when the lights go on...

I am very attentive with all of my birds, some say I take care of them better than I do my family....I guess there is some truth to that.
This experience that happened yesterday could have turned out terribly wrong, but didn't, thank goodness.
My birds receive a good amount of natural light daily. when the sun starts to go down and our bedroom is getting dark I always go in and turn our lights on.
Yesterday I forgot, it was a busy day and just slipped my mind.
All my cockatiels were out, along with my lovebirds, they were in total darkness for over an hour.
I realized I had forgotton,so I went into the bedroom and is was very still.
I knew most of them were probably asleep, so I started talking to them, to gently wake them up. As I made my way in the dark, towards the lamp, I thought to myself "if any bird start flying around in the dark, they are going to get hurt", well the very first 'click' while turning the lamp on sent my cockatiels into a state of panic and flurry.
It takes 2 turns to turn the light on, so I quickly turned it on, and as the light came on, one of my cockatiels flew right into the wall, and fell to the floor.
My other cockatiel literally flew right into the side of my head:11:, then into a picture hanging on our wall, then fell in between our bed and side table.
She was panting so hard, just so zoned out. I gently picked her up, checked her and put her in her cage.
my other cockatiel that slammed into the wall first, came over to me wanting to be picked up. I checked on Num Num, he seemed to be fine too, and placed him back in the cage.

Once I started counting where all my birds were, I realized I was missing one of my baby lovebirds(10 weeks old). I called for her, and out of no where, she came flying to me like a bullet, and cuddled right into my neck for security, making these very strange noises. I sensed she was very frightened, so she stayed with me until she calmed down.
I returned everyone to their cages, and sat on the bed thinking about what had just happened. I felt like a total fool.
nothing like a dose of reality to smarten one up

We have noticed that after about 10:00pm Mango gets really grouchy if he doesnt get to sleep. If we put him in his cage he gets really upset, so we put him on his play stand and we turn the lights down. He goes to sleep where ever we are, and then we put him to bed when we go to bed. We had a similar experience not realizing that turning the light on might scare him. He didnt panic quite so dramatically, but he did hit the floor and broke a tail feather. He was all groggy too from being asleep. Now we turn the lights on in adjacent rooms first and talk to him before we turn the main light on. I suspect they sleep very deeply.

I agree, I think once they are out, their out.
normally my birds are in bed around 8 pm, the sun is down around 4:30 -5:00 right now because of winter time.
that is one thing I really don't care for much about cockatiels, they frighten very easily.
they are both fine today, no ill effects from hitting my head or the walls...ouch!

Nothing is worse than having a flock of cockatiels having a night fright! I'm thankful that my flock has learned to 'tune out' the usual noises of the night and rarely freak out. They are often asleep before the humans are, and now with my sisters family living with me, there are often noises until 11pm or later at night. They are pretty quiet even when there are other noises occurring... except for the past two nights, first my mitred conure squawked some here and there, then the following night, my male tiel sang a little. Not sure what was different about those two nights vs previous nights.

Glad your birds are doing fine after their little fright!

You should invest in a aquarium with a completely close top I have 2 aquariums in my bedroom with Rosie's big cage. One is a 48g and the other is a 10, on occasion I might not be home when the sun is setting and no one thinks to turn the light on, but the fish tanks give off a lot of light so Rosie isn't in complete darkness. Also When I put Rosie to bed I cover her, turn off the light and leave the fish lights on. This way she can still see a little as she falls asleep. I feel it's more natural the being plunged into sudden darkness.

well, since I have 8 cages in our bedroom(it's quite large) I think that's enough.
I might set up a timer though, so if I ever forget again, or I'm not home, the timer will take care of it.