Um, here I go again… A couple months ago Brain died. Leaving Nacho as the only bird in the house. Soon after, while at the petstore for birdfood for Nacho, I saw a fuzzy little green bird with a round head in the bird section, who was all sweet and slow moving and came to the side of the cage and interacted when I sat and talked to it. Brandy really liked it too and talked to it and told me it was just a baby bird. A ringneck.
I was tempted, but it was too soon after Brain, and I needed money for Christmas, and it was a bigger bird and would require more elaborate care than the budgies I’d had in the past and would need a new cage and toys and stuff too.
Over the next couple months, every time I went to the petstore, I went over to the cute green ringneck and talked to it. I was thinking more and more I wanted to bring it home. And I was getting more and more worried that someone else would buy it. And I was starting to feel guilty that I had not brought it home yet. It was starting to look less babyish and slightly more grown up.
It was time. Last weekend I bought it and brought it home. The sex won’t be clear until it is over a year or so old (unless I get a DNA test) but I have decided for now to call it a “he”. The name will be Zuri Kidege Minter. Points for anybody who gets why. :-) We think the language overlaps the natural range of the subspecies of this bird (Psittacula krameri krameri) although perhaps not by much.
Anyway, his name is Zuri.
I’m working on taming him by spending a lot of time with my hand in the cage, but it is tough! He will eat grapes from my hand already though! But isn’t quite ready to be handled directly without being caught yet. :-) Working on it. Got to play with him every day.
Average lifespan in captivity is 25-30 years according to one site I found, and I have heard they can live much longer than that as well. So I’ve signed up for a long commitment. Zuri will hopefully be with me a long long time! I will try to be a good bird daddy.
Nacho may still need a small friend who can share the same cage though. That may happen before too long.
The Minter household is growing! :-) There is talk of Glo-Fish too! Someone stop me before I have a whole zoo! Right now I have Nacho the budgie, Nala the anole, Zuri the ringneck, and a bunch of crickets to feed Nala. Oh, and the Roomba.
Description: Generally green, face, abdomen and under wing-coverts yellowish-green; nape and back of head variably washed with blue; chin, broad cheek-stripe and narrow line from cere to eye black; narrow band to nape pink; upperside of middle tail-feathers blue with greenish-yellow tips, outer feathers green; underside of outer tail-feathers olive-yellowish, middle feathers blackish; bill blackish-red with black tips; iris yellowish-white; feet greenish-grey.
Nice of you to put a picture up!
I can’t believe I’m going to say this….but I have to agree with Rebeccca, where is the picture Sam? I’m guessing the bird is either Russian or African, did I win?
Nobody asked for pictures of Nala! What are all of you? Heartless anole haters? :-) I guess I’ll eventually post some pics.
It’s African, the name means beautiful little bird in Swahili.
Yes. African Ringneck. And Al is correct on the name. Although I purposely broke it up differently than it should be, to get “Zuri” as a first name. Zuri, meaning beautiful, should really be a suffix. The root word is “Dege” for bird, with a prefix of “Ki” for little, and it should be a suffix “Zuri” for beautiful. So it really should be Kidegezrui. That is if I am reading my online dictionaries correctly, since I don’t know the language at all. But I wanted Zuri for the first name, and just thought the kidege was neat, so made it a middle name. :-)
Oops. That should be Kidegezuri. Silly keyboard!