FEATURE


fairly confident that she was OK, certainly the amount of food that was being taken indicated that both birds were eating. I guessed when the first egg was laid and assumed a clutch of four eggs which would have taken eight days to lay then added twenty-one days for incubation plus an additional fourteen days so that when I finally looked the babies should be two weeks old or dead if the outcome was not positive. So after forty-three days I looked to see the result of the pairs labours; because there was continued strong interest in the box and the egg food was being taken in increasing amounts I was fairly confident that there


were young alive. When I looked I was delighted to find five babies well past the seven day old stage. The five young Pennant’s Rosellas grew quickly and feathered up very well, looking at them I think there are four cocks and one hen. I am fairly good at sexing young Pennant’s, something that has come through years of experience with these delightful birds so I will save my money and not use DNA testing on this particular species. The hens are just as brightly coloured as the cocks but noticeably slighter in the beak area the cock’s upper mandible being much broader and the head of the cock is as a rule is considerably large. My other


BIRD SCENE 23


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