Harlequin

Little Harlequin was baby 4 of the clutch hatched last July. Here he is just about one month old, with no name and barely able to perch on my hand. I thought he was a female until he was 6 months old. I also thought he was quiet, shy and retiring! Here he is in early February of this year. His baby feathers (light gray brown and striped) are being replaced rather haphazardly with adult feathers (charcoal gray and solid). His stripey baby tailfeathers are also growing in a solid light gray and his face is molting into the male cockatiel mask of yellow feathers. It is harder to see in this photo (about 2 weeks later), but he is about 80% done molting into his adult plumage and is starting to lose the "harlequin" look that finally ended up being the perfect name! I will have to figure out how to make a video of him talking; it is amazing and hilarious. Right now he is swinging on his swing, fighting with a toy and thinking about clambering back over to play with the towel on his cage. A week's worth of handling and out of cage time has improved his friendlines and now we even have quality shoulder time and practice step ups and head scratches. A good little bird!