Name that bird! Well, okay, almost everybody can tell it's a parakeet, although his colors are supposed to be "rare". He IS a very very light yellow, and he was my second choice from the local pet store.

I was going to get "traditional" green and yellow one. I was all set on one, but when the young man got him out of the cage, the bird bit him so fiercely that the guy yelped.

He told me that the "rare" ones were more used to human contact, and so I settled on this guy.

He is a bargain bird. Well, not so much him - he cost about $20 - same as a green and yellow one. But his cage and all the accessories only cost $5.00 since I got them at a yard sale. I scrubbed everything with soapy water, just in case the last bird to use it was not healthy. The cage came with perches, food and water dishes, toys, a "seed guard" (parakeets fling seeds and everything else everywhere if they get a chance) a bird bath, and toys.

So this is exciting. I had a parakeet years ago. His name was Ceasar. I named him that because of the way he walked - with great dignity for a bird, as if he ruled the world, or at least the roost. I taught Ceasar to whistle, to perch on my hand or shoulder, and to mimic several words or phrases. He said my name, my fathers name, "buenos dias", "cat! cat!" "lemme out! lemme out", "hello" "Hi Cease!" This took almost endless repetition, but it was worth it whenever the cat we had at the time would walk by and the bird would yell out my name and say "Cat! Lemme out!" It was also very startling to people who visited the house, since many people are unaware that parakeets can "talk" and the bird's diction was quite good.

This parakeet does seem fairly tame. I had him out of the cage and perching on my finger this evening. His wings are clipped for the time being so he can't fly around the house and do himself harm. Winston, the dog, seems pretty underwhelmed by him.

But we have not thought of a name for him yet. I was thinking of calling him Ling Tan, after a charecter in the book I am reading ( Dragon Seed by Pearl S. Buck). But parakeets are not Chinese and I don't want him to get confused about his heretage. ( Also, I hate to admit it, but it's true: we had chicken for dinner and we ate it on the porch to avoid traumatizing him!)

So, if you can think of a good parakeet name The Hub and I are all ears