Since the arrival of George the Lesser Patagonian conure, Ndhlovu has been bossing Insect around a lot less. There was time when she would chase him off if ever he tried to come to me. I was the best defended person in the world, so, as he hasn't been able to get anywhere near me, he and I never really developed much of a relationship! But now George takes the brunt of her bossiness, leaving Insect pretty much in the clear.
I have watched him from afar ever since he joined the Quark Flock and have been constantly amused by his antics. He's such a cocky little bleeder that I'm surprised that he's still alive! He really does dice with death sometimes, standing fearlessy up to three Greys, two of whom, Induna and Inenekazi, are extremely large specimens. One of these days, he will doubtless come to a sticky end!
Inesct and George are real pals. They play together and go into each other's cages. We are seriously considering moving George into Insect's cage to share it with him. It's so huge that the poor little guy rattles around in there like dried peas in a cocoa tin!
He only really uses a quarter of it and he's so ickle that it takes him ages to get from the fruity brekky bowl at one end of his cage to the water bowl at the other end. 
Because he's least of the flock, both in years and size, we treat him as the baby of the family and indulge him shamelessly. This little guy can get away with murder! As he is the baby of the family, his cage is the only one that we have in our bedroom. The Greys sleep in their huge cage in the birdroom and George's is downstairs in the living room.Anyway, these past few weeks since Ndhlovu has let him off the hook, Insect and I have been getting to know each other. Since August last year and up to a few weeks ago, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've been able to give him a tickle. He's either been chased off by Ndholvu or been too nervous to approach me for fear of being chased off by Ndhlovu. But now he's discovered that 18 years' experience of giving scratches on the bonce mean that I'm pretty darned good at it! He still has an aversion to touching bare skin, but will happily come and sit on my shoulder for a tickle.
I put a finger next to his head, and if he fancies it, he'll express the desire for a tickle by rubbing the side of his face vigourously up and down on my finger. Then his head goes down and he fluffs up all his head and neck feathers. That's my cue to go into action and have a good ol' rummage around. I always marvel at the fact that, even though he's only a quarter of the size of the Greys, he has larger and denser plumage on his head than they they do! I always start right at the top of his head. He has a habit of changing his mind suddenly and expresses this with a sharp nip, so starting at the top means that I'm as far away as possible from his ickle beak.
But assuming that he really wants it, he will keep his head down and let me carry on.
Many years ago, I had an accident in which I lost the tip of the index finger on my left hand. I still have a fingernail on it, but it curves sharply down. I cut the nail in such a way that it almost exactly resembles a bird's beak. I use it in the way that another bird would, scratching the skin of his head and then tugging on the feathers of his head as another quaker would that is preening him. I slowly move down and do both sides of his face, finishing off under his beak.
It's a hoot to watch him as I do this to him. His eyes close, his ickle knees buckle and he purrs like a cat!
When we get up in the morning, Britta goes downstairs and gets the flock's fruity brekky ready. I get up and release all the prisoners. But recently, I have started letting Insect out of his cage first and going back to bed to 10 minutes. He will fly down onto the pillow and preen my face throughly, concentrating especially on the salty tears. One morning, this went on for so long that Britta had come back upstairs again, let the rest of the mob out and come into the bedroom with Ndhlovu. Ndhlovu saw what was happening and flew down onto the floor. SHe crept silently up to the bed and climbed up onto it, sneaking behind the pillows so that Insect couldn't see her. She jumped out at him with a mighty squawk and tweaked his tail feathers, seeing him off in no uncertain terms!
It just goes to show that she's accepted him at last. Ickle Man was so completely engrossed in preening my face and Ndhlovu had the advantage of total surprise, so that she wanted to, she could have injured him quite badly. As it was, he flew off, protesting loudly, to a safe haven to straighten out his wonky rudder! Now if only I could get Induna this far...
