Watching Joy teach the chicks to fly was amazing!
Evidently, instinct covers the "up" direction of flight, but you have to learn the other directions (and landing!). This led to an amusing afternoon of chicks bumping along the ceiling, stymied by doorways. Have you noticed that doorways end way before the ceiling?
Eventually they would flutter to the floor and take off through the doorway to bump along the ceiling of the next room.
Joy started with short straight flights and gradually built them up to wide turns. He spent a lot of time teaching them to fly in formation as a flock. Keep in mind, this was when they'd only been out of the egg for a month!
They are now about 5 or 6 weeks old and they storm through the house in a flock of five. They also forage on the floor together, a behavior I find inexplicably cute! Look, five walking parakeets!
They fly fairly well, but seeing the parents in action, they have a ways to go - Peace and Joy can wheel in flight at top speed and land on a hanging strip of yarn. The chicks still land on top of each other pretty regularly: parakeet pile!
It has occurred to us that having five free range parakeets about the house is kind of crazy. We do put them in the cage when we are trying to have a meeting (or have skittish guests). But, on the whole, it's just so much fun!
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