Animal Diaries Archive

Birds enjoying a rest

4 February 2005

Hello again. Well, now that the busy Christmas period has come to an end, all the birds that have had plenty of work in the last six weeks are really enjoying the quieter times to close their wings up for a well earned rest.

It is also great that it has cooled down a fraction this week which will help the birds recover from their work. In saying this though, they still love getting out for their daily flights and doing the daily presentation to Zoo patrons. You can see in this weeks photo, Tok sitting atop one of the Crocoseum perches enjoying some time to himself.

Now, whilst the older birds are resting, the younger ones like the two Red-collared Lorikeet chicks, Cookie and Grover, are still powering along in their development. Both of these little critters have now reached their peak weight at just over 130 grams and have started to lose a few pounds so they can fly. This is a process that all chicks go through to lose their "baby fat" so to speak, so they can take to the air for their first flight.

Roudy, the oldest of the Lorikeets, has had most of his wing feathers repaired now and he too is learning just what it is like to be a bird and fly. Djagarna, the Jabiru is another one enjoying a well earned rest and is slowly starting to lose the fluff that covers the head and neck, and is getting tiny little brown feathers in these locations. It is still going to be some time before we are able to tell whether we should paint Djagarna's aviary blue or pink!