Mirror mirror (a Rainbow update)

Rainbow has discovered a mirror and she sits pressed against it. When I try to pick her up to take her outside, she looks back at her reflection, squeaking loudly ... as though not wanting to be taken away from her new 'companion'. I think (apart from the parents and other siblings she knew before she fell from her nest) it is her first experience of 'another pigeon'. She thinks the reflection is real. Some cats do something similar when they see their reflections. If possible, they reach their paws around the other side of the mirror to touch the other feline. In Rainbow's case ... I can't wait until she can fly well enough to go long distances and find a real companion (not just a reflection).

Nowadays when she is out in the garden, she does a brief bit of flying ... from Point A to Point B (which is usually me). But lately I've started running from her when she flies to me, so instead of landing on my shoulder, she is forced to do a circle and go back to her take off point ... or some other point nearby.

The rest of her time is spent sitting in the sun, spreading her wings and fluffing out, as though tanning. I wonder if she knows she's a bird. When other birds fly over, she jumps with surprise and twists her head to look at them, as though wondering: "What are they doing up there?!"

This evening when I tried to pick her up to take her back in, she actually flew away from me - a short distance. I went forward to her again and she started rapidly padding off in the other direction, squeaking: "I want to stay out here!" It's good that she is enjoying the outdoors and becoming used to it in a more 'grown up' way. But, with the dogs literally licking their lips whenever they see her, she won't be able to stay out on her own until she goes to my nearby friend's garden. She has no dogs or cats. Only rabbits.