Tracy, the Peach Faced Lovebird hatched May 16, 1993 at the home of a friend. At the time, I had some finches, budgies and cockatiels and hadn't really been thinking about adding any more birds to the home. My friend invited me over to see her babies and there was no way I was leaving without one of them.
I picked Tracy over his clutchmates mainly due to his hatchdate because that is also my daughter's birthday. Since my daughter's middle name is Tracy, that soon became the little lovebird's name as well. We, of course did not know his sex at that time because with lovebirds, the best way to tell is to wait & see if the bird lays an egg.
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Tracy was a very sweet bird right from the start. He had been handled a lot while being handfed and he trusted people completely. Although he would go to anyone, he would not stay with them and would come running back to either my daughter or to me as soon as he could.
Although Tracy had been obtained as a pet, a pretty little female lovebird entered our lives and was introduced to Tracy about 2 years later after quarantine. The two of them hit it off and rewarded us with some healthy baby chicks soon afterwards. Tracy was an excellent father, but while with his mate and/or chicks, he was very nasty to my daughter & I. He felt he had to protect them and since he was not afraid of us, he would go out of his way to attack.
The female was not tame and we decided to give her away to another lovebird breeder in the hopes that Tracy would return to his previous sweet personality. As soon as his mate left, he did remember that we were his friends and he became very sweet again.
When the birds were all out of their cages, Tracy formed a bond with Lucky, one of my cockatiels. The two of them would be hanging out together while the other cockatiels would hang out with each other.
When I built a flight for the birds in the basement, all the birds except Tracy were put in it. I knew that cockatiels, parakeets (not budgies), finches & doves would be fine together, but knew that lovebirds can be very nasty to other birds sometimes. I would bring Lucky out often to play with him though.
One day when I went to feed the birds, I found that Tracy was not in his cage & had somehow managed to get into the flight. He was sitting up on a branch with Lucky and the two of them seemed to be very happy with the arrangement. None of the other birds seemed to be bothered, so I decided to leave him there.
Things were fine for over a year when I started to notice that some of the birds had missing toes. At first, I thought maybe there was a place that they were getting caught on the wire, but one day I saw Tracy grab & hold onto the foot of my Bourkes Parakeet, Jerry. I then realized that was what must have happened to the other birds & Tracy had to come out of the flight.
We went back to the daily playtimes with Lucky coming out of the flight and Tracy getting to spend extra time out of the birdroom with either my daughter or me.
At ten years of age, Tracy is still a sweetheart. He loves to be cuddled, he loves to spend time just sitting on a shoulder - right up against the neck, and he loves to climb into a pocket to sleep. He eats a mixture of two different types of pellets plus seeds as well as a good variety of vegetables, fruits and whatever we happen to be eating each day.
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 Lovebird ownership, I have decided to write an e-book about the care of these wonderful birds.
For more information on lovebirds you could take a look at Amazon.com, where you can find these great books:
