[Monica]

My flightless cherry head, she gets exercise by flapping her wings pretty hard, or when I get her to flap around the room for a couple mins while sitting on my hand. I can't get her to exercise in any other way, and I can't do the flaps too often or else she gets pissed. The tiel that clipped herself, if there is any possibility for that one wing to grow in all her flights, I'm sure she could probably fly. Indeed though, it can't compare to what they'd get in the wild.

As for the pecking order, it's seen in the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. I've heard/read somewhere that there was a budgie in the flock, that was 'leading' the flock, and when it turned, so did the flock. There might be 'leaders', but not in the sense that they are the "all mighty boss". Within the flock there used to be a blue crown, and even though he followed them around, and defended the weak, he was otherwise excluded. When I fed the flock not too long ago, I noticed that babies were slower at getting food, as they had to watch out for the adults. Of course, once they found a spot in the flock, there were less issues, however the adults still squabbled over things. Mark Bittner noticed that males do fight over females, and they sometimes 'divorce and marry' another bird.



As far as plucking goes, that depends on the individual bird... Some are clippers, just removing the ends of feathers. Some are shredders, completely destroying the feather. Then there are pluckers... one who may remove just feathers. Some that may remove pin or blood feathers... (look for red skin) or some that do both. Then, worse case scenario, mutilators who make themselves bleed.