Rob's Birds
Jasmine

Please read if you love parrots.

Jasmine is a maximillian's pionus (sub-type siy). Maximillian's pionus are sometimes called "scaly headed" pionus, because of the dark edges on their head feathers. (Jasmine's dark edges are purple.)

Jasmine is very sweet and even-tempered. If something upsets her, she doesn't stay upset for more than a couple minutes. She was very shy when she came, but has gotten much braver. She loves to explore, and will go down my arm to take treats from Mom's fingers.

Pionus have a unique very mild scent that gets a bit stronger when they're excited about anything. It smells like traces of a really expensive musky-spicy perfume picked up by a scarf. I can generally only smell it when Jasmine is on my shoulder. When I first got her, I thought her feathers had picked up hints of perfume from her previous owner.

She didn't know how to play when she arrived -- now she climbs and swings on her plastic chains, hangs upside down from the top of her perch-swing, destroys chewable toys, and works on destroying wood toys. Like most pionus, she also destroys paper!

Jasmine LOVES baths! The wetter, the better. She splashes in her water bowl, I spray from above and all around. She'll climb up the side of her cage and spread her wings so I can spray her everywhere. Since she doesn't make powder, she can get really soaked.....

Normally green pionus look brown when they're wet.

Jasmine is mostly forest green, with lilac-purple bib. She also looks as though there's lilac powder dusted on her back and wings. (The main type of maximillian's pionus has a blue bib, and may look darker overall, the dark edges on their feathers are nearly black.) I believe the orangey tones on her wings are a photographic artifact, as I don't see even a hint of orange in "real life."

Jasmine was only two years old when I got her (2001), and had already had two homes -- through no fault of her own. Her first owner hand-raised her, then decided she'd rather have a dog. Her next owners kept her for a time, then decided she didn't fit in with their cockatiels.

Watching the wild birds. Jazz is thrilled when the outdoor birds make a nest in the birdhouse by the window.

Her second owner went outside with Jazz on her shoulder -- there was a loud noise, and Jazz flew away. She was outside for a week before "coming home." Her owners then had her wings trimmed, but the trim was much too short. Jazz didn't have enough surface left to safely land when she tried to fly -- she flew like a "feathered rock" i.e. straight down. When she tried it a few times after coming to live with me, she seemed so chagrined that she could not fly as she remembered.

Jasmine is finally regrowing her flight feathers. She can fly level, and she can ascend -- but she has only flown when startled, and is reluctant to try otherwise. We're working on it.

January 2004 -- Jasmine weighs 253 grams.

May 2005
Jasmine is hormonal, does a lot of wing-fluttering, growling, clucking, strutting, sticks her tail in my face when she's on my shoulder -- and has been teasing Bert! She usually just cusses at him when he gets too close, now when she's out she'll display at him a little, then run over to my other shoulder to hide once she's got his attention.

To reach me, send a message addressed to your favorite among my birds to this domain (net).

Please read if you love parrots.

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