Birdland to celebrate hens, pens and heroines for Mother's Day
Keepers at Bourton-on-the-Water’s Birdland are paying tribute to some of the avian world finest feathered females as part of its Mother’s Day weekend. (Saturday, March 10th – Sunday, March 11th).
This is the time of year the hens are starting to lay and sit on eggs and their progress is closely monitored by the bird-keeping team.
Among those already laying are the roul roul partridge, emus and the Humboldt penguins.
Head Keeper, Alistair Keen, said: “We had our first penguin eggs laid at the end of February and we’re now seeing a number of the birds pairing up and preparing their nests.”
Over the weekend, the talks programme will highlight some of Birdland’s hard-working mums, providing a fascinating insight into about how different bird species looks after their young.
In some cases, like the king penguins, the parents share incubation of their single egg - taking it in turns to keep the egg warm on top of their feet - while in others it’s actually the male who ends up doing most of the hard work when it comes to looking after the babies.
Amazing Bird Mum Facts:
- Burrowing owls burrow underground where several eggs will be laid, away from prying eyes.
- The flamingos build a nest cone of mud up to a foot high to protect their single egg from flooding.
- Female pheasants make a scrape on the floor and lay up to eight eggs which they will incubate and hope that their dull coloured plumage will help camouflage them.
- Pigeons build a flimsy nest on a platform of twigs and lay two eggs.
- Parrots will find holes in trees in which to nest.
- Female cassowaries are among the laziest of bird mothers, they lay eggs in the nests of several males then leave them to incubate and rear the young.
- Possibly the most committed mother is the female trumpeter hornbill, she will seal herself into a cavity in a tree (or a nest box at Birdland) using mud, droppings and saliva whilst she lays her eggs. Once the chicks are full size they will then break out.
Explore Gloucestershire
2 March 2018
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