Hidden in Plain Sight: Discovering a Bird Paradise in the Mall!

[@snowie9771]

😮 there are owl finches there ❤ love my owl finches, they are such sweet little birds. I definitely need more of them 😂

[@judyriley3373]

Beautiful

[@kagehikari4281]

That one baby with the feather sticking out of the head was totally a quail!

[@catherine6653]

I would be excited to see birds in a mall too. I used to memorize dinosaur names when I was a kid. It looks like the cages are clean and the birds are cared for. It would be fun to meet the person who cares for them.

[@Loveofpets]

Yes, it would be fun to meet the person that cares for them.

[@alaricamorganthe4912]

What a lovely find the birds are gorgeous.

[@Loveofpets]

It really was!

[@jima9356]

Wow, you came across quite the paradise; very beautiful birds in the mall. It's great you put out a video of it; I really enjoyed it. Donna, did you hear that JamieLeigh of Birdtricks posted that Blueberry, her budgie, passed away; only 4 years old. Pathology believed it to be attributed to zinc toxicity; very sad.

[@Loveofpets]

HI, yes I heard about Blueberry. So sad! Thanks for the super chat!

[@Charmsgaming12]

This interesting and very beautiful birds never seen before in the mall. It's good you putting a video about it and thanks 👍🏻💕

[@Loveofpets]

Your welcome!

[@jojo1828v]

I would love to have one of those in my house too but I couldn't imagine having t clean it. Owls are so cool!!

[@JF-qw4bd]

Cleaning cages/waste is, indeed, the most arduous and annoying aspect of having any pet. Being an admittedly pretty lazy person, the best system I've come up with is lining cages with paper liners, cutting them so they lie flush with the bottom two inches or so of the tray that sticks out (and doing so in bulk ahead of time so I have extra), line that with substrate -I use recycled newspaper cat litter - they won't try and eat it and it holds its shape pretty well - it's also dirt cheap if you get from feed/agriculture stores. I've also slowly invested in extra perches, so when I clean the cage, it's a quick pull out the bottom, put it in a garbage bag and replace with pre-made liner and then substrate. It takes about 40 seconds to do so. And for perches, just replace dirty perches with the extra clean ones on hand, so if I know the cage needs to be cleaned, but don't feel like scrubbing perches, I can put it off for a few days. Same goes for feeding and water dishes.

[@kirabowie]

This is such an awesome place!! Thanks for sharing it with us, Donna!! 🤩❤😍 Forgot to add, that bird with the feather on its head is a quail.

[@Loveofpets]

Thanks! I found out its a California Quail, so pretty!

[@kirabowie]

@@Loveofpets You're welcome! Very pretty!! 🙂

[@mewrongwayKOCXF]

Kool

[@tiffanyfrehleyyeshuaismy0153]

…I hope the Owls are there for a few months, then released or rotated with others. 🦉 My favorite was the Blue Straw Faced Plum Chest Gouldian Finch at 5:20 🩵 I look forward to part 2 where Lady D shows up to the Mall with her fancy spray bottle to give the birds a bath. 🛁 😂 👱🏻‍♀️ 🐦

[@Loveofpets]

Lol, I was thinking about where or how they take a bath and wanted to mist them, lol

[@JF-qw4bd]

@@Loveofpets My canaries have taken to try to bathe in their water dish, even if offered baths in containers they have bathed in before. I may try misting...

[@JF-qw4bd]

I've had a lot of birds (I have two canaries now), but my favorite was my dove, Max. I got her on a whim when I saw her on the bottom of an over-crowed cage at a pet shop, pecked bald from other birds, looking sad and defeated. After a bit of chastising the pet shop employee for the over-crowed conditions, did end up taking the bird home only to get her out of the bullying situation. The cage I had at the time was a bit small for a dove, so I'd let her out for a few hours a day (timing her poops and picking them up with a paper towel) and she'd mostly peck at the ground and seemed kind of dumb, but sweet. I didn't mind. I'd still just talk to her and try to include her in random activities around the house. When her clipped wings started to grow back, she still wasn't great at flying and the most she could do when I put her a few feet off the ground or held her and she wanted to get down was flap her wings to a soft landing maybe 2 feet from her starting point. That's why I didn't worry when I perched her on an easel that was in my kitchen while I was prepping for dinner, that was about 6 feet away from an open window. I heard her start to fly, so as I did, looked for where she landed, but didn't see her. Anywhere. After looking for her for a couple minutes I wondered if she might have flown out the window. I thought it must be impossible, as she'd never flown more than a couple feet to the ground before, and thought there was no way she's be able to not only stay in the air long enough to fly 6 feet, but also have enough direction to fly out a window. Nevertheless, I looked out the window just in case. My apartment was on the 3rd floor, on the upward slope of a hill that overlooked a flat roof of a store, with an easement of about 5 feet that I knew would be full of nothing but weeds, trash, and dirty needles (city life). I figured if she IS in the apartment she'd be safe, but if she DID fly out the window, I have to act fast. I saw where I could crawl through a chain link fence to get on the roof of the building in case she was there somewhere, and figured I'd figure out how to get to the easement if I absolutely had to. And as I was trying to figure out a plan while looking out the window, on cue as would happen in a movie, it started to rain. Like REALLY HARD standing in the shower rain. I clambered up on the roof of the store, looked around the area below my window, looked into the easement, and didn't see any sign of her anywhere, still thinking she couldn't have possibly flown very far. I was starting to feel a bit hopeless and building up the courage to climb into the dirty and dangerous easement directly under my window, all the while it was dumping rain, but looked around one more time. Far away, at the front of the roof of the store about 100 feet away I saw what looked like a white plastic sack, again thinking that there is no way she could have flown that far, but checked it out nonetheless. It was her. Holding out both her wings and sort of slumped over as though she had resigned herself to her death. I picked her up as gently as I could in case she was injured, tucked her under my coat to protect her from the rain, telling her softly how much I loved her and how glad I am to have found her, and took her home. She was bleeding a bit on one of her legs, but otherwise nothing seemed to be broken or seriously injured, so dried her off as gently as I could and put her in her cage with easy access to food and water. Now the point of this story... The VERY next day after some rest, she was a COMPLETELY different bird. Where previously she was mostly quiet and would instinctively peck at things kind of randomly, she started to vocalize and follow me around with curiosity. She not only started to coo , but also 'laugh' when she was happy. She'd respond and cock her head when I talked to her, and now that (after her dramatic debut of flying) she could legit fly, would fly up to me to sit on my head or shoulder. My apartment had no shower, only a bathtub, and she'd follow me into the bath and perch on my knees wanting to bathe with me. She was always trying to groom my hair or pick my teeth, which of course is a sign of affection. When I had friends over sitting around the coffee table, she'd take her place among us, trying to take part in the conversation, and even 'laughing' when people were laughing. Sure, she had no idea what we were laughing about, but that she thought she was just part of the group and was taking part in it was kind of amazing. She'd fly to people that were talking and sit on their head or shoulder, or if they didn't love that, climb onto their finger if asked. I had friends bring other friends over, not just to see me, but to show them Max, this awesome bird with so much personality. Max was supposed to be this kind of dumb and dull bird I would get out of a bad situation and keep alive out of pitty. But Max was smart enough to recognize that someone cared enough about her to go and find her in the pouring rain at the moment she had resigned herself to her own animal demise. 'Survival of the fittest' ...an animalistic phrase by which humans like to justify their own self-serving instincts. My dove Max was smart enough to realize that someone LOVED her. And on this realization, she blossomed. She wasn't 'just a bird', she was Max. She became herself, her smart and entertaining, and loving self. Max, a BIRD, taught me more about life and the power of love than any human ever has. (And sorry this got so long... I kind of just ran with it. but feel inclined to share anyway...)

[@Loveofpets]

Thank you for the story of Max. Glad you took her in and gave her a goof life.

[@fashionista4000]

“This is the funnest mall I’ve ever been to!” lol well it has birds of course it has to be!

[@Loveofpets]

Yep, lol

[@judyalvarez203]

That was soooo fun! Thank you.

[@Loveofpets]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@-JA-]

❤️

[@stefancaldaruse2200]

I wish my mall wold do this

[@OscarChicken]

I like the aviary.

[@WildWavesofficial.]

I never expected to find a bird paradise in the middle of the mall 😮 This place is a hidden gem for bird lovers, If anyone fascinated by the animal kingdom, there’s more to discover at Wild Waves! Let’s keep exploring the incredible creatures of nature together.

[@Loveofpets]

Are there birds at Wild Waves?

[@WildWavesofficial.]

@@Loveofpets Thanks for replying 😊 Absolutely birds are a favorite topic on Wild Waves! I would like to recommend an amazing video that showcases the incredible art of Bird's nest building, The way birds build their nests is just incredible the engineering skills and attention to detail are amazing to watch. And if you're hooked there's more to explore like our hilarious Parrot mimicry video where we have explained how they mimic humans and our Eagles video where we soar with the masters of the sky, We love sharing animals' stories, their behaviors, and their beauty with the world, Animal lovers like us will definitely find some amazing content on our channel.

[@Loveofpets]

I will check out your channel soon and excited to see. I thought you were a park but I see you are a channel with nice animal videos.

[@WildWavesofficial.]

@@Loveofpets 😊

[@sayummmm]

The owner of this property saved this dying mall by sharing his love for animals with the public. It's a little weird but most agree it's pretty cool. I've gone just to admire the aviaries. I hope you got to see the giant t-rex outside!

[@Loveofpets]

I tried researching about this mall and the birds but cant find anything. That's an interesting story, it surely worked as the mall was very busy. Do you know how long the aviaries have been there? I saw the T-Rex!

[@annemorra2250]

What mall is this, Donna? Would love to visit this!

[@Loveofpets]

Its called Woodside Square in Toronto

[@moviemakerwannabe]

The bird with the plume appears to be a California Quail. Someone else mentioned Bobwhite quail but we have a lot of them around here and I don't think it is that variety.

[@Loveofpets]

Yes, it's a California Quail. I looked them up and they look the same. They are beautiful! Thanks.

[@DeborahWard-vm1my]

Is that a partridge?

[@lucasantonioarangogarciade1140]

California quail

[@Loveofpets]

Thank You! I looked them up and its defiantly a California Quail, so pretty.

[@az-vx2cw]

What/where is this mall?

[@Loveofpets]

Its in Toronto, Ontario. Its called Woodside Square

[@sylviaanthonio2358]

So match noise for the birds😢al the sounds off the people for the 🦉 I think the don’t like it the sleep during the day en in the night they go chasing for 🐭😔

[@shirleyrankin-zf6nv]

This makes me very angry owls belong in the forest not a mall!

[@Loveofpets]

That's what I was thinking.

[@ikeameltdown8012]

This makes me sad.

[@az-vx2cw]

why?

[@Loveofpets]

Why are you sad? The birds seemed happy and have a lot of space, however I do worry about the Owls.

[@JF-qw4bd]

@@Loveofpets I, too, was wondering about the owls. I appreciate efforts to bring the public closer to 'nature' and educating them about it, but owls in a (for them) kind of small enclosure in a mall is ethically questionable.

[@Loveofpets]

I agree!