Two of these Black-masked Lovebirds have come to visit.
One who comes to the front of the house for some food and water is smaller. The larger one flew inside my screen enclosure. He is now feeding and drinking water. He flies to my hoya plants that are hanging under the roof of patio. I wonder if he will fly into a birdcage. They must have been someones pets. After the fires in Palm Bay, we see quite a few birds flying around the neighborhood.
This one flew inside screen enclosure when DH put out some birdseed. He made himself right at home hanging out in the hoya.
Those are Beautiful Parrots! I agree, they are probably pets that got loose during the wildfires! They sure look perfect with your hoyas! If temp's drop in the winter I don't think they will survive outdoors. Maybe you could tempt them into a cage with fruit, nuts, toys and water. I bet if you sat a cage in your screen room with food and water, they would venture into the cage.
I googled them and found this list of black masked lovebirds for sale: http://www.birdbreeders.com/Species105.aspx Look at those prices!!
Ima, He is so pretty with your hoyas. I see your collections getting bigger. One of my eclectus like to nibble on my hoyas, hoyas are not poisonous but my hoyas get the systemic every now and then so I have to be watch him very carefully. He is older now has Bright Orange beak.
Jan
Oh, I would so have to figure out a way to keep them! They're too cute!
LOVE the screen porch and love how you have a chain hanging from the ceiling to hang the pots on! Good idea!
I'm going to borrow a cage, and see if this guy will cooperate and go into it. It is not afraid of people, but will not come to the hand. It's not afraid of my dog 'Shanghai'. He just keeps his eye on the dog. I hope he will go into the cage. He's beautiful.
If there's a cage with food, he will go in I'm sure. I'm not sure what types of food the black masked lovebirds like but i know we had a large parrot years ago and he loved broccoli and skinned apple chunks ... yep, I just found this site: http://www.honoluluzoo.org/black-masked_lovebird.htm scroll down to read about their diet.
What pretty birds - I hope you can rescue them! And I love your screened in porch - your hoyas look lovely!
Karen
Imadigger: That screen enclosure really does look nice with all those hoyas. From the looks of your photo, it has a regular solid roof, not a screen roof. I'm curious as to what side of the house it's on? My screened pool enclosure is on the SW side of our house so it gets really intense, hot sun in the afternoon. I wonder if my hoyas would get sunburned badly if I hung them around the pool? I have a couple hanging on the edge of the deck in the pool enclosure but was thinking the sun was getting too intense for them in that location. I see that chain too ... great idea! I hung two of those wrought iron plant brackets on my covered deck and then put a long metal pipe across that I have tons of plants hanging on. Maybe I could string a chain out there somehow to hang more plants! Gotta go look and think about a way to possibly do that! I like how you have that fencing along the side for hanging plants too!
AH...you are so lucky!!!!!
If you had a tree in your enclosure, the hoyas could hang under it...or if you rigged up a lattice or a bamboo screen for the midday sun...they would love it there, I am sure....
Lyn, thanks for that website. It has quite a bit of info about the birds. On hoya topic:
My roof is a regular solid roof. The hoya are facing East and they get the morning sun. I orginally had just the chain hanging across that section for my orchids. I ran out of room, so the orchids are out from under the roof on one side of pool. They do not like it there too much because they are in the sun all day. The screening cuts down some of the rays, but I don't think its enough. I hung the larger hoya from the chains. The computer store I worked at closed, so I asked for some shelving (the wire grid that is screwed onto to posts) and other racks, that I thought could be used for my ever-growing hoya collection. I hung two of those fixtures on either side hanging from the grid, and added about 4-5 little shelves on them. I hang the smaller pots from the grid. Inside I have a few on end tables, but the house is kind of dark because of curtains and verticle blinds. I rotate them once a week. Last week I counted how many hoya I had and I was shocked to learn that I had 82 of them. I have a few doubles and tonight I made a list to order some more from Robs VB. I think I am going to look for a Hoya addicts group in the neighborhood. I think I have a problem. ^_^
What a wonderful setup! I'm half scared to count my hoyas for fear of needing to address my addiction! My collection was started less than a year ago and I'm already worried about what I'm going to do when they all "grow up".... but it doesn't seem to stop me from acquiring more!
The eastern exposure to my enclosed porch is blocked by trees, so I've been following the other thread regarding "Summer Projects" trying to figure out how to set up something small out back to put some of them outside for the summer!
