The nighttime is meant to be a peaceful and serene time where all people and animals are asleep with no disturbances.
Unfortunately, these peaceful hours may be disturbed by a budgie flying around its cage at night
If you’re wondering why this is happening with your bird then read on.
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Budgie flying around cage at night:
Budgies aren’t nocturnal so they really shouldn’t be up at night flying around and making commotion but this can happen.
If your bird is waking you up in the middle of the night then the bird is likely suffering from night fright, here is what you need to know about this:
Night fright:
Night fright happens to budgies who are disturbed by something at night, these birds are quite light sleepers and anything, even relatively quiet sounds, can wake them up.
These birds have evolved to have this trait because they needed to hear and fly away from predators that may have been hunting them in the wild at night.
Your domesticated budgie will still have this trait when living with you
When the bird becomes frightened it will start flying around in its cage. Flying and flapping their wings are the only real way of getting out of danger.
Pecking at predators doesn’t do much so the birds will flap their wings in their cage to warn other birds, if there are other birds around, and, they will flap their wings as a way to try to threaten the predator.
They may also fly around their cage, as a means of escape, if they feel that they need to.
What causes night fright:
Because these birds are small, and because they don’t have much in the way of defending themselves, a variety of things can cause night fright in birds.
Things that may be scaring your bird include sounds of cars outside, sudden flashing lights, your domestic cat or dog, and even a bad dream
Another sign that your bird is suffering from night fright is being upset and its heart beating hard when you pick it up, this happens when the bird feels fear and feels threatened.
What to do about it:
While you can’t keep your birds from having bad dreams and thrashing around a cage you can calm the bird and minimize the bird from being scared, this is how:
Calm the bird:
You’d need to start off by calming the bird. Switch the lights on in your bird’s room and talk softly to the bird reassuring it that all will be well and that it is not in danger.
The bird should calm down a bit as soon as it sees you, talking will also help calm it.
Cover the cage:
One of the reasons why your bird may be having night frights is that it sees bright flashing lights which scare it.
If you can’t completely cover your windows then you can cover the bird’s cage keeping light from flashing into the cage
Leave a light on:
These birds can still get a good amount of sleep with a dim light or a night light on, you can add this to their room.
If the birds do wake up from a bad dream the light will help them see and help them realize that there is no threat around them.
Use white noise:
While birds can’t sleep well with loud noises in their rooms at night silence isn’t always great either. Silence in the wild usually meant that something is wrong, low noises meant that all is well in the wild.
You can create a similar environment for the birds by playing white noise in the bird’s room to keep it calm while sleeping.
Keep pets away:
Your domesticated dog or cat may be why your bird is flying around in its cage at night. Your pet is likely scaring your bird so keeping these animals in separate rooms will keep the birds calm at night.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Letting An Untamed Bird Out Of The Cage, How To Stop Cage Aggression In Birds, Parakeet At The Bottom Of The Cage Fluffed Up, Budgie Bullying Other Budgie