Grasshoppers, baths and begging

Feed me!!

Sammy continues to beg and gape for food, thank goodness!  It was quite a long time waiting for him to start doing this and I'm so glad I don't have to pry his beak open anymore.  I bet he is too!  When he sees me coming to his aviary, he starts chirping, gaping and quivering like crazy.  He readily eats live crickets and grasshoppers, and of course his beloved mealworms.  His nestling formula...not so much, lol.

He also began a new habit of calling and landing on the screen door of the aviary when he's hungry.   I guess he figured out that his meal delivery service (me) comes through that door, lol.

Sammy has enjoyed a couple more baths since my last post, he is a picture of pure, uninhibited pleasure while he bathes.   He dunk his face and breast into his shallow bath and shakes his head back and forth vigorously.  Then he lowers his back end into the water and beats his wings quickly, getting thoroughly soaked.  I'll post a video of bathtime soon!  Sammy's bath is a shallow, clear plastic tray for a plant pot that is lined with small pebbles to give him sure footing.

Playing with a twig in the bath

Sammy makes puts on quite the show when he preens after his bath, flapping  his wings so fast you can barely seem them moving.  He pulls his beak down the length of individual feathers grooming them methodically.

Sammy preening under his wings after a bath

Stretching and drying out his wings

Thoroughly soaked from his bath

Spreading his amazing, vivid blue wings

He has also started drinking little sips of water from either his bath or water dish.  He dips his beak in, gets a couple drops and then tilts his head far back and swallows.

Flying down to the grass is common now, I think he is hunting little brown ants on the ground, but I'm not sure.  He likes to spend a fair amount of time perched on a branch that runs up the side of his aviary facing the seed feeders, just taking in his surroundings and the other birds.  He doesn't seem to like when blue jays come in, they're such noisy birds when they announce their arrival, and Sammy usually flies back up to his sheltered corner perch until they leave.

Watching the sky above him

Cuddling continues to be something Sammy initiates, landing on my shoulder and then tucking himself under my ponytail or against my neck.  He's also a little intrigued by my eyeglasses and pecks them sometimes.

A little cuddle before bed

Today makes Sammy 26-27 days old.