For the first ten days the parents were almost totally insectivorous, and although the softbill food and fruit was still provided fresh once a day, the pair was fed up to eight times a day with live food.


four eggs hatching over the following days, thus giving an incubation time of 12 days. Subsequent nests have also given a 12 day incubation. For the first ten days the parents were almost totally insectivorous, and although the softbill food and fruit was still provided fresh once a day, the pair was fed up to eight times a day with live food. Each feed consisted of 10-15 wax worms, 30-35 small crickets and a few soft white mealworms. After a few days my mealworms started to pupate and so a lot of soft pupae were fed, these have the added bonus of not escaping from the flight. The live food was first cooled in the fridge or deep freeze before being thrown into the outdoor flight area where the parents would quickly hunt them


8 BIRD SCENE


down. After about ten days the parents started feeding soft food to the chicks. At twelve days old the chicks were covered in pin feathers and could be sexed. The first chick fledged on the 3rd August, with the other three following the next day. The chicks were duller editions of the parents except for a black throat patch in both sexes. The young and parents would return to the nest each evening to roost. Red and Yellows are usually the first birds to roost each evening in my collection, but they are also the first up in the morning, and they can be quite loud when both birds and young join in the chorus, whistling, “red and yellow, red and yellow, red and yellow”. On the 7th August three days after fledging, the chicks were seen to join


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