Is there any way to get birds comfortable enough to share a cage? Like if they're the same species and you'd like to house them together. No one really says it's possible, which I find surprising?
it's possible but it's not advisable.
The reason it's not recommended in just about every circumstance is because parrots are temperamental and can kill each other in seconds. Parrotlets will rip each others beaks off, budgies can break each others toes, and so much worse.
Parrots communicate a lot through body language but unfortunately with the way captive parrots live they don't get exposure to that body language and as a result they struggle to understand each other's communication attempts clearly. This causes birds to need to use more severe strategies to advocate for their boundaries which is typically nipping at each others toes or smacking beaks.
In a normal scenario if it were to hit that point in communication one of the birds would just fly off. They don't really want a fight, they overstepped a boundary and will now add space. In a cage setting that's not possible. If bird A starts a fight and bird B tries to leave they cannot make it very far in a cage. Bird A will still feel like they're in their space, not listening, and trying to cause problems and bird B will get continuously chased around and harassed until they get too tired and severely hurt or Bird A hopefully gives up.
In the wild parrots can exist in such large flocks because there's space to bicker and move away, they can easily choose who they do and do not socialize with, in captivity that's not an option for the average home. You're picking a random bird from a random genetic line and just hoping the two will be compatible (what are the odds I go outside, pick out a stranger, and stick you two in a room saying you're best friends now and have everything work out perfectly? what are the odds you're at each other's throats in a week, a month, what happens after a year?)
And that's not including the complexities of resource availability, seasonal hormones, territory, and all the other little nuances of flock dynamics.
It's a complex dynamic that just is not safe for the average home.
