Bird Articles and Advice / July 2012 Cage & Aviary Bulletin

02/07/2012 13:31:21

July 2012 Cage & Aviary Bulletin

The bird breeding season this year must have been influenced by the very unusual weather over much of the country. It is not only wild birds that have been affected by the very wet and windy period, aviary birds and even many of those in bird rooms have not been too successful either. Looking to the skies there seem far fewer swallows and house martins and the cuckoo has not turned up in many of its usual haunts. It may be getting a bit late for migrating birds to successfully reproduce this year but there is still a possibility that our captive birds may be encouraged to go to nest. Hopefully we will have a few months of warm weather to give those youngsters the chance to take on adult plumage before even worse weather sets in.

A couple of weeks ago I reported on the early progress of the Stock Dove chick that hatched on June 11th and since then it has grown to almost adult size. The parents have been regularly leaving the chick alone more and more as it grows and their feeding escapades are taking longer and longer. They have also begun departing and returning together each time leaving the chick alone in the nest. On one occasion last week while the parents were absent the ‘dreaded’ grey squirrel returned and attempted to attack the half-grown youngster but it was fended off and the squirrel had to be satisfied with making off with the un-hatched egg. It has not been back since.

Today has been another interesting day causing a bit of concern for my nesting doves as I began to notice a change in the adults’ behaviour. While one adult, that I believe is the female, has become very protective towards the chick, the other adult that is present occasionally pecks vigourously at the chick’s head. I am reasonably confident that this offending bird is a male as it appears to be getting over -amorous with attempted copulation even while the female is brooding her chick. I can think of two possibilities; is this male an interloper or is it the parent male recognising the almost fully-grown chick as another male in its territory? It can be that the change to colder windy weather is not helping and the female is neglecting her male just to keep its chick warm but without being anthropomorphic, I wonder ’Can jealousy exist in avian behaviour?’ While the female continues to brood and protect her chick she is unable to leave the nest to feed, but when she does, what is likely to happen if this rogue adult returns? As I said last month - It can be a cruel world.

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