Birdy

learn to eat egg food, and some of them even start experimenting with seeds. The first nest is onto the system of cracking seed and spend all their time chasing each other or practicing singing. They make quite a racket when they get started.
    One of the dark birds in the second nest has already made half an attempt at singing and could be male, too. Now there are nine birds in the aviary. When I come in the room, there’s a rush of wings as they all take off up to a high perch. I spend much time with them and they’re all tame. I clean out the aviary every day. The birds don’t mind me at all and will land on my head or shoulders. It’s only if I make a fast move that they get scared and fly awayThe feed bills are mounting up. I search around downtown by the central market till I find a big seed store where I can buy birdseed roller mix by the hundred-pound sack. It costs eighteen dollars, but that’s less than a third what I’ve been paying. They say they’ll deliver right to my house.
    When it comes, I put the sack out in the garage inside an old oil can I found down at the dump and cleaned out. With birdseed you really have to watch for mice. In the dusk or early morning, it’s hard for a bird to tell between a piece of mouse shit and a seed. Mouse shit is poisonous for birds.
    Speaking of mice, my mother is sure the birds are going to bring mice into the house. She has a regular passion against mice. One morning I catch one on the floor of the aviary. He was probably already in the house anyway, but I could never convince my mother of that. I put it in a small box and let it free near school. If she ever finds this out, I’ve had it. Birds, cages, everything, out the window. She’s liable to do it any day anyway. I half expect it every time I come home from school and go up to my room.
    Every bird hatches in the third nest; five of them. When I look in, I see that most of them are light this time. There’s such a crush in the bottom of the nest you can’t be sure of anything. It’s warmer now, so Birdie doesn’t sit as tight. She mostly spreads her legs over the nest and hovers. The young birds get to be such pests, I close the cage door to keep them out. I put feed in for her during the day while I’m gone. As soon as I come home, I open it and Alfonso dashes up to help with the evening feeding. Birdie has developed into a wonderful little mother.
    In the warm weather and with the increase in birds, even I have to admit the room definitely smells ‘birdey’. I’m using a dozen eggs and a package of pablum a week making egg food. I’m also soaking regular birdseed and mixing it with egg food to start the young ones cracking seed. I feed in the morning when I wake up, just before I leave for school, when I come back, and then again before night. They eat tremendous quantities. Buying seed and eggs has almost used up my bankroll. I’m going to have to find some way to make money over the summer.
    It seems no time at all before the third nest is ready to jump. There are three yellow ones like Birdie. Two of these have marks on the head, one a dash over the left eye, and the other a black cap, slightly off center to the right. There is one Alfonso-dark, and another dark-winged and light-breasted with a pure yellow head. It really makes a crowd. Birdie is a heroine, hauling up food, keeping the nest clean, and mothering the whole batch. There isn’t enough room for all of them on the edge of the nest and they start pushing each other off. Luckily it’s much warmer now and there’s no danger they’ll freeze. At three weeks, all five of them are out of the nest and on the floor.
    It’s right here I make my mistake. I should’ve taken Alfonso out of the aviary and put him in a separate cage. Before I know what’s happening, Birdie is building another nest. I haven’t put in a new strainer but she’s building in a corner at the back of the cage, wedged between a perch and the wall of the cage. Alfonso’s done his trick and she’s heavy with eggs and no place to go. I pull the nest apart but she frantically puts it together again. I take all the nesting material out of the cage, but she starts attacking the babies and pulling feathers out till it looks like it’s snowing yellow. Several of the babies begin to look bare around the thighs and under the breast. I give in. She seems in good condition so I clean out the nest, wash it, and put it back with some nesting material. She finishes it