News Highlights

Abstract

2013 was a record breaking year at Al Wabra, seeing the most birds-of-paradise bred in its history.

Our first chicks of the year were three Marabou storks (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) that hatched at the end January, joining two chicks being reared by a neighboring pair which hatched in late in 2012, giving us five young birds bred over the winter.

The Red Birds-of-Paradise (Paradisaea rubra) started the year for the New Guinea passerines, laying 2 clutches of 2 fertile eggs at the beginning and end of March, all of which were pulled and successfully hand-reared. The same female laid fertile eggs again in June which were again pulled and handreared, as she failed to rear chicks left with her in May. Two Aru Island Greater Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea apoda apoda) were hand-reared to independence, one in April and a second in May, both from different parents, giving hope for more breeding of the species in 2014. The Lesser Birds-of-Paradise (Paradisaea minor) unfortunately only laid one fertile which we are successfully rearing in our nursery also in May. With the maturing of a young male Mainland Greater Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea apoda novaeguineae), bred at Al Wabra, November saw two chicks hand-reared from two different females. We had to wait until August to see results from our King Birds-ofParadise (Cicinnurus regius) when two chicks were reared. This result was doubled in December when two more Kings hatched and fledged just before the New Year. These final two Kings brought the 2013 total to five species and 15 individuals reared to independence.

The spring saw more success from our red birds, but this time they were the Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) with 15 chicks hatching in one of our large flights, three more in our visitor aviary and at least ten reared by our free-flying group who nested in a cluster of large palm trees near our largest en closured population.

After a number of infertile eggs, the Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse (Pterocles exustus) got it right and hatched two very cryptic little chicks, which were extremely hard to spot for the first few weeks against their sandy substrate, but once they lost their down they quickly became just has hard to distinguish from the adult birds.

The blue macaws started their account of 2013 with four Spix's Macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) hatching in mid May which were joined by three more as we moved from June into July. This equaled the 2006 record when 7 chicks were also successfully reared. But one of the other most important firsts of last year came from the spix, as not only one but two of the eggs that produced chicks were fertilized by artificial insemination. This was possible because of a combined effort with the Parrot Reproduction team, who we will continue to work with over the coming years to help secure the future of this beautiful species. We did set ourselves a new record with Lear's Macaws (Anodorhynchus leari) though, combining hand rearing and parent rearing to reach 8 chicks.

After success with parrot species laid solely with our breeding pair of critically endangered Blue-throated Macaws (Ara glaucogularis) who parent reared two chicks in the late summer. Though encouraging behaviour was made by the Golden Conures (Guaruba guarouba), Blue-headed Macaw (Primolius couloni) and Pesquet's Parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus) which will receive increased efforts in 2014.

In early 2013 we saw some nest building behaviour from our newly socialized Shoebills (Balaeniceps rex). Then after a summer apart, the pair was reintroduced with a new wetland extension to one of their enclosures, and the pair instantly started to show signs of breeding, displaying and starting to build at nest on the platform place in their wetland. At the end of November they laid their first egg, another exciting first for Al Wabra and a rare occurrence for this species in captivity. This was followed closely by a second egg, and the pair incubated extremely well but it wasn't to be, and toward the end of December their eggs were candled and were infertile. Fingers are firmly crossed for success with this species and many others in 2014.

 

PDF