Cage & Aviary Birds

AN OWL THAT got stuck in a chimney and sustained serious injuries has had a happy ending thanks to the actions of a Welsh conservation charity. The Owls Trust (TOT) in Llandudno was contacted by homeowners who heard something flapping inside their ch

A TAXIDERMY EXAMPLE of an extinct passenger pigeon is estimated to sell at auction for between £7,000-£10,000. The stuffed bird is part of the James Harrison Collection of more than 200 lots of cased and free-mounted birds dating from the late Victor

I WAS UP early on Sunday, May 15 to ensure my birds with babies received their eggfood before setting off to Coventry for the annual meeting of the clubs that run the National Exhibition (NE). As most know, the NE is held at the Stafford County Showg

THIS is a plea to help the wild birds in your garden. They are struggling to rear young due to a dearth of insect life and lack of rainfall which has left the ground too hard for species such as blackbirds that need to dig for worms. I spend as much

THE last of the bird shows of the season was the Eastern Federation show at Risby, Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk on March 13. (Show report, Cage & Aviary Birds, May 4 issue.) As with the other specialist shows that I have attended this year, it was wel

THE first thing I would do would be to find a minimum of three reasonable-quality hens for the first year’s breeding programme. I say “reasonable”, but the better they are, the better the results at the end of the year. My first hen would preferably

IN MID-JANUARY, I paired a dilute fawn & white Bengalese cock with a light chocolate & white hen, both bred in early 2021. That may sound like a strange combination, but the hen had a dilute grey & white sibling, so there was a two in three possibili

SIR, like other aviculturists I have had many less birds than in pre-war times, so that, on the whole, I do not complain of the results. COCKATEELS [sic]: My pair of this pleasing and interesting species has done well. 1st brood 4 eggs, 2 young fully

SECRETIVE and yet common. The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is as much a familiar bird in urban areas as it is in the countryside. Every park, acre of farmland and even tree-lined street has its resident dunnocks, usually to be seen on the ground, for

‘FROM THE BIRDROOM’ IALWAYS see early May (which is when I’m writing this) as close to the halfway point of the breeding season and as a time to decide on plans for the remainder of the season. Plenty of Fifes are weaned, so a good guide of their pot

RECENTLY, I had the pleasure of meeting and hosting a Dutch waxbill and zebra finch enthusiast, G.J. (Jelmer) Huisman. Jelmer has recently published an excellent book, Estrildid Finches of the World, a comprehensive photographic and descriptive guide

THE society kicked off the year to a brilliant start. Members were invited to Robin Ford’s house for an aviary visit. It was a great morning and Margaret, Robin’s partner, kept members supplied with delicious refreshments throughout the visit. Robin