When I found those old pictures of my cockatiel, Pecky, I started to think about when we had him and his three rescue siblings. Sadly I don't have their pictures (I had no way to take any, until after the other three were rehomed and Pecky was the last one), but there was one thing I particularly remembered.

The four of them were made up of three males and a female, though we originally thought it was two and two. Pecky was originally thought to be a female, because he was being courted by one of his brothers. Then we realized that Pecky was the male, and we thought his brother was the female, and so his name switched between Luke and Lindsey, quite often. Since I know he was male, I will call him Luke, and when describing his appearance, I will let you know that one of the other males (Piper) resembled Carolyn's "Pip".

Luke was white-faced just like his 3 siblings, most closely resembling Piper, with the only difference of his face being shaded a light grey around the area where any regularly colored cockatiel would be yellow. After knowing that Pecky is definitely a male, it made things a little harder to determine what gender Luke was, because he seemed attracted to his brother, though it was one-sided, because Pecky was attracted to the one sister they really did have, who had a mutual attraction to Piper.

Luke had the strangest courting behavior I've ever seen. This isn't like the video I posted of the cockatiel courting the conure with it's individualized version of the standard behavior. No, this was completely different. Luke never displayed the heartwings. Instead, he would lean over his brother, to the point where his beak was almost on top of his brother's head (he was quite taller than Pecky), and sing, while raising one of his feet (preferably the one closest to Pecky) in front of him. Pecky would just sit there and pretend nothing was happening.

Could it just be that he wanted to get on top, and was trying to tell pecky to get into mating position? Or was this just an individualized courting behavior, that served the same purpose of the heartwings?

One thing I know for sure, those four rescues were quite the group of oddballs...

Just my opinion, but it definitely seems like a courting behavior. I love your stories about your birds, both in the past and current. It must have been fun growing up with all the birds in your house. What birds do you currently have? Birds are so special to me, I am owned by a budgie and a cockatiel. The budgie isn't tame by any means. She does talk however, and will come onto my hand for millet. She refuses to come out of her cage, but otherwise, plays with her toys, and seems very happy. My tiel is a baby yet, only three months old. But, he has already learned three phrases and is working on a song. He says "whatcha doin" "good bird" and "I love you". I had another tiel who died in April, and I still miss him so much. But, that said, they are so special to me. Like I said, I love all your stories- keep sharing them!

I'm glad you like reading what I write.

Indeed, a house (and yard) full of birds are interesting to grow up with. Was never the quietest household, I'll tell you that. I just have Lucy and Dudley now, regarding birds. Lucy my tiel is fairly new, just over 3 months according to the paper, and Dudley, my pionus who actually belongs to my parents, is almost 30 years. One of the two animals currently here that have been around long enough to serve as my witness (if he could talk any more than the few words he knows). Birds aren't the only animals we have. I've also grown up around dogs, as well as reptiles and fish. I also had an interest in insects, as a child. Basically, I live in a zoo, currently with one dog, two tortoises, two birds, and lots of fish in a pond. I don't think we would stop there, we might end up getting something else in the future (most likely another dog. My mom kinda retired from keeping birds, but Lucy is mine).

Birds have played a special role in my childhood, be it wild and captive. My mom has always been quite a bird watcher, and she used to hang up many different feeders. I learned to name many of the local species, part of just her telling me which is what, part from the field guides she's had around the house, and part from my own interest in it developing, inspiring me to do research. I could never get bored watching them.

It sounds like Luke was a dirty-face pied. The pied mutation doesn't follow the normal gender-identification rules, and either sex can have a yellow/white face or a grey face.

It sounds like he was most likely male due to all the singing. It's hard to say WHY he courted his brother the way that he did. But it's possible that he knew he was courting another male and as a result he went about it differently than what he would have done with a hen. Birds are certainly capable of same-sex mating behavior, but with pet birds it's thought that a lot of it occurs because an opposite-sex partner isn't available, not necessarily because the bird prefers a same-sex partner.

I see. So it's like a "if I wish for it hard enough, it will happen" kind of thing with them? They think they will magically make babies, somehow, or is it just the hormones doing the work?

Albeit, I've never seen courting behavior like it. Crazy thing though, we've put him in the cage with the one hen, before, and he showed absolutely no interest. Either he knew that she was taken by his brother Piper, or he was thinking some other hen would come out of nowhere, and when there wasn't another hen, his last resort was apparently his brother Pecky. Sometimes, it's hard to tell what the heck they're thinking.

Birds don't actually know that sex makes babies, they just have a natural urge to mate and will choose a partner from what's available to them. Cockatiels normally form a monogamous pair bond, so if he already had a romantic attachment to his brother he might stay true to that even when a more appropriate partner became available. Or maybe he was just gay. That happens in birds too.

My tiels are gay. But then again, it's just probably that way because I don't have hens.

Teela and Squeebis have been my brother-sister incest pair for years. Azazel wanted to form a threesome with them and seemed to be really more attracted to Squeebis than to Teela, so I think he might be bisexual leaning toward gay. But this year I kept Squeebis away from them long enough for Azazel and Teela to have babies together, which they did successfully. Azazel did NOT want Squeebis helping with baby care, which kind of surprised me. Zaz has previously raised chicks in cooperation with other males. It'll be interesting to see whether he resumes the old "threesome" relationship after the babies are weaned.

Well whatever it was that drove him to his brother, it was definetely a one-sided relationship.

At the time, it didn't occur to me that they were all related until I started to really think about them, and realized all three males had the same exact "pretty birdie" song. Heck, Piper and his mate, Specky, could have well been Pecky and Luke's parents, for I know. Specky looked so different from the rest of them, being a cinnamon-pearl white faced cockatiel (much like Shodu's chick: "YinYin"), though it could've been a mix of genes.

The four were like the major incest group. Luke was in love with his brother Pecky, who was in love with his sister and/or mom, Specky, who was bonded to Piper, who may or may not have been Specky's brother.

You can't really go by the song, because birds will copy each other and they end up singing the same songs. Shodu's sons sing more like Elvis than like their father, which is a good thing because Elvis is a good singer and Buster has the most monotonous song in the house.