Kinds of Birds Not Seen in Captivity

Jurek7 said:
Among less popular birds, sandgrouse, rails and tinamous are easy to breed in human care. The only reason why they are rare is that other groups are more popular (pigeons, pheasant).

One group not common in collections are Arborophila partridges. The reason may be the call of many species - like banging pieces of metal together.
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I don't think call matters necessarily... Many gamebirds are quite loud, and I can think of a fair few who can be a little piercing (peafowl, argus, etc). Also macaws, cockatoos, and penguins among others are pretty grating on the ears but remain popular in zoos (and private trade for the parrots at least).
 
Sangrouse actually do very well in captivity. Husbandry wise, they're basically a dove that doesn't perch. The issue is getting them to breed, which has thus far proven very difficult for the past several years at minimum. They're a few still kicking around in zoo's, and perhaps a couple dozen in private hands in the US and Canada, but no breeding with any as far as I'm aware.

For gulls, in the US and Canada there are breeding programs for Red and Black Legged Kittiwake, Grey Gulls, and Australian Silver Gull, all of which are fairly prolific as long as the facilities allow them to be. There are a number of other species held in small numbers, but these are all non-breeding rehab birds.
 
Hyak_II said:
Sangrouse actually do very well in captivity. Husbandry wise, they're basically a dove that doesn't perch. The issue is getting them to breed, which has thus far proven very difficult for the past several years at minimum. They're a few still kicking around in zoo's, and perhaps a couple dozen in private hands in the US and Canada, but no breeding with any as far as I'm aware.

For gulls, in the US and Canada there are breeding programs for Red and Black Legged Kittiwake, Grey Gulls, and Australian Silver Gull, all of which are fairly prolific as long as the facilities allow them to be. There are a number of other species held in small numbers, but these are all non-breeding rehab birds.
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Prior to and following the cessation of the commercial trade in wild birds in Europe, we maintained a large collection, mainly galliformes but other spp too. Along with many pigeons, we kept two spp of Sandgrouse and also Seedsnipe. These birds did well, but did nothing else. We varied their housing, but never had any kind of breeding behaviour from any of them. We assumed that this was because we could not replicate their large flocks, and nomadic life in the wild; but they fizzled out without doing anything, and we never knew...
 
Andrew Swales said:
For many years we kept and bred A. torqueola and A. brunneopectus (the latter for the first time in the UK). They are lovely, and we never heard them make a sound. I very much doubt that the call of any partridge has any impact on its popularity...
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I have A.gingica which have a loud but hauntingly beautiful whistle.
 
What's the deal with woodpeckers in captivity? Why are there so few kicking around in European zoos? (I don't know about the state of these birds in other regions)
Do they have issues with their husbandry or is it just a species the common folks don't care for and thus aren't interesting for zoos to hold?
 
Ursus said:
What's the deal with woodpeckers in captivity? Why are there so few kicking around in European zoos? (I don't know about the state of these birds in other regions)
Do they have issues with their husbandry or is it just a species the common folks don't care for and thus aren't interesting for zoos to hold?
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Woodpeckers are pretty rare in NA zoos as well.

New World Warblers are a group of colorful, energetic birds with beautiful songs. Why are they not often kept in zoos. I would guess MBTA is hindering their captive populations in the US, but what about Canada and Europe?
 
Woodpeckers generally adapt fine to captivity, its a variety of factors to come into them not being popular in zoos. They can tend to be somewhat cryptic depending on the species and setup, they can be destructive and sometimes difficult to breed, and moreover, they're not regularly imported by the private import stations anymore, which in NA at least, means no new birds coming in to zoos.

Also for New World Warblers, they don't adapt to captivity terribly well. I worked with Rufus Fantails at one point, which are very similar husbandry wise to new world warblers, as well as limited experience with new world warblers in a rehab situation as well. They are very delicate birds. They often refuse to eat anything other than live food, and need very large enclosures without any other large or active birds to truly feel at ease. They are VERY difficult to breed, and personally I feel like their captive diet is inadequate, consisting mainly of crickets, mealworms, and fruit flies, plus whatever they can catch in their enclosures. They're also very skittish, and wild origin birds do not display terribly well, they like to skulk around in the foliage.
 
Hyak_II said:
Also for New World Warblers, they don't adapt to captivity terribly well. I worked with Rufus Fantails at one point, which are very similar husbandry wise to new world warblers, as well as limited experience with new world warblers in a rehab situation as well. They are very delicate birds. They often refuse to eat anything other than live food, and need very large enclosures without any other large or active birds to truly feel at ease. They are VERY difficult to breed, and personally I feel like their captive diet is inadequate, consisting mainly of crickets, mealworms, and fruit flies, plus whatever they can catch in their enclosures. They're also very skittish, and wild origin birds do not display terribly well, they like to skulk around in the foliage.
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Interesting! I assume vireos have similar problems?
 
Hyak_II said:
Woodpeckers generally adapt fine to captivity, its a variety of factors to come into them not being popular in zoos. They can tend to be somewhat cryptic depending on the species and setup, they can be destructive and sometimes difficult to breed, and moreover, they're not regularly imported by the private import stations anymore, which in NA at least, means no new birds coming in to zoos.

Also for New World Warblers, they don't adapt to captivity terribly well. I worked with Rufus Fantails at one point, which are very similar husbandry wise to new world warblers, as well as limited experience with new world warblers in a rehab situation as well. They are very delicate birds. They often refuse to eat anything other than live food, and need very large enclosures without any other large or active birds to truly feel at ease. They are VERY difficult to breed, and personally I feel like their captive diet is inadequate, consisting mainly of crickets, mealworms, and fruit flies, plus whatever they can catch in their enclosures. They're also very skittish, and wild origin birds do not display terribly well, they like to skulk around in the foliage.
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I believe the Biodôme of Montréal had some success with New World Warblers. They always had a small numbers of species in the Temperate forest habitat, but they are secretive and not easy to see. Some successful breeding also happened, but I don’t know if it was in or off-Exhibit.
 
Pier-Luc Chouinard said:
I believe the Biodôme of Montréal had some success with New World Warblers. They always had a small numbers of species in the Temperate forest habitat, but they are secretive and not easy to see. Some successful breeding also happened, but I don’t know if it was in or off-Exhibit.
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What species?
 
I'm pretty sure Columbus keeps and breeds warblers, and I believe Smithsonian is planning on exhibiting some in their new exhibit.

~Thylo
 
Jurek7 said:
Check this - it goes on for minutes and would drive anybody crazy...
Green-legged Partridge (Arborophila chloropus) :: xeno-canto
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Quite a modest call, and not particularly offensive in any way. Almost all parrots have calls which are more objectionable, and this doesn't appear to diminish their popularity. I would have thought that the reason this Hill Partridge is not kept, is a mixture of its lack of availability, poor exhibit value and it being a bit too 'brown'... and nothing at all to do with its voice.
 
FBBird said:
I have A.gingica which have a loud but hauntingly beautiful whistle.
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I have just spent a few minutes on HBWs website reminding myself how varied and beautiful the calls of Hill Partridges are. A. torqueola surprised me, as all the time we had them I'd never heard it. Which species are still found in viable numbers in European private and zoo collections?
 
Andrew Swales said:
I have just spent a few minutes on HBWs website reminding myself how varied and beautiful the calls of Hill Partridges are. A. torqueola surprised me, as all the time we had them I'd never heard it. Which species are still found in viable numbers in European private and zoo collections?
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As far as public collections go, only Arborophila gingica.

~Thylo
 
Pier-Luc Chouinard said:
They had several species over the years, but I believe the last ones exhibited were Yellow-rumped and American Redstart species. They might have been one more, but I can't find anything in my notes. I do remember they had a hybrid Yellow-rumped x Chestnut-sided, born in their facilities, an "accident" that lived its days there.
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I understand the biodome has kept a variety of unusual species over the years, including several of the groups discussed here. Probably the large naturalistic habitats help species like wood-warblers and woodpeckers.
The biodome is still closed for renovations isn't it?

(P.S. Welcome by the way!)
 
(Thank you!)

It has. New world sparrows, waders, tanagers, seaducks, etc.

It is supposed to open in December 2019. I spoke to many keepers and educators there who were quite helpful and loved their work. They all shared the worry to see the Biodôme losing those unusual species for more regular ones or more showy one (ex. One idea was to stop trying to breed macaws to just display a huge bunch of mixed species, which would take lot of place and would limit the number of other animals) or to exhibit animals unsuited to the space (ex. There was talk of tapirs at one point, and while Im no expert and could be wrong, i don’t see how it would be realistic). We will see. One lives in hope of small mammals, unusual birds and reptiles. ;)
 
Does anybody know if any zoos have priotelus (cuban or hispaniolan trogon) in their collection? Or has it in the past?
 
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