birds do it

So, the Mr. and I were in the kitchen continuing a discussion that was, at least at the beginning, about Brian Wilson's Smile, while I prepared breakfast (okay, brunch) for our various birds. Retrieving the dirty dishes from the parakeets' cage, I also removed a new egg that sat, cold and dented, on the scattered seed husks on their floor. Iris, the female bird, is certainly a child-free personality, and I suspect that she doesn't even bother getting down from her perch, but just lets the eggs drop where they may. I take the eggs away from them on the remote chance that they might show an interest in seeing an egg through to the end, which is something the Mr. and I definitely don't want to be involved in. (I like the eggs as objects, though. Today's egg was exceptionally small and cute and hardly dented at all.) On returning to the kitchen, I made a remark about birds being notoriously private about their sexual behavior, as well as about laying eggs. Although our lovebird has laid somewhere in the range of 200 eggs over the years, I've seen her produce only two. As for sex, The Mr. could not recall ever having seen birds mate, and I had seen it happen only once, and for mere seconds, on a dogwood branch outside the kitchen window.

Because we were still talking, if only tangentially, about Smile, the Mr. followed me and the parakeets' breakfast into the room where they were, as always, making a racket. I was looking back over my shoulder as I spoke, but when I turned to look at the cage...

Wow.

Sex! Actual bird mating activity! And nothing like what I saw outside the kitchen window, that's for certain. Berry was hunched on top of Iris, looking much more purposeful than we've seen him. An unusually submissive Iris twisted her neck around so they could "kiss." Berry was all puffed up, had a wing wrapped around Iris' back and chest for leverage and was, well, banging away. Although the noises they were making were the the noises they always make, in this new context they were kind of disturbing. It was...almost hot. It looked more like human sex than any other animal mating I've ever seen, making both the Mr. and I more than a little uncomfortable. And they just kept doing it! They didn't stop! The Mr. and I gawked, mouths hanging open and eyes wide, but the birds just kept on shamelessly humping! Finally, after several minutes of explicit bird action, they broke apart, reverting almost instantly to their usual smooth, bland, bead-eyed selves.

Iris is a bitch, both to us and to Berry. She bites and complains, and she literally henpecks Berry into doing things she considers potentially dangerous (i.e., examining new toys), but now it's vividly clear how they achieve balance in their relationship. Go, Berry!

As for theories of avian privacy issues, my whole worldview has been altered.

birds do it

So, the Mr. and I were in the kitchen continuing a discussion that was, at least at the beginning, about Brian Wilson's Smile, while I prepared breakfast (okay, brunch) for our various birds. Retrieving the dirty dishes from the parakeets' cage, I also removed a new egg that sat, cold and dented, on the scattered seed husks on their floor. Iris, the female bird, is certainly a child-free personality, and I suspect that she doesn't even bother getting down from her perch, but just lets the eggs drop where they may. I take the eggs away from them on the remote chance that they might show an interest in seeing an egg through to the end, which is something the Mr. and I definitely don't want to be involved in. (I like the eggs as objects, though. Today's egg was exceptionally small and cute and hardly dented at all.) On returning to the kitchen, I made a remark about birds being notoriously private about their sexual behavior, as well as about laying eggs. Although our lovebird has laid somewhere in the range of 200 eggs over the years, I've seen her produce only two. As for sex, The Mr. could not recall ever having seen birds mate, and I had seen it happen only once, and for mere seconds, on a dogwood branch outside the kitchen window.

Because we were still talking, if only tangentially, about Smile, the Mr. followed me and the parakeets' breakfast into the room where they were, as always, making a racket. I was looking back over my shoulder as I spoke, but when I turned to look at the cage...

Wow.

Sex! Actual bird mating activity! And nothing like what I saw outside the kitchen window, that's for certain. Berry was hunched on top of Iris, looking much more purposeful than we've seen him. An unusually submissive Iris twisted her neck around so they could "kiss." Berry was all puffed up, had a wing wrapped around Iris' back and chest for leverage and was, well, banging away. Although the noises they were making were the the noises they always make, in this new context they were kind of disturbing. It was...almost hot. It looked more like human sex than any other animal mating I've ever seen, making both the Mr. and I more than a little uncomfortable. And they just kept doing it! They didn't stop! The Mr. and I gawked, mouths hanging open and eyes wide, but the birds just kept on shamelessly humping! Finally, after several minutes of explicit bird action, they broke apart, reverting almost instantly to their usual smooth, bland, bead-eyed selves.

Iris is a bitch, both to us and to Berry. She bites and complains, and she literally henpecks Berry into doing things she considers potentially dangerous (i.e., examining new toys), but now it's vividly clear how they achieve balance in their relationship. Go, Berry!

As for theories of avian privacy issues, my whole worldview has been altered.