Well, the answer as to whether they can or will get along together is a definite maybe, sometimes. Even with the same species of birds, you often find two that simply do not like each other and when you have completely different species, they may or may not ever get along.
With most finches, as long as you keep similar sized and temperment birds together and you have a large enough cage to accommodate them, you shouldn’t have a problem.
With Canaries, you should be able to keep the females together without incident, but males will fight. You can keep either females or a male in with birds such as budgies or cockatiels. If you have a large enough flight, you may even be able to keep both sexes or all males together.
With some of the smaller parrot species such as the Budgie several different types of Parakeets, or the Cockatiel, you probably will be fine with some of each species as long as the cage or flight is spacious enough.
Lovebirds can form pair bonds with other species if introduced at a very young age, but they are also known to kill their mate (even of their own species) without warning. Lovebirds make the best pet, if you only have one because when they bond to another bird, they are known to get very nippy with their owner usually. They can be kept in flights with their own kind as long as there are equal number of males & females and there are more than enough (probably twice as many) nestboxes to go around at breeding time.
Once we start talking about the bigger parrots, the answers are much less certain whether we are dealing with same species or different species. If they start out together as young birds, they will probably always be just fine together. If you have had one bird and are introducing another bird to the home, you must take precautions in introducing them together.
First introduction should be in a neutral area of the house where neither one feels he or she must guard the territory against intruders. This meeting should happen after the new bird has been quarantined for some time in another area of the house. This period will allow both birds time to hear the other without seeing him or her.
Hopefully you won’t ever have to keep your birds in separate rooms to stop them from killing each other. They enjoy being with other flock members to talk & chatter. Even if they don’t get along, you could have their cages in the same room, just make sure that neither one can reach the other one’s cage or play area when out.
Of course, your birds just might get along fine. They may be able to share the same play area and food dishes when out of the cage. Even so, each one should have their own cage to go to for sleep and time away from the flock unless they show a desire to be together all the time.
If mixing different sized birds together extreme caution must be taken to ensure that they are not together unsupervised, even if they appear to get along. I have heard too many stories of one bird suddenly turning on another bird with serious injury resulting.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop by the Bird Forum anytime (see the most recent topics below).
After many years of pet bird ownership, I have decided to write e-books about the care of some of these wonderful birds.
