Green Cheeked Conure - Egg

I had noticed both my Green Cheeked Conures spending more time in the nesting box (they have not been out at feeding time in the morning). Today I noticed only my male out, so I checked the box and found my female sitting on one egg!! 

The Green Cheeks season must start later, end of September. I  will have to refer to my notes from last season to see if similar. 

Indian Ringneck - Feeding

Feeding has stepped up for the Indian Ringnecks as they try to keep with the demands of three growing chicks. I'm pretty sure I will end up with two albino or white chicks by eye colouring (pink eyes). I have now handled all the chicks and I complete a nest inspection every day.

Bourke Parrot / Protective Mother

Originally I thought my Bourke hen may have even abandoned her eggs as she was not often in the nest box but now she has turned into a fiercely protective mother, squawking and lunging at me during nest inspections. She is the most protective bird I have had to date.

Indian Ringneck Chick Progress

The Indian Ringneck chick are growing very quickly as all birds do, the pictures are the growth over a four day period. I have handled the larger one, I suspect it will be a darker colour (blue or turquoise) due to it eye colouring. I'm thinking about hand rearing them when they get pin feathers with the help of my wife.

Breeding Season

I'm still hopeful for a fourth Indian Ringneck chick and Nelly's biggest clutch as the four egg is yet to be pushed to the side and is still covered by the three other chicks.

The Bourke female is spending more and more time in her breeding box and is up to five eggs now. It seems my abandonment concerns could have been premature.

The Gouldian finches are now both going in and out of the box, no eggs to date.

Indian Ringneck - Third Chick

I love this time of year so much excitement and anticipation. My third Indian Ringneck chick was either hatched yesterday or this morning with one more egg that has yet to be pushed to the side.

My Bourke Parrots three eggs are pushed to the center of the box and partially covered by nesting material. The hen spends most of the time out of the box including night, I would say she has abandoned her eggs but she still goes in the box and the eggs are now grouped together.

For the first time a few day ago I witnessed for time my Gouldian finch hen in the nesting box. She seems to have worked the dry grass at the back of the box but no eggs yet.

Surprise!! New chicks

I received a pleasant surprise today with the discovery of two new Indian Ringneck chicks upon a nest inspection. I was expecting to be waiting another couple of weeks. One is clearly larger than the other and I'm hoping that the other two egg will equal two more chicks over the next few days. 

Nesting Update

I returned from my holiday at which time I had my sister looking after my birds (when I'm away I have worry that people looking after my birds will keep up my standards but she did an excellent job), to find my Indian Ringnecks now have four eggs and my Bourke Parrots now have three. My female Indian Ringneck spends the night in the breeding box but is rarely in there at other times and my Bourke female that seemed to be mostly in her box sitting has been spending a lot of time out of it recently including of a night, it is her first clutch of eggs since I have had her hopefully she has not abandoned them.

I also completed a full clean of the aviary on my return including new branches which I placed to obscure the entrance of the Green Cheeked Conures box.

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

A holiday to the Gold Coast has afforded our family to visit the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

I has hoping to see more parrots but there was a good cross section of birds. The free flight show I found excellent and included a Blue and Gold Macaw, Green Winged Macaw and a Black Cockatoo.

I was really hoping for a bigger and better walk in aviary than Symbio and although it had bigger aviaries it didn't necessarily have the amount or variety of birds.

The Fig Parrots were very cool and definitely something I had not seen before.