Tiki - 2nd Place

Congratulations to Julia Sanua and her beautiful bird Tiki!

Tiki, the Flying Explorer

 

My family has a lovebird named Tiki who is very unique. He is extremely adventurous and gets into all sorts of squabbles with Whitey, our timid budgie.

We first got Tiki from our barber (who regretfully couldn’t take of him any more), after Featherby, Whitey’s companion, escaped and flew away. He adapted to our house quickly and worked wonders for Whitey. Tiki would not leave his cage until Whitey left his, and stuck close to him. He made Whitey feel safer.

Tiki was already trained and taught Whitey bit by bit that humans would not hurt you, even though Whitey often annoyed him. After that, Whitey did whatever Tiki did. Then we found out that Tiki likes to chew paper, and Whitey started to do that, too.

Tiki also loves small spaces. You can always find his head poking out of unexpected places, such as behind shutters, on top of ceiling fan blades or kitchen cabinets. Once I couldn’t find him so I called, “Tiki, where are you?” and I found him in my locker bookcase where he had managed to nibble half the cover off of my copy of Hansel and Gretel.

When I bring balloons into the house, Tiki flies away, but won’t go out of the room because he’s really interested in this new floating “thingy.” My mom is a singer and when she does her voice exercises, he perches on her head. He is really interested in the piano and flies onto it whenever someone is playing.

Every night when Tiki wants us to clean his cage, he flies onto someone’s shoulder and squawks different sounds in their ear. If they don’t listen immediately, he starts nibbling their earlobe. Then, when we clean his cage, he flies into the seed container and eats dinner there! He gets irritated sometimes when I laugh at him, so he flies on my shoulder and scolds me!

Sometimes, I think about Tiki and how he makes my life better. He is always there when I am feeling sad or angry and he listens quietly to everything I say. He has all the qualities I want in a good friend – funny, sometimes annoying, but always there for me. I know at the end of each day he will always make me laugh.

 

 
home madagascar lovebird

green fischer's lovebird

 

Photo credits: blue peachfaced lovebird by Vera Appleyard, black-cheeked lovebird by Deb Sandidge, Madagascar lovebird by Gwen Powell (bird owned by Roland Dubuc), Fischer's lovebird by Lee Horton.