Peach just started to make paper strips at the age of 7 years.

It is just the peachface lovebirds who do this.

When I fell in love with my little blue colored lovebird at a wonderful pet store run by a bird loving woman (cancer has taken her away from us, but many bird lovers in this town remember her & count her babies as our feathered family), I already had Peach the male lovebird. I most definitely didn't want a female lovebird...I'd heard how nippy they were & I didn't want any breeding going on. I argued to myself that I had a 50-50 chance that I'd have another male lovebird. However, when Trouble started making that first paper strip, I knew I had a little female lovebird. In fact, she is a paper strip making fanatic & often comes out of her cage in the morning & goes directly to the nearest paper supply & starts crunching away sounding like a machine gun crisply stuttering.

Of course, this little in-house bird doesn't have branches to cut into strips so she uses paper instead. At first she would turn her head & just drop the strip onto her back then she started trying to tuck them into her rump feathers. They would fall out. She is more successful now at getting them tucked in, but a little flutter to a new location & they mostly all fall out. This leads me to believe that the reason lovebirds make so many strips is so that they can get one or two back to the nest or perhaps wood strips stay in place better than paper strips. (G)

Trouble, of course, doesn't restrict herself to the paper stash that I make available to her....in fact, forbidden paper seems to taste "sweeter" and many a magazine cover & newspaper have fallen prey to her predations. Recipe cards lose their titles, telephone bills get opened, library books get a trimming (sigh). She is a mistress of opportunism & spots a vulnerable looking paper source in a flash. Of course, she isn't at fault....the girl can't help herself.

It's neat to watch her making her strips....she goes across like a rhythmic paper punch making little punch spots all in a row like a series of dots. Then she goes back and crunches all those places between the spots until her strip is free. I was watching her the other day & she went along crunching in a row & then suddenly she would crunch a hole & then back a space & crunch that spot & continue so that she immediately freed the whole middle section of her strip then went back to making her separated punches again. She then went back & punched free both ends to get her strip. If you could put a thread in that beak, she'd be quite a seamstress.

As it turned out, I didn't have to worry about losing either of my pets to becoming a bonded pair since Peach at the age of 2 was not interested in this little girl lovebird who followed him all over the place devotedly. She would come, he would leave. She would follow, he would leave. So she came over to me who always welcomed her. She's a very sweet bird with us humans....in fact, as I type this, she is sleeping in my shirt & will stay there til I'm ready for bed & take her little protesting self out to put in her cage. She is terrible about pestering other birds & choosing nesty spots.

Whenever a particularly beautiful lovebird mutation catches my eye or one of those precious looking baby lovebirds tugs at my heartstrings, I just remind myself it might be a female lovebird....that's enuf to make me run away fast.

I confess, she's very, very special & if you really pinned me down, I'd probably admit that altho I enjoy & love all my birds very much, this little Trouble is my favorite (in spite of & because of her lovebird personality).

As for the male lovebirds making strips....I don't know about males in breeding situations, but I know of two male lovebirds who are pets who make paper strips. When Peach started making strips this past year, I was very surprised. He is not the expert that Trouble is tho. She has made strips that are over a foot long. He just makes little narrow short ones. He takes a little longer, but he chews up a store coupon or a notepad just as well as Trouble does. He does not tuck them in his rump but seems to want to push them into his chest feathers.

Marilyn Whalen, who has to pick up all those strips lying all over the floor & Trouble who is resting her beak for the night

A Story about the Lovebird duo in picture form!