Nobody died, I want to say that first of all because the title is so sad.

As some of you might remember, since I moved here last April I had a lot of problems with the Council (my landlord).
They wanted me to sleep in a bedroom instead of the living room, which meant I had to put a bed in the bedroom which was the bird room. Ok, no biggie, I did that.

A few weeks ago I received a visit from a lady from the Council and she saw 10 birds in the bird/bed room, and said that this was an hazard for my health (the other 4 birds were already in the living room).
Plus she said that 14 birds was unacceptable and the Council would give me permission for maximum two birds.

Without going into boring and long explanations, I'll just say that I was already in a very bad state (depression), and this woman's statements tipped me over completely. I just didn't feel like I could live without my birds.
After a lot of desperation and self-pity attacks I am happy to say that I was able to start thinking of practical ways to keep as many birds as I could AND satisfy the Council's requests.

I completely dismantled the bird room (for the second time now!), moved all the birds and cages in the living room, and started to look in the neighborhood for someone with an aviary.
Thank god an ex-colleague of mine keeps cockatiels, and told me that he'd be very happy to welcome as many birds as I needed.

My own birds are Bubu, Keith, Rocky, Hamish & Dougal, Trilly & Frank, Mr Darcy, and Angelina. Plus I had some rescues, Sam, Bimbo, Princess, Leslie, and Jack.

Some of my own birds are pretty wild, and some of the rescues are impossible to put in an aviary because of health or because they are very tame and need a proper home.
I sat down with paper and pen and started to think of some combinations, tame vs non tame, birds I can't live without, health requirements etc. I have no idea how many nights I spent doing this lol, and during the day I moved furniture around to create a bird-friendly living room, which as we all know by experience is not easy.

At the end I decided that I could put 6 in the aviary, but the others HAD TO STAY.
Angelina and Jack are an item now, she is not very friendly and he is wild, so that was easy to decide.
Mr Darcy has been rejected by the flock so the aviary with new birds seemed a good solution.
Princess is very healthy and not superfriendly due to the abuse she endured in her previous life, so I thought aviary would be a dream for her.
Trilly and Frank would have their own small aviary and, due to all Trilly's problems, I thought being under the sun light all day would be good for her.
So these are the six I chose to move to the aviary, which has different sections and heated rooms. It's really very well organised!
If I was less selfish I could have also moved Bubu, Rocky, Keith and Bimbo, who are healthy and inseparable, but to be honest I couldn't bear the idea of not having them with me.

So I moved these six birdies, and Frank and Trilly decided to celebrate immediately, you can imagine how

I already visited them twice, and I am happy to report that Mr Darcy has found a new object of interest (obsession, as usual) in the lady of the house. He lets her touch him without ripping her fingers off, rides on her shoulder and gives her little kisses. He even sings for her. He was even nice with me, no touching but at least he didn't attack me lol.

Princess is already well integrated with the flock, Jack & Angelina live with three beautiful Rosellas, and Frank and Trilly have their own space without nestboxes.
They all seem happy but I feel devastated as you can imagine, and the effect on the remaining birds has been hard. They called for days
Now they have found stability again, and the strangest thing happened: they are less nervous, some of them reverted to their old personality (for example Bubu isn't wild and aggressive anymore), they all seem more relaxed.

I folded away all the cages but the biggest 2, stuffed all the guys in, and waited for the visit from the Council.
This time it was my own housing officer visiting, and looking at the changes and after me promising that one or 2 more birds will soon go, told me that she is satisfied with me keeping a maximum of 7.
I can't believe that I managed to convince her to let me keep so many, and over the moon obviously.

What do you guys think about my aviary birds choice? Do you think I chose the right ones? I am worried about Trilly but after having tried everything to help her, maybe she will find a better balance. I am full of doubts about her. She seems very happy but that's not enough to make her healthy as well.

Anyway, this is the whole story, I am sorry for the long post and because I was absent for all this time, but I didn't have the heart to write about it until now.

Oh Barbara I'm glad you came up with a solution for your birds and what suited you....I'm sure you've done the right thing...Your home for you comes first....no use having birds, if you had lost your home... you did the correct thing...don't beat yourself up about it.... they all sound happy....
I hope your state of health gets better soon.. A terrible thing depression...
Only keep the 7 birds, refuse all others.... it will be best in the long run...
Oh we miss our feathered friends, but sometimes its for the best...My thoughts are with you...
If you need to, email me, any time Im here...

It sounds to me that you did very well for everyone. I especially think that your remaining birds got benefit by their new calmer behavior.

Oh Barb, I'm so sorry! I couldn't imagine breaking up my flock. I do think you made good calls though. I do have to admit, I am relieved that you kept Bubu and Keith.

Just a side note, if looking at the birds you don't have in your signature makes you sad, I can always change it too.

I'm sorry you had to do that.

Thank you all for the kind words, this is the only place where I feel comfortable to tell my stories, and your understanding and empathy is outstanding

Stephanie don't worry, seeing them in my signature is good, after all there is also Yoghi there and he's gone for a while, but i love to see him yhere with his mates. There is a few birdies I would like to add, and if you don't mind I will send you the pictures on your signature thread, no rush of course!

The first lady who visited, I found out later, is afraid of birds.
To show her how friendly they are I took Sam out of the cage, he's the gentlest soul you can imagine, and to be friendly he flew on the lady's head who proceeded to panic. What a jerk she was.
She even reported that all the birds were out of their cages (not true), Faye my housing officer told me that. Some people are just nasty.

I'm sorry that you had to give up so many of your birds, but glad that you were able to keep so many of them in the end. It could have been much worse! It sounds like the birds who moved to the aviary are all happy, and the birds who got to stay with you are happy too.

I find that birds tend to stay calmer when there are fewer of them. When there's a big flock they tend to set each other off - if one bird is startled and flies off they all follow. The more birds there are, the more likely it is that someone will get startled. With fewer birds there's less competition for desirable things too.

Oy, some people overreact to the simplest things sometimes. It never fails to make me wonder why a precious, fluffy little birdy gets the same reaction as a black mamba would.

Barbara, what an ordeal! I am happy to hear that you were able to keep 7 and it sounds like your thoughtful approach to rehoming the others is working out well. I can only imagine how hectic, draining and upsetting it must have all been.

Being relatively new to the whole bird as a pet thing, I'm surprised at some responses I get from people. Like when I was getting a new AC unit last summer and I was explaining to one of the installers (burly middle aged man no less) that I had birds and was about to ask if there would be offgassing or whatever (because I don't know anything about this stuff, come on!) and he interrupted me with a slightly panicked, "What, are they going to attack us or something?!" At the time I had only the budgies, so I felt bad that my first response was to laugh but I assured him that no, the little parakeets would be safely tucked in their cage the whole time (and side note, no off gassing with new AC units, if anyone cares).

Anyways, yeah. People are people which means there are all types and some of those types are apparently weird and sometimes phobic of birds. I'm sorry that your "phobic of birds person" was someone who had the authority to affect your lifestyle and living arrangements but I'm glad that you were able to deal with someone who sounded a lot more approachable in the end.

Hugs to you for having to rehome some of your birds, I know it's hard. It's nice that you're able to visit them and that they all seem to be adjusting so well.

I am sorry you had to give up so many of your birds. However, it sounds like you found them a lovely home. I had been wondering how things were since the last Council visit.

My brother lives in an apartment where he is not allowed pets. I think it's sad. It seems he could at least have a budgie, but he says he can't.

People are prone to exaggerate what they are not used to or don't understand.