hot weather the lift off top really comes into its own, I remove it in the morning and replace it in the evening, I have never had a pair of birds leave their young as a result of this action. They seem to appreciate my intervention knowing that my actions are helping to save their growing family. Although feather plucking of babies by their parents is rarely a trait seen in Australian Kings it is worth mentioning here that if you experience this problem I have found that by removing the lid from the nest box during the day it reduces the amount of feather plucking that occurs. I suspect that this is because the adult birds do


08 BIRD SCENE


not spend so much time in a box which allows light to enter, but I might be wrong with this assumption! It is however a trick worth utilising as badly plucked youngsters are horrible and it takes them a long time to get over this experience. So the moral to the story (or at least this part of it) is to ensure that your nest boxes have a top that can be easily removed. Unlike some of the Rosella family


where rather aggressive cocks can attack and bully their wives I find that Australian Kings seem to be well adjusted adults and there are rarely problems with


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