Susan Skylark
Songster
So somebody just got murdered in my garage or at least that is what it sounded like! I got home from work, parked the car, said hello to the birds, and went in the house, only to have a sort of screaming/toddler tantrum sound erupt 30 seconds after I shut the door. I hurried back outside but everybody looked fine and acted normal. It had to be a red golden pheasant, my coturnix quail have never sounded like that! The male just looked at me and chirped a question while the hen just hid in a corner and pretended not to exist. Nobody was injured or trapped or fighting or threatened, very weird as they’ve been very quiet birds until just now. My 13 year old had another idea, apparently the hen has been rather miffed occasionally at their other roomie, a neutered male quail, who likes first dibs on the treat pan! She is way bigger than him but apparently he doesn’t care, he wants his share of the seeds and doesn’t worry that I’m going to eat him (unlike the pheasants) so helps himself right away. This apparently ticks her off, if that is the case I wonder which is the stronger motivator: fear or jealousy! Id prefer to leave the quail in the quail pen but the other males chase him constantly, I put him in as a Buddy when we first got the pheasant, and they’ve gotten along well so I just left him in there even when we got a hen, but apparently the lady now objects. Any other ideas?
