Michelle Chelich of Orland Park, Illinois had been a client of mine for 3 years at that time. She purchased her Moluccan and Medium Sulphur Crested Cockatoos (Elenora) from me. She also had a Goffin, Rose Breasted, Major Mitchell and Umbrella Cockatoos. Additionally she had the Blue and Gold and Military Macaws. I groomed all her birds on a regular basis and provided on-going behavioral consultations. At this time she had eight large cages in her living room and during the day all the birds would go in and out of each others cages. At night they would all try to squeeze into one cage to stay together. At this point we discussed placing them all in one huge cage. This would take up less space, and require much less work.

Prior to setting them up to live as one big flock, we had them all DNA sexed to better understand the flock dynamics. This would help her to better understand how gender plays in their everyday behaviors and interactions - especially when they reach sexual maturity.

Chelich went to Home Depot and purchased a 6’x 8’x 6’ tall chain link fence dog run and put a wire mesh top over it. Her eight birds happily lived in this large cage for 1 ½ years. Then as she acquired more birds, she converted her whole living room into a free flying aviary. She left the large chain link cage in their bird room for several weeks to give them a chance to settle in gradually and give them the opportunity to find their niches. We then removed the large cage once the birds were comfortable living freely with each other.

They had established a pecking order with the matriarch of the flock being the littlest one, the Goffin Cockatoo. Then amazingly, they also established a three tier ecosystem where all the birds found their own level of comfort. The Major Mitchell and the Rose Breasted are the ground dwellers. They spend a lot of their day on the floor and seem to prefer to eat the food that has been tossed on the floor by the others. The rest of the cockatoos seem to take the perches in the middle, and the Macaws are always perched at the highest level. If there is a dispute between birds, the Goffin steps in and the other birds ignore the naughty bird that started it until the Goffin decides to allow them back into the flock. They function together as one big flock even though they are many different species. The advantages to this set up are that they are free to fly and have the freedom to make decisions like they would in the wild. There are two feeding areas. They have to forage for their food, much like they would in the wild. It’s not just sitting there next to them in a bowl.

Recently Chelich rescued and successfully added to the flock a Harlequin and Milligold Macaw, and an Eclectus. She also has a rescued Congo African Grey that she does keep in a separate cage in her family room. Knowing that Greys are more of a nervous bird, we decided to keep her separate.

All the birds are still very loving and still interact with Chelich and her family and still want love and attention from people. Living in a flock hasn’t seemed to affect their bond with humans. Actually, it seems that they have included their human family as part of their flock.

An interesting occurrence of the multi-species flock behavior was when a lady came to drop off a second Macaw. Her two Macaws were kept in very deplorable sub-standard filthy conditions. The first abused Macaw recognizing his previous owner became agitated, fearful and shook at her presence. He apparently thought he was being taken out of the heaven he had gotten to know, back to the hell he came from. He stayed as far away from her as possible. When he got scarred and upset, the other macaws immediately picked up on it. Then the Goffin, who is the first to greet everyone, went down and she did not accept this lady. So then everyone went into defense mode to protect the scarred Macaw. When this lady walked further into the bird room the little Goffin took flight directly for her face, the Rose Breasted flew for her head and then another Macaw came down. The lady had her arm up in defense, and was bitten on her arm. Those three flew at her to get her out of there! After she got them off of her, these birds started to attack her again, lead by the Goffin while the rest of them sat poised ready to go if they had to. What a negative impact she had on the birds that are normally very friendly and affectionate to strangers.

There are also a turtle and rabbit living together in a large Plexiglas cage in the aviary. Occasionally the birds perch on the side of their cage. The rabbit jumps up and growls at them, so they fly away. Also occasionally, the Moluccan and Umbrella throw toys and nuts at them, and they steal their greens. Of course Chelich gives the same greens to the birds, but naturally stolen greens taste better.

I met Carol McLearen and Cory Yara of Shorewood, Illinois at a local bird fair where I had a booth. They immediately fell in love with one of my Umbrella Cockatoo babies. (NOTE: I do occasionally go only to local bird fairs with my babies, but I do not allow them to go directly to their new homes that day. I will accept deposits and then schedule an appointment that they have to come to my home for my lengthy consultation on proper care, training and behavior.) McLearen always wanted an Umbrella baby, but the problem was there just wasn’t any more room in their family room for another cage. They currently had six cages in there, housing two Caiques, a Quaker, Congo African Grey, Yellow Nape Amazon, Green Wing Macaw.

I mentioned what Chelich and I had successfully done. They had a dining room that they never used. They converted that into their open aviary. As they were working on the room they would bring in a few birds to get them used to it gradually. So they wouldn’t be afraid. Finally when it was finished, all the birds including my baby were put in there.

It has only been a couple of weeks so this one is a work in progress. The African Grey was scarred, so McLearen put his stand in with him and that helped. The Caique was bullying everyone else, so with a little wing trim that immediately resolved that. Today McLearen informed me that the Umbrella was bullying the Amazon. She removed the Amazon from the room and is temporarily keeping him in a cage in the family room. We are going to put the Amazon on the family room play area and bring the Umbrella out with him under close supervision. We are going to bring them together and try to teach the Umbrella good behavior. We will reward the positive interactions between the two and if the Umbrella gets aggressive, give him a time out in the small cage. It will take a little more time and effort of McLearen and Yara because their birds did not all interact together on a daily basis like Chelich’s.

It appears to me, that many people with multiple birds and an extra room can consider this as an option. In these two instances, the littlest birds are the more dominant ones. There are very few disputes. When there are, they are resolved without injury. Postures and warnings are given and if that doesn’t work there may be a little squabble but without injury. If a problem arises, one bird just moves to another location within the room. The majority of the time they all have their own niches and get along. For most people I would recommend having an avian behaviorist involved to help avoid potential problems and help to resolve any problems that might occur. Since Michelle Chelich’s birds were all out all day, everyday interacting, it was a smooth transition. If your birds are not in an environment where they all socialize together everyday, you may need to do this in stages. Allow the ones that do get along to go in first, adding the rest in stages to be accepted. It would also be a good idea to keep one small cage in your open aviary for time outs if a bird is misbehaving.

This new arrangement has not affected their relationships with McLearen and Yara either. Their birds still want and enjoy their attention and love too. The birds have days chocked full of fun activities, lots of exercise and socialization. It has given them so much more enrichment in their lives. They get to be birds. They get freedom. They get to make decisions. They get to fly, forage, make buddies and even have squabbles. They have the opportunity to do what birds do in the wild…and they get the human love and interaction they desire.

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