Birdland Park & Gardens News from Birdland

trachycarpus said:
1/The Toucan House contains no toucans -all were lost in the cold spell.
At last visit at least 2 pairs of red billed toucan on display?


Never had 2 pairs of Red Billed Toucan, the single male passed away with heart problems early this year


2/All storks and cranes were in singltons ,a number were displaying to
other species of stork.Only the marabou storks were paired.


White Storks & White Naped Cranes also paired up, male Stanley Crane was lined up but fell through


3/There was only one cassowary who was very arthritiic and could
hardly walk.A very sad sight.The other was again lost in the cold spell.


Female Cassowary died in April, unrelated to cold. In discussion for a new pair from the Continent


4/The desert house had at least three planes of glass missing and it
appeared that a number of the bee-eaters had escaped.


Lost one female June 2010 (egg bound) but otherwise 4 Bee-Eaters present as always


6/At least four flamingoes had been lost in the cold spell.


Last Flamingo (a Chilean) died in 2009, Greater numbers have increased with 4 hatchings in the last 2 years


7/On a more positive note 2 pairs of ground hornbills were present with
a new breeding male -inhabiting a cage shoe-horned between the
existing cages.


The new male is a Northern so not been paired with the female Southern, plans still in pipeline for new Ground Hornbill exhibit


8/A very large chalet type building for refreshments on the lawn between
the wader aviary and hornbills slightly over powered the area.A new
vulture aviary has just been started near-by.


This is the new Encounter Zone where Meet a Keeper talks and Reptile Awareness is now held, hoping to expand this into Flying Displays


.
Click to expand...

Although it was one of the harshest winters in a long time, few birds were lost and no aviaries sustained any damage
 
In exchange for the 9 Chilean flamingo recently sent to Colchester , Birdland have received 9 Caribbean flamingo to add to their flock of 6 . The new arrivals were previously part of Raymond Sawyer's collection .

A tawny frogmouth is being hand-reared .
 
New arrivals:

1.0 Brown Breasted Barbet from Chester
1.0 Red Billed Blue Pie
1.1 Von Der Deckens Hornbill
0.1 Orange Headed Ground Thrush from Chester (new species, a male is expected at a later date)
0.1 Western Grey Plantain Eater from a private breeder. Another new species
 
Recent arrivals include female Marabou, male Burrowing Owl & unsexed Blacksmith Plover, all from Birdworld. Also arrived from private breeders female Luzon Bleeding Heart & male Siamese Fireback Pheasant
 
New arrivals from Paignton today:

1.0 Madagascar Teal
0.0.2 Pied Imperial Pigeons
1.0 Orange Headed Ground Thrush
1.1 Black Breasted Thrush
 
A pair of Western Grey Plantain Eaters have arrived from a private breeder

In other news some damage was sustained during the storm with flooding leading to several of the large poplar trees uprooting including one landing on the gift shop, one falling through the Marabou paddock and one through the Macaw pen by the gift shop. All birds and staff safe and well and the park was back open within 3 days
 
Recent new arrivals include a pair of Humboldts from Zlin (CZ), a male Nicobar from Avifauna & an Orange Headed Ground Thrush from Cotswold
 
The following article on King Penguins in the winter EAZA newsletter is very interesting:

http://www.eaza.net/News/EAZA_Magazine/EAZA NEWS Magazine/ZQ84.pdf

In terms of the group at Birdland, does anyone know what their status is in the context of the current ESB strategy? From the article, it seems those identified by the ESB as 'core' collections will see new individuals arrive in order to maximise capacity and to maintain even sex ratios, using individuals (presumably females) from those collections not considered 'core' holdings, which will then only hold bachelor groups to absorb the skew towards males in the population (as Edinburgh has done).

Is anyone able to answer the following:

- Do Birdland cooperate with the ESB? (Its possible that owners of a private collection may not want to give up their remaining female penguins)

- Have they been identified as a 'core' collection within the ESB? The article mentions each core site will ideally be maintained with a minimum of 12 animals with a 1:1 ratio. Current information on the Birdland site states that there are only 3 females in the birdland group of 13, I'm not sure how many of these have bred/are of breeding age. It would seem likely that either more would arrive in due course from other EAZA holders as they convert to bachelor groups unless the majority of the remaining Birdland females are not deemed viable.

- If not a 'core' collection, is there now an expectation by the ESB that Birdland will convert to a bachelor group and send its remaining females elsewhere as Edinburgh have done?

Also, I noticed that Birdland resigned their membership of BIAZA last year. Was this connected to the sale, or for some other reason?
 
Last edited:
Bloody good news - fingers crossed both thrive.
 
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