I read something really shocking about some tortured birds in a forum about budgies at the end of 2004. In my neighbour city there was a budgie keeper who did terrible things to his birds. By chance an animal welfare activist had heard of this unconscionable man who kept his birds in a dark cellar without any window in tiny cages. In general, keeping birds in such a room is not appropriate to the species at all because each budgie needs daylight to stay healthy. In order to get the poor creatures out of there the lady pretended she wanted to visit the man and made an appointment with him. When she was at his home, she was able to convince him to give away at least two of the birds. One of them was the beautiful grey male budgie whom I named Liriel a few days later.

Concerning his health, Liriel wasn't very lucky after being saved from this sad life. When he was rescued, his eyes responded so hypersensitive to light that he suffered from a painful ophthalmitis. The avian vet treated the infection with an antibiotic and Liriel soon felt better, but he was still unable to fly because he never was allowed to leave his cage in his former home. On 1/22/2005 Liriel and the budgie lady Folara, the second rescued bird, moved into my bird room and Liriel immediately tried to train his flight skills. My other birds seemed to encourage him in his endeavours and after some crashes in the beginning he did pretty well after a few days.

But starting his new life was quite complicated for Liriel. At first he was a bit agitated when he tried to find his way in the new surrounding. What confused him a lot was the fact that all my birds including him were allowed to leave the cages in the morning. Each morning. In fact he wasn't even able to find the tiny cage door without my help, so first he had to learn how to get out of the cage. Liriel learned to fly pretty fast, but landing caused him a lot of difficulties since he didn't know which places were safe for landing. Fortunately he could learn many important things by watching the other birds. He was a very clever budgie in any sense.

After settling down he became more relaxed and blossomed into a happy bird. Soon he started to feel so comfortable that he showed his real character. He was a gentle and friendly bird but always remained extremely shy and he became frightened when any human approach him. Liriel got along very well with the other birds what was more important to me than having a tame budgie.

And by the way: It didn't take long until he fell in love with one of his fellow budgies. Well, at first it seemed as if he was the fool because the woman of his dreams, the pretty Niobe, was Max's wife. Liriel often perched right beside Niobe and then tenderly sang and flirted with her in his shy manner. After just a short while she said Good-bye to Max and became Liriel's wife. And then came the day when Liriel started to suffer from a heavy molt. He was tired and therefore couldn't care for his wife that much. Niobe was very demanding and she didn't get what she wanted so she turned away from him and found herself another man. Liriel didn't remain single because the cute budgie lady Himalia fell in love with him and won his heart. They were a loving pair until the day he died. On that morning in September 2006 he suddenly suffered from problems with his cardiovascular system. His beloved Himalia stood close to him when he took the last breath. I really hope he felt how much love there was around him. I will miss this gentle singer and I hope he found warm light wherever his soul may be.

Liriel's colour mutation is called dark mauve Yellowface Opaline, but in most photos he looked rather blue than grey. He was a pretty guy, however he was a bit too slim in the eyes of many breeders. Unfortunately I do not know how old Liriel was when he moved into my birdroom.

Meaning of the name
Like most of my birds Liriel also carried an astronomical name, although a fictitious. In the fantasy novels about the planet Darkover which were written by the deceased author Marion Zimmer Bradley, Liriel is one of the four moons of this planet.