I hardly get to writing these days because I am so very busy with our little ones. In the meanwhile my day begins at 6.30 :eek: when Willy arrives to feed Peppi and Pina (formerly Peppino - but I am sure in the meanwhile that Peppino is a Peppina - therefore we changed it to Pina) I am taking the flowerpot off the hooks and put it on the floor near the balcony door. Willy knew from the beginning where his little ones were and now makes special noises when he wants to feed them. So far so good.

Winnie, the mother, already sits on new eggs (plaster) again which I find is terribly early for a young mother (one year) as she is but what can you do? She is also the mother of Angelo, that incredible pigeon (my avatar) who was not raised on our balcony but somewhere else, probably in March when it was awfully cold still. This was her first child.

Both parents are wonderful parents - although Willy is only 3 months older - he appears to have taken the main part of his duties and feeds the babies exemplary. As you probably remember the attack on the babies, they are kept inside now but the balcony door is open so that the parents have access whenever they want. Only during the night it is closed or for a short time when we are out of the house.

The parents of Willy and Winnie, Emma and Pete, are also breeding on our balcony and Emma sits on plaster eggs currently too. Pete has shown big interest in the babies from the beginning and since a couple of days he is even feeding them when neither Willy nor Winnie are around, i.e. sitting on the eggs. This morning Pete even seemed to quarrel with Willy (his son) who would be allowed to feed the babies. Can you believe that? Willy of course had first choice (he made it first choice).

Emma and Pete lost their babies this year (we are allowing them to breed only once a year - otherwise... you understand? ) - one was lost during a very cold night (and I did not have the idea at that point of time to bring them in) and the other was too curious and fell out of the nest and probably damaged his brain or vertebra .

Pete is very sensitive. It was already a miracle for us that we actually could lure Willy and Winnie to breed on our balcony as well (with a nice nest box ) and finally Pete and Emma even accepted that. Each morning Pete and Willy are quarelling a bit who the chief of the balcony is and Emma and Winnie get their fits from time to time too but in general they can live together very well AND they fight off foreign pigeons in cooperation. This is really funny to watch sometimes. They use real strategies to fight off the "enemy" from two opposite sides!

So back to Pete. He appeared to me a bit depressed the last weeks since he had lost the babies and since we have the babies of Winnie and Willy he is his old self again. Could this really be, that he feels some responsibility for his grandchildren? I have also observed that he is really teaching them, how to pick seeds, to hide when he warns etc.

Did you ever observe such a behaviour? Again - these are not loft pigeons nor pets but ferals on an open balcony - they can fly off whenever they want. There are no cage doors or fences...

I am really confused

I'm sorry, Petra... I just found this thread or I would have responded sooner.

I think there is so much about the behavior of birds in general that we haven't paid attention to and therefore it could be that because you are really watching... attention you are observing traits most humans are blind to.

I did have an old male, that had lost his mate and remained alone rather than finding another. I could always trust him to show orphaned squeakers how to eat. He would protect them form agressive males too.

I had a feral hen that searched the neighborhood for squeakers once the weather turned cold. I kept noticeing new birds in the loft that I knew had not been born there. Finally one night I observed her trying to coax a new squeaker through the trap. That early winter, she must have brough a dozen home.

I had another little hen that was terribly disabled from splay leg that had never been corrected. I rescued her from an emergency veterinary clinic after a board meeting I had attened there. A good samaritan had found her and brought her in to be put down and so I took her home. She so badly wanted to incubate eggs and have babies. She did find a mate but because of her legs, she would knock the eggs out of the nest. Her mate finally found another hen. One day I couldn't find her. I looked and looked and noticed feathers in a corner back behind a garbage can. There she was on a little pile of straw and on the straw were 8-9 pinky mice. She and found a baby after all. She shared the nest with the mother mouse and I let her have them until the mice were close to weaning and then I took over and when they were bigger released them in a safe place away from here.

Wow Charis - this is one-of-a-story
I have read reports from mammals taking care for babies of other species, such as lions caring for babies which would be their prey, friendships between geese and dogs, or cats taking care for little mice, but I have never heard of something like your story.

We still know so fwe about animals and their behaviour, not to speak of their psyche. If humans do not understand their own species how should we be able to judge about another and its capabilities

I have the feeling that in our specific case Pete and Emma, the grandparents have a contract with Willy and Winnie and that they feel that their kids (Willy and Winnie) are a bit overstrained

Anyway - Pete and Emma seem to be so much happier now that they have someone to care for. It's so sweet to watch them...

Btw - both, Emma and Pete, jump over the sill of the open balcony door in just the same natural manner as Willy and Winnie and even feed the babies who are lying under my desk chair while I am sitting at the computer. Is this ???

The "strange" behaviour continues and widens up: in the meanwhile Emma, the grandmother is feeding the babies as well. I have even the feeling that she thinks that she is the better mother than Winnie, the real mother. Often I find Winnie standing adside and watching Emma how she is feeding one of the babies. I am not sure any more whether this is really so good .

It looks like as if the grandparents are sort of usurping the babies if it were not for Willy, the father, who is really as strong as Pete, the grandfather. Both grandparents fly off when Willy appears. He's sort of clarifying who the boss is and Pete disappears with a grunt of dismay...

Of course I have this all on video again. Will hopefully be ready to share soon

Petra...that is amazing.

Many thanks for sharing the adventures with us, Petra. They're better than a TV soap opera.
Will be keeping an eye out for the . :boing:

Hey - what a sweet compliment, Cindy, thank you

your hen with the splayed leg obviously had very strong maternal instincts and was going to have young even if it meant adopting and sharing some baby mice-did she go back into the loft at night and leave the mice to care for their young or did she stay put overnite on the young mice behind the bin? i would have paid to have seen her sitting on those mice and trying to feed them, atb kev