Birdland arrivals and C4's Easter Eggs Live
Celebrating an early Easter arrival at Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water - a pair of Black-necked swans has hatched a chick.
Native to South America, the pretty pair of swans arrived in late 2010 from a private breeder and quickly settled in to their new home at Birdland.
The beautiful fluffy cygnet can be admired swimming around the pond with mum and dad always in close attendance; and if the cygnet ever gets too tired, can be seen hitching a ride on one of its parents’ backs.
Staff at Birdland are immensely excited by the new arrival and are avidly watching its development – where it will be two years before its striking black neck develops.
Eggs under Watch
The Birdland team is also monitoring 2 Humboldt Penguin eggs as they are due to hatch over the next few weeks and hoping for an Easter arrival.
Channel 4 have a special web cam hoping to catch the arrival of a Humboldt penguin as part of their Easter Eggs Live event. Click here for a peek. Its compelling viewing.
Emerald Doves, Blacksmith Plovers and Bartletts Bleeding Heart Pigeons are also all sitting on eggs and the Bird-keeping team are helping to create nesting environments to encourage more breeding behavior.
Easter Holiday Fun – 23 March – 16 April
Birdland is proud of its captive breeding programmes. This Easter, discover the different breeding strategies animals have adopted to survive in the avian world and meet some of our new arrivals in the Birdland Nursery.
At the indoor Discovery Zone, you can meet animals that lay eggs from fish to amphibians and reptiles to mammals. Don’t miss the special incubators where you can watch eggs hatching and see chicks take their first steps.
There’s also a fantastic Easter Quiz trail around the 9 acres of Park and Gardens.
Daily Talks & Feeding Displays for Easter will include: Flamingo’s at 11.30, Meet the Keeper and enjoy some Close Encounters with some hand’s on fun at 12.15, Penguin Feeding is at 2.30pm followed by the Pelicans at 3.15pm.
Egg-tastic Facts that you may discover on a visit this Easter:
- 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 8 eggs which they will incubate and hope that their dull coloured plummage will help camouflage them
- Pigeons build a flimsy nest on a platform of twigs and lay 2 eggs.
- Parrots will find holes in trees in which to nest.
- Female Cassowaries are possibly one of the laziest of bird mothers, she will 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. She will leave a narrow gap through which the male can feed her for the following three months whilst she lays eggs, incubates them and hatches the chicks. Once the chicks are full size they will then break out.
Explore Gloucestershire
26 April 2013
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