Help with Hawks

Caitnah

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Mar 24, 2018
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Upstate New York
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GCC Pineapple
I recently moved from suburbia to a place in the country. My Conure loves to look out windows and in our old home, he even had a window perch.
This new home, we have a large picture window overlooking two acres of grass with trees and brush at the edges of the property. My living room is small and although Buddy has his own bedroom, I wheel him out to the living room everyday.
Our field gets visited by many many Robbins everyday and Buddy enjoys watching his “friends”.

The other day, he had his back to the window while eating and a loud thump happened as a hawk tried to get Buddy. He slammed into the window and left a bunch of feathers stuck to it. Buddy never saw it but was startled by the noise. When he DOES see a Hawk (or a plane) flying around, he instinctively does his gurgling threat call and retreats to an area in his cage where he cannot be seen. This is important to remember…the way his cage is situated, he can only be seen while at the left side. The center and other side are behind curtains and a wall.

Unfortunately there is no other place in the room to put his cage and my concern is thsee attacks continuing and Buddy getting so startled that the shock could harm him. I could close the curtins but then the room is in the dark. Even if I close just his side of the curtains, its still too dark.
Since I live alone and have to do work in other areas of the house or outside, Buddy being near a window gives him something to do. I would hate to take this enjoyment from him but not sure what else to do.
Any suggestions?
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wrench13

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Wow that would scare any human, much less a parrot. I would think Buddy could very well be affected by continuos hawk attacks - parrots are prey animals and having that happen to one is definitely traumatic. Try messing with the closing mechanism of the curtains so the cage is obstructed from direct view outside but only on the right side of the curtains. That way you won't loose too much light and buddy can still see outside, but the hawks won't have direct view of buddy.
 

Skarila

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How about getting those lacey curtains instead? They still let in a very decent amount of light. Where we live we have some birds of prey flying around too, but keeping the lacey curtains on the windows keeps the birds calm and no other birds take interest to whatever is in our flat (we're on the bottom floor). Also this way you can keep the raptors from harm's way as they won't slam into the window anymore.
 

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