FEATURE
aviary and break their necks. I have kept these birds almost constantly for thirty- five years and they have proved a successful part of my collection. I have never ventured into the many colour mutations that are popular with some aviculturalists because I believe that the wild coloured
natural birds are far superior in looks to
any of the mutations. When young Pennant’s leave the nest box they have a considerable amount of green in their plumage which allows a degree of
camouflage for them whilst they are learning to fly, the green only moults out when they moult into adult plumage when they are eighteen months old, the orange beak colouration changes much quicker and within two months of leaving the nest they show the typical adult colouration in this area. Over the past year I have kept a new pair, these are birds that I obtained from the wife of the man who built my bird room and she had two years with them and bred youngsters both years. The hen is closed rung and was born in 2009 but as the cock is not rung I am not sure of his age but would guess that it is similar to the hen. After I had purchased them in September 2014 and they had completed their quarantine period I placed them in an outside aviary where they have stayed for the last year, producing 5 fit healthy youngsters, the last of which only left the nest box on 2nd August, the images in this article (excluding the picture on this page and page 26) were taken on the evening of 16th August. To get my birds fit for the breeding season during the winter months when
BIRD SCENE 19
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