My aviary contains a variety of birds. You can find rescues, rehomes, pets and poultry. It comprises four home-made sections with two end flights. A friend of a friend was dying of cancer. He had a whole aviary of birds for rehoming. I accepted an elderly Princess of Wales hen.  

I called her Alex because apparently the species was first discovered in Australia when Alexandra was Princess of Wales. I don’t believe she became queen but history was never my strongest subject. Princess of Wales parakeets are about the size of blackbirds. Their long tails are black edged with pink which only shows when they spread their tails in flight. Their breasts are turquoise and the rest of them pink. You could not design such pleasing colours by yourself. Pink beaks for females, red for males, otherwise they are identical. Alex was lonely. Other birds lived in the aviary but none were her species or near her size.

Placing an advert in the Parrot Society magazine yielded the information that an owner in Kent had a male that he’d sell for £50. And, yes, it was born in captivity Alex may have been born in the wild but I doubt it. Australia sensibly stopped the export of their fauna decades before other countries.

I drove to Kent in a blizzard, feeling long suffering, and bought home Charley a 4 year-old.

Once Charley had relearned to fly (he’d been kept in a small cage) the couple were happy in spite of the considerable age difference. Princess of Wales are the gentlest of birds. Although not hand tame I could stand  as close as I wanted near them. The second year Alex laid 3 eggs but she jumped on them and they broke.

One morning I found her dead in front of her nest box. Human error – mine. An autopsy revealed forty intestinal worms. I’d neglected to worm the parakeets that spring and they forage on the ground. My aviary floor is concrete slabs, natural earth and bark chippings.
Charley cried inconsolably for her.

I drove to my friendly breeder who sold me a young Princess of Wales hen for £50.

I called her Alatu (a corruption of Alex number two).  As soon as I released her, Charley thought Alex had returned and flew up chirping. When he realised it was not Alex, he flew away. Not for long. They bonded within a day. Little Alatu was the most destructive bird we’ve ever kept in the aviary. She wrecked a whole privet bush in seven days. Fortunately it regrew all its leaves.

The following spring, she was examining all the nest boxes in my aviary. I went on a bird training course for one week. On my return Alatu could not fly. A wing was drooping. Probably another bird. I made a foolish error and did not remove her from the aviary to recover. A weakened bird may be attacked by some of the others. A day later, Karla the pennant Rosella had Alatu on the ground. Alatu's husband, Charley, was shrieking ineffectually. I took Alatu inside with a wound to her wing. Too late. She died a few hours later. She had led a short, blameless life -   - spreading beauty around her. Charley was disconsolate. He perched at the aviary porch calling for hours.

I decided not to keep any  Rosellas as a pair in a  mixed aviary; they can be too aggressive.  Karla and her mate Robbie went back to their breeder. I missed their vivid colours and swooping flights. He had no Princess of Wales hen available but let me have a year-old cock bird. This young male bonded with Charley the widower. They became inseparable. They regurgitated for one another and were always together. I called the new bird Eric after a friend of mine who is happily married in a same sex relationship. 

Last year, the same breeder offered me a Princess of Wales hen. A blue mutation. Though why anyone would want to create a mutation of the glorious colours of the original is beyond me.  

Neither Charley nor Eric take much notice of the elegant, trim BlueGirl.  In her first summer, she laid five infertile eggs as a single Mum. Because she had no cock bird to feed her when she had finished sitting in the nest box, she was frail for some months.  Now it is the second spring she has lived in the aviary.

Having been given a lot of extra high energy food, the dozen parakeets have survived this hard winter well. BlueGirl perches beside the two males. Will Charley or Eric mate with her? A wait and see situation.