Monthly Archives: April 2016

There’s an App for that!

How do you use a smartphone to help feed a chough chick?

Simple. We record the sound an adult bird makes when they call to the chicks. The chicks use this signal before their eyes are open. When the parent calls, the chicks beg for food – if hungry.

When we need to do any supplementary feeding (in this case, a smaller chick), we simply play back the call, and the chick begs for food.

We are giving the smaller two chicks in nest 3 some supplementary feeds for the next few days, just to help get their weights up to a similar level to the older chicks. As you can see, the older chicks are not particularly hungry.

The rattling and clanking, and whistles in the background come from Ali. She is in the front of the aviary keeping the adult birds distracted.

Day Old Chough Chicks

Here is the first picture of the first nest of this year’s chough chicks. (Nest three).

Three chough chicks just over 24 hours old

We have designed the nest boxes in the breeding aviaries with a small inspection hatch at the back. This allows us to monitor weights, give supplementary feeds, and occasionally medication.

While the birds are distracted by someone, usually Ali, going into the front of the aviary with food, I can use the opportunity to open the hatch to carry out my secret duties. The adult birds tend to hide in a small space on top of the nest box while this is going on.

We get the birds used to these intrusions before any eggs are hatched, by using positive reinforcement. The adult birds associate a person coming into the aviary as a good thing. Person equals food. This makes our disturbances much less stressful for all concerned, except for Ray and Ali.

Seventeen Eggs

The total egg count for our breeding choughs is now up to seventeen.

A rare view of seventeen chough eggs

To mark Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday, our oldest female chough, aged 18, laid our most recent egg. She is a remarkable bird and amazingly spiritedly for such an age. (The chough, not the Queen).

Nest number four continues to “faff”…

According to our calculations, the first eggs in nest three will be hatching in the next two or three days. We will then switch the webcam view to show the new arrivals.

You can see the webcam here.

Eleven Eggs and Counting…

The breeding choughs at Paradise Park have now increased their total egg count to eleven.

Seclusion aviary nests showing eleven eggs

Three of the nests are progressing well, with counts of four, three, and four eggs respectively. The female in nest two laid the third egg this morning, and hopefully will add one or two more. We think that the females in nests one and three have now finished, as there have been no new eggs for several days.

The birds in nests four and five are still “faffing about”. This is a technical term used by chough breeders. It means that the birds are still adding (and subtracting) to the nests. Generally, the male will bring material into the nest and a few minutes later the female will take it out again!

However, the choughs in nests four and five were later last year – and they also built “looser” nests, so we are still expecting more eggs to come.

You can see the webcam here.

First Egg for 2016

The first chough egg for 2016 has been laid!

The female in Nest 3 was seen sitting in her beautifully-built nest just after 5pm on 31st March. Over the next 20 minutes she sat, straining a bit as she produced the egg, and then recovered for a few minutes before going outside. The image above shows her mate coming into the nest to check out the egg, gently touching it with his bill.