Fan Mail for Fig: Where do you sleep?

Thank you for your question.

(Please see Rule 78 under post Fig's Rules and Regulations. I have updated Fig's sleeping arrangement explanation there since writing this post.)

This is a good question. It is not easy to answer, because the answer is continually evolving.

The short answer is, I sleep outside on a balcony. When it is cold, I sleep inside because my injured wing does not draw up snuggly to my body making it easier for me to get cold.

This is the long answer:

When I was first injured, I had to spend four weeks contained in a large box with only small windows to minimize my movement and stay warm while healing.  After that I spent three weeks in a half box, half cage. Then I moved into a full cage for about three months. The last few months I have lived "free"on my own balcony with limited freetime outside tethered and untethered doing survival training trying to learn to be more independent.

All of this time, despite four accomodation changes, I lived, and slept in pretty much the same spot. After a time, I decided that I wanted out of my hospital box, so I started to peck holes in it. After a time in the half box/half cage, I started to peck holes in that too. And then after a while, I started to rebel inside my full cage. So, Matt chucked out the cage, and gave me the whole balcony. In order to do that he had to build a fence to extend the height of the balcony wall about 50 cm, because I can jump up in the air about a meter and a half. So technically, I am confined, and free presently.

All this time, I have preferred certain places to sit, sleep, and go to the bathroom. Now that there is no box or cage, I still prefer and favor those places. I sit in my favorite spot. I sleep in my favorite spot. And I have chosen a convenient place to use as a toilet. I'm pretty smart. 

Now, when I was getting well, staying in one spot was favorable for a time. Matt had to be very careful that my feet did not get sore from standing in the same spot all day, day after day; Crows are not Parrots, we need to move around much more. Matt did a great job of caring for my feet by padding my perches, washing, and massaging my feet regularly, and taking me out for walks. He also designed different size, and shape perches to give my feet a full range of motion.

 Now that I have no cage, however, the problem of sore feet from standing still all day does not go away as you might suspect. Now my naturally high-energy state, and desire to move a lot, and my seemingly conflicting desire to stay in my prefered spots where I feel safe combine to do me in. You see, I want to move, because I need to move, but I want to stay safe because I am injured, and habituated to "familiar territory" I came to feel safe in during rehabilitation.  So, now I am very much at risk for a propensity to do repetetive movements over and over again like a zoo animal gone mad which will cause me to wear my foot pads down until they start to bleed. Forming and following pathways habitually is something animals do naturally in the wild, it is not bad, but in confinement, it becomes a big problem as following the same short path again and again leads to stress injuries, and mental boredom, eventually insanity. Fortunately, Matt has designed a system of perches which allow me to be me, but prevents me from unwittingly hurting myself.

My perches are still evolving, but the system which is working well for my feet, my regular exercise, and my sanity presently is this:

Each perch is a flat pine plank. Half the plank is flat. The other half is a round perch of various diameters raised just enough so I have to lift my leg about as high as it can go comfortably while maintaining level shoulders. Both halves are wrapped tightly 2-4 times with thick fleece. Some raised perches are level, some are at various angles. Got it? Now, if you watch wild Crows, you will notice that they jump around in trees a lot. They sometimes jump sideways, and sometimes they do a jump and a turn. Sometimes a movement is level, sometimes it is up or down. Matt is attempting to design the perch system on the balcony so that I get a natural mix of sideways/up, down, level movements,  forward/up, down, level movements and plenty of chances to do "the twist". It is a challenge and the system continually evolves, but for now things are working. Everyday, at least one of the perches is reversed, this forces me to devise new paths, and to exercise the other side of my body, and my brain. It makes me form new paths mentally, and play new games. It is important not to change things so dramatically, or suddenly, as that stresses me out a lot. You cannot just come to my house and rearrange all the furniture. Okay?   

Another problem is that I like to be where I like to be, and I like to be up. Most birds naturally like to be up. You will notice wild Jungle Crows sit high in the trees, or up on apartment buildings. We are virtually allergic to the ground, and if we do go to the ground we go in pair to take turns watching each other's backs. But, if Matt puts me up high, all I do all day is sit still, and get sore feet. It's like a bird sofa. If Matt puts me too far down though, I quickly get neurotic, and exhibit repetetive stress motion syndrome. So, Matt rather cleverly puts me half way up, or half way down, rather. This way I have some stress, which is enough to induce me to venture out onto the perch system and get a lot of daily exercise, which I would be getting if I could fly. This approach too is working very well, but it took some time to figure out, and is still evolving. Anyway, for now, my feet are very healthy. Matt does not even need to trim my finger nails anymore because they get natural wear during exercise. I am a very happy bird, but you may be interested to know a bit more about bird psychology.

Because I came to my adoptive family as a full grown fledged bird, what is referred to as a passage bird in falconry terminology, I don't behave like a baby acting like Matt is my mother; instead I have a fully developed sense of myself, and the relationship I have with Matt is one of developing trust, and a bond, and respect, and maybe love one day, we'll see after a couple of years. So far, my degree of trust for Matt, my bond with him, and my respect for him leave something to be desired in his eyes. He says I am too independent for my age. Every adult says that about their kids. Whatever. Anyway, because I consider myself an adult, I don't mind sleeping by myself, but I want to sleep where I want, and I have a large list of demands which must be met, or I self destruct quickly, literally. You see, the fact is, the big scary bird everyone thinks the Crow is, is in fact the biggest, chicken in the whole world. Very few people have any idea about this fact and think us Crows are frightening, scary beasts. Nothing could be more untrue. It is the silliest idea ever. 

I just do not like anything to change, and I am highly suspicious of anything new. These are traits humans share with Crows. It is why we survive and thrive. This paranoid wariness is mostly my nature but in my case this personality trait is much worse because I am captive, and because I live with an permanent injury, I know it, and it makes me live in fear for my safety moment to moment, day in, day out. Matt understands that because he gave me his blood, sweat and tears. In fact, Matt cared for my infection, open wound, and broken bone daily for seven weeks straight day and night, living with grave uncertainty, and not a lot of medical assistance forth coming, even so I sort of developed the idea after a while that he was torturing me, so that also makes me a bit more on edge than I might be normally. Let me give you a few examples.  If Matt wears a bandaid on his hand, I ask him to take it off. It's not usually there, so I won't have it. That's just the way it goes. It isn't that I don't trust Matt, I just don't trust the bandaid! Matt said that a part of Crow intelligence is being capable of imagining what might happen in the future, so we are able to plan in advance. Apparently, we also have very active imaginations, as I am often guilty of wondering what Matt might be planning to do, to me, for example, with that strange bandaid thingie on his finger. Fortunately, this paranoia, which we are all hoping will go away over time, is localized to the bathroom area where I was treated for my injuries. Also, there are places where I want to be, and places I don't. I can move about, but there is a time limit before I have to get back to my favorite place, or I freak out. Once Matt left me in the shower a little longer than he usually does, so I pulled all the feathers off my leg, and they took months to grow back in. In my mind, change means the end might be near, and it makes me panic because all my natural defenses are gone. So the answer to your question is, I sleep where I want, when I want, how I want, which is on two legs, hunkered down in my favorite spot on a soft blanket. Usually that is outside on my favorite flat perch, but recently my adoptive family is kind enough to let me sleep in out of the winter cold in the the shower room, and even I am smart enough to know that a warm place is better than a cold one, so I agreed not to pluck feathers from my leg. However, someone left a small bag of garbage out on my balcony the other day, if you can believe that, which I did not appreciate, so just to remind them of that fact, I pulled a small patch of feathers about the size of a shirt button out of my leg again. I just like to remind everyone from time to time, that I am the one with hollow bones in the family. And, in case you missed it just there, Crows do not necessarily like your stinky garbage, especially when it is in our living room.

Here is a picture of my favorite perch being constructed. I like to sleep on the flat side. Please note that the screws must be recessed to prevent me from pecking the metal, and harming my beak. I love pecking the wood, tearing the fleece off, putting my favorite toy, which is a toothbrush under the round perch, and bringing food here so I can relax while I eat. Note that up for me is about twice as high as this, because I grew up in a box, and a cage, so the hight of this perch represents half way up in my mind. I have a variety of perches like this which I love to jump side to side, to and fro, up and down, and twist on. Matt will post more about my perches another day.