Long ago it was called the Carolina pigeon or the Carolina turtledove. Lovebirds in the Parrot family mate for life and are called Lovebirds because they are so inseparable. I don't know what happened but she had definitely been gone for a while. Your lifestyle and overall availability also factor into deciding to bring home a new bird or go solo. Shocked at her death, he tried to move her. Whether to get another parakeet or not depends on the type of relationship you want to have with your feathered friend. Cockatiels in captivity may choose a mate if they're in the same aviary or store, or they may be given a mate by their owner. I can't say whether birds experience loss at some level or whether what we sometimes interpet as mourning, is just confusion. Symptoms of mourning include calling for the lost bird, searching the cage for the bird, and loss of appetite. If one of the pair dies, you can be sure he's missing that companionship. However, they may accept a replacement. 258 Comments Filed under: Parrot (General) We recently reported on the death of a very famous bird…Alex the African Grey. Cockatiels are extremely loving, cuddly birds, and they show their love and devotion to their mates as long as they remain together. After a death, many parakeets will mourn their loss. Decreased Appetite. It is hard enough to get through the days following the loss of a pet bird without hearing their sweet voices, let alone having to look at an empty cage. Now my male is alone in the cage. The mourning dove got its name because of its mournful-sounding call. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds. So, over the weekend I came home to my female laying flat out on the bottom of the cage. This story still saddens me, as I have been following the progress of the research of Dr. Pepperberg and her staff, and new of the death sort of hit me. When a cockatiel's mate or companion dies, he may eat very little or stop eating altogether out of loneliness. The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is a member of the dove family, Columbidae. The grieving bird lingered in a nearby tree, "crying" out loud with adoring love and reluctant to move on. No one knew how long he stood beside her and cried. The bird is also known as the American mourning dove or the rain dove, and erroneously as the turtle dove, and was once known as the Carolina pigeon or Carolina turtledove. Hello everyone, This is my first time posting here. But it’s worth noting previous accounts of birds dying strangely after the loss of a close comrade: There was the duck that drowned itself after the death of its mate, as well as the young swan that committed the same act this year after discovering an older, lifeless swan—bystanders suspected it may have been the mother—floating in the lake.