NEWS & VIEWS



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Photo Alison Hales



Widowed Superb Starling feeding one of her two young.



Recurvirostra avosetta , four Violet Turacos Musophaga violacea, three Red-

crested Turacos Tauraco erythrolophus, four Von der Decken’s Hombills

Tockus deckeni , six Speckled Mousebirds Colius striatus , five Red-billed

Choughs Pyrrhocoraxpyrrhocorax , at least 12 Gouldian Finches Chloebia

gouldiae and six Spice Birds Lonchura punctulata.


Two pairs of Superb Starlings Lamprotornis superbus produced seven

young between them. Sadly the male of one pair died unexpectedly, leaving

the female with two chicks close to fledging. The female did well caring for

them, bringing food in response to their begging calls. Their favourite food

was waxworms. A pair of Bali Starlings Leucopsar rothschildi produced

two clutches of infertile eggs before hatching a single chick from the three

eggs of the third clutch.


Three members of staff did a sponsored parachute jump to raise funds for

a proposed new penguin enclosure and the Free Flying Bird Show has now

raised over £50,000 (approx. US$100,000) for the World Parrot Trust (WPT)

and, as Curator David Woolcock said, “that is an awful lot of collecting that

the cockatoos have done in the last eight years.”



