I prefer to parent raise, but had to rescue a couple of turaco eggs and incubate them. This is a White Cheek Turaco hatching a couple of days ago.
Oregon is cool and wet in spring, and it has been a rainy couple of weeks. Not a pretty video, but I love to see the acrobatics of the mousebirds as they twirl on one foot, sometimes just one toe. These are some of our Speckled Mousebirds.
BTW, mousebirds do not hang like bats, which hang head down. This is commonly stated, although it is incorrect. Mousebirds hang tail down.
We love mixed species aviaries. Finches, such as this Orange Breasted Waxbill, mix really well with turacos.
The most common activity for the Black Chin Fruit Doves - did you see it, she blinked! :)
These beautiful doves spend most of their time sitting still in their favorite spots, not wanting to even move until I approach a couple of feet away. Very calm birds.
Yeah, first chicks of the season fledged earlier this week: two Blue Grey Tanagers. Love spring!
Have turacos nesting and a pair of Silver Beak Tanagers on eggs.
Bonded pair of talkative White Cheek Turacos greet me at feeding time. Love their squeaks!
A late afternoon chorus of turacos. I love it!
Unfortunately, calls can be very loud and not all neighbors appreciate the sound. One of the main reasons we moved from a residential neighborhood to the country many years ago.
Yesterday, they were ready - and today, they're out!
In the video, one chick is in the tree towards the top, one is still on the ground, and the parents are nearby watching.
Morning exercise! Turacos are strong and love to bounce from one perch to another.
A male Black Chin Fruit Dove and others wait for me as I make my feeding rounds through some flights.
A very ticked off Violet Turaco (Sasha) on her nest during a nest check. She will not move off of her eggs, and will growl, hiss, and bite. The male (Zulu) will often attack me from behind too. I don't do nest checks very often!
Every year for the past 10 or so yrs, this pair lays clutches of eggs throughout the breeding season. They incubate like champs, however the eggs are always clear. I suspect my male is infertile.
However, I occasionally have them foster other turaco species, and they make excellent parents. Last season, they raised a couple of White Cheeks and a Red Crest.
More curious turacos (Lady Ross). Both of these guys are over 20 yrs old now.
Turacos are always curious when I pull the phone out and point it at them. Sly, one of our handraised White Cheek Turacos, investigates.
This week our handraised White Cheek and Red Crest turaco chicks moved from the house to the juvenile aviary where they learn to fly, run, and be turacos. They are still in their "ugly" phase, but you can start to see the colors coming in.
Some young handraised turacos in a small cage set up where they can learn to perch and be active. They are all close banded and totally weaned by this time.
In a few days they will have feathering enough for me to pluck a few to send in for DNA sexing. Turacos are monomorphic (no visual differences between sexes) so all my birds are DNA sexed.
Two freshly hatched White Cheek Turacos this week. I use alfalfa hay to give them something good to grip onto as turaco chicks can splay leg easily. Turaco chicks are quite active, bright-eyed, and start begging for food, even before dry. No food for the first 15-24 hrs though as they absorb the residual yolk sac nutrition.
It has been constant rain, rain, snow, rain, rain, etc. for the past couple of weeks now. Cloudy, but dry, this morning, so the birds took advantage and did some "sunning".
Currently handfeeding a White Cheek Turaco (trying to hold my phone to video while feeding was tough as I usually hold the cup steady while feeding). Healthy turaco chicks are strong, feisty eaters. They are born semi-altricial; wide eyed, downy feathered, but dependent on parents for food and warmth. At the time of this video, the chick was about 7 days old. He is now almost 13 days old and doing great.
We like to parent raise our chicks, but this was an emergency rescue situation as the parents hatch two chicks at the height of the cold temps a couple of weeks ago. One chick froze after hatching so I pulled the last one.
Sunny yesterday but still cold. Went down to 21 degrees F. in the night. All the birds took advantage of the sun. This is a family of Red Crest Turacos, parents and two male offspring from last summer.
One of the things that I hate about having aviaries in Oregon is how everything becomes so brown and ugly in the flights during the winter. It won't green up until spring. I envy the FL aviculturists that have green aviaries all year round! :)
