it's bed time.


Lately Lana has indicated that she really wants to come out and hang with us. Anytime we walk near her cage she hangs on the cage bars and chats with us. So, last night I opened up the cage to give her the chance to come out for a visit (hoping that her cage mates didn't all decide to hop out with her). When I opened the cage door she took a couple of tentative short flights around my head, then back into the cage. After awhile she came out for some real exercize, flew around with my tame gouldian finch, Daytona, and ended up hopping into his cage with him. As I expected, she didn't readily hop onto my hand to be transferred back to her own cage - I needed to dim the lights and grab her from the perch. Didn't seem to bother her though - tonight she came out and we went throught the whole routine again.