Winter was sitting on the perch on the nestbox this afternoon. That was fast.

I got some sunflower seeds and gave them out to all the birds. Then, I decided they might enjoy a bath. When I was coming back with the water, Silver flew around and over my head twice, chirping. I thought he was excited about the bath but when I put it on the cagetop, he ignored it and looked at me expectantly. Then, I thought maybe he wanted more sunflower seeds. I said to him, "you want another treat?" and he started chirping. I went out to the hall and came back with the sunflower seeds, and he was very excited. I think I might have been fast enough that it will reinforce his performance. I am amazed how much he can fly even though he got a light clip a week ago.

I have also noticed that if I ask them if they want treats, they seem to know what I mean, and chirp while I go into the other room to get them. They never say they don't want them.

After a while, though, Silver and Emma really got into the bath big time. I put a small bowl of water in the budgie cage. They ignored it, but were clinging to the side of the cage watching the tiels. I just couldn't deprive them of the party, so I removed the nest box and let them out. It was quite a scene. Everyone was taking drinks of the bath water then was in and out of the bath multiple times and having a wonderful time. It's a whole different thing drinking water after a bowl than out of a lixit bottle.

So, now I have two budgies in the tiel cage and two tiels in the budgie cage (without the nest box), and everyone is preening.

Maybe they are too young to settle down and have chicks.

A good time was had by all!

Birds are smart and can figure out pretty easily what an offer of treats looks like. They can learn the meaning of words, and when they don't understand the words they can often read the body language or tone of voice.

One of the nice things about them.

Sounds like a party!

My 2 budgies are in the same cage as my tiel.....
All lovely and peaceful....

Not all birds are the same. Some are smarter than others, when interacting with their owners. Their tricks usually require some reinforcement and then they will do it all the time.

I had a bird that moved with us to a new house. After three years we moved back to the old house. For some reason we did not put the cage in its usual spot. When we let the bird out for a fly, it tried to land in the spot where the cage 'used to live' . So really smart that it remembered the house and the location of the cage, but a little dumb for trying to land on something that was not there. Instinct can over ride the obvious sometimes.