Colour Mutation - Green Cheeked Conure

One of my Green Cheeked Conures fairly early on developed yellow tips to its wings. I wasn't sure if this was a developmental thing but they now nearly have their full adult plumage and the yellow tips have stayed.

I'm unsure what to classify the bird as; there are a few common mutations that have yellow on the bird - Cinnamon, Yellow Sided and Pineapple but the wing feathers are free of yellow.

Green Cheeked Conure - Chicks

28th October - My first Green Cheeked Conure chick hatched, followed by a second and a third in the following days. The female is very protective and has not left since the chicks have hatched and is quite often joined by the male. This gives me far less access than the Indian Ringneck Parrots do afford me.

17th December - There has been a greater distance between chicks as can be seen in the picture. The largest has developed some yellow wing feathers so I thinking it maybe a mutation as no yellow feathers are present on either of the parents. 

I have not handled the much so I tend to get the odd nip when handling them at this age.

Green Cheeked Conure - Sitting

The Green Cheeks have finally started sitting. The first egg was oddly crushed or broken by the parents which I though might be a sign that they were not going to have young this season however the female has laid at least a further two eggs.

Chick Progress - Indian Ringnecked Parrot

22nd September - My male Indian Ringneck "Nippet" does occasionally visit the chicks in the box but this is the first time I have been able to document it.

He is very aggressive (towards me) at the start of breeding season but tends to settle down and is back to his normal self once "Nelly" has laid eggs and is sitting.



 30th September - The chicks are starting to fledge and get their feathers. My early guess of colours are Creamino (looking very Lutino at the moment but it is very similar to my Creamino from last season) and Blue or possibly Turquoise aka Pastel Blue.

14th October - The chicks continue to fledge at great speed, it wont be long until they are emerging from the box. Colours are now definite; Blue and Creamino

25th - 26th October - Saw the emergence of the chicks from the nesting box the Creamino was first followed by the Blue the next day. The caused the normal chaos in the aviary as they learned how to fly. I have witnessed my adult female "Nelly" still feeding the young as late as the 12th November.

I will get the pair DNA tested and leg banded as soon as my baby Green Cheeked Conures (born a few days after the chick came out of the box) are out of the box and old enough.

Feeding - Flowering plants

When doing a little garden maintenance a decided to try my birds on some native flowers from a bush (as they are a particular favorite of Rainbow Lorikeets and Crimson Rosella in the area).

I didn't think they would get much interest as I thought they were more a Lorikeet thing but all the birds seemed to be very interested in them; particularly the Princess Parrots that didn't leave the trimmings until the flowers and buds were completely dismantled.

Nesting Activity - Indian Ringnecked Parrot

I thought I best produce a timeline of nesting activity for the Indian Ringnecked Parrots

1st August - Introduced nesting box (height 43cm, width 23cm, depth 23cm) on a shelf at the rear of the aviary about two thirds from the ground and I half filled it with non toxic saw dust.

A few days after introducing the nesting box I witnessed breeding and noticed removal of some nesting material from the box.

12th August - Found the first egg in the box, this was followed by an egg every two days after until there was four by the 18th August. It was noted during this time the female "Nelly" would spend most of the day outside the box but sleep inside during the night.

5th September - In the afternoon I discovered the first egg started to hatch; I found the following morning that the hole was only slightly bigger.

Egg the following morning (6th September)

"Nelly" with eggs (a rare sight)

6th September - First egg hatched and it was promptly followed by the second egg the next day. I went away for the weekend leaving for two nights and when came back on the Monday afternoon the further two eggs attempted to hatch (cracked holes) but had failed and the chicks died. I have since removed the eggs from the box.

16th September - The chicks have grown well and I have handle each for the first time; the parents food intake has increased for the chicks also. It appears one will be a light colour (Albino, Creamino) and the other will be darker (Blue, Pastel Blue); this seems to be obvious by the eye colour (the older is darker and the younger has lighter eyes).

20th September - The chicks growing well and are obviously two different colours. I have been handling them the last few days (once in the morning and once in the afternoon).

Light eyes

Dark eyes

Gouldian Finches

The Gouldian Finches have also made there intentions made clear that they would like to start laying eggs. They built a make shift nest out of grass on the side of the aviary with in two days.

As a result I have introduced the finch nesting box back into the aviary using there dried grass a internal nesting material. I craft a hollow round ball in the nesting box out of the dried grass. I have been told Gouldian Finches are particularly lazy in building there own nest; something definitely not shared by my pair. The male has since taken up century duty at the entrance as the female has disappeared inside. 

Dried grass used as nesting material in a commercial "finch" sized box

New breeding season

The signs of a new breeding season are beginning to show. The interaction between pairs are a real sign but my hand rared male Indian Ring Neck parrot has given his real and obvious intention to produce young. 

He has become aggressive!! as he does every year until the eggs are hatched; he generally goes for my hand while I try to change the water.

Non toxic saw dust used as nesting material

I have thus introduced the nesting box back into the aviary. I'm expecting eggs by the end of August.

Spring has sprung!!

Commercial "Parrot nesting material" available from a pet shop used, she chose a "Cockatiel" sized nesting box.

I introduced some nesting boxes into my larger mixed aviary to offer some protection from the element to my birds in winter (anything to avoid the loss of bird experienced last year).

It has resulted in my Bourke female laying eggs earlier than I would like. I believe this is her third clutch and she is yet to hatch anything; I will let her finish the clutch and see how things progress.

Inbreeding

Unfortunately with my Jap Quails I got to witness the side effects of inbreeding. When I purchased them he questioned if I was going to breed them or just use them to keep the aviary floor clean and now I know why...
I was suspicious when one started pecking the side wall of the aviary for no apparent reason.

Of the five I purchased one got a large growth around the neck area and the rest got some sort of foot growth to make there feet swell. There natural short life span has left me with one left.

It is a sad fact that this is probably a common practice to achieve colour mutations and just poor practice of a large colony breed birds.