72. Why Birds? 7- We Lost Rio :( 13sep2020

13 Sep 2020 

SAD day, we lost Rio. 

earlier, found pistachio and hawkeye walking at the bottom of the cage. not sure what they were up to. but they were flapping their wings and trying to climb on top of each other. fighting along the way. Rio was perched in his corner, everything looks as usual.

next thing i knew, the other 2 are perched above and Rio is at the bottom of the cage. but he's still and his eyes are closed. i called him a few times and he tried to open his eyes with some effort. damn. i knew he wasn't well by then. he didn't even move but he kept trying to open his eyes. he also tried to fluff up a little. or so i think he did...

so, i sent aidan off to camp (tekong) at about 1.30pm, back at 2.20pm. Rio was very still at the bottom of the cage and eyes closed. so we took him out and placed him in a box. talked to him a. bit and he didn't even move much but he tried to open his eyes to look at us. his wings looked injured - as if bitten. there was some bald spot on his head as well, as if bitten there too. the skin looked torn and he couldn't move. poor Rio :( we left him in the box and went out for about 1hr to get some bird food. he was breathing and he seemed to be resting. but he was aware that we were there.

when we came back after getting bird food, we called Rio and talked to him a little. He opened his eyes and looked at us. the other 2 birds keep making a lot of noise at this stage... they wanted to see Rio. we thought Rio would be ok. he did kinda look better... and he tried to open his eyes as much as possible. that's when the other 2 kept making lots of noise. and a few minutes later, Rio was gone :( 

Rio was the bird that Aidan named. he wasn't very brave to eat from or stand on our hand directly but he's very responsive when we call him - he'd just fluff up and show off his wings for us to see. sometimes i think the other 2 birds bully him so i give him some opportunity to get food or sit relaxed in his corner while i chase the others away for the time being. i think Rio is quite attached to me while Pistachio is attached to Jannah and Hawkeye is quite independent, not that attached to anyone.

Goodbye Rio. 

Aidan is handfeeding the birds...
hawkeye (named by christen) left in this pic
Rio (named by aidan) middle
pistachio (named by jannah) right in this pic

quickly snapped a shot of Rio after he's gone... so sad.
it seems that Rio is really my favourite after all,
and i believe he waited for me to see him before he passed.

saw a plant growing through the cracks of the tiles...