Help with Babies in planted colony

[Leonida93]

Hi everyone,

I'm Nico from Italy. I have 8 roseicollis in a 14 m2 outdoor aviary with plants and small trees. I have moved my parrots in this large aviary a few years ago and I find it incredible to be able to see them interacting with the natural world and to face the different seasons and weathers.

This year I have decided to place nests. One pair (the dominant one) gave me 3 beautiful babies that are now 35-40 days. They are still in the nest and are very well looked after by their parents and I think they are about to leave the nest. I was only wondering: are the other birds going to accept them? They are all peaceful, one of the other birds goes to feed them as well. Only one bird seems a little bit more aggressive. When the parents are out eating, he goes on the nest with the babies and has a look inside, a few times I saw him being slightly aggressive towards them but he never attacked them even when he had the chance. I'm afraid something could happen to them but I also think that they would have a lot of room to escape and plants to hide. In the past they have accepted the new adult birds without problems but I have never had experience with baby lovebirds.

I thought about removing one of them but since the colony has a perfect balance I would not want to ruin it.

What do you think I should do? Any experience with new born lovebirds in large aviaries?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

 

[expressmailtome]

Welcome! That sounds like a very impressive aviary. Roseicollis can be territorial birds. I am assuming that your eight birds consist of four bonded pairs. Is the whole aviary already "claimed" by these pairs? I know that in smaller aviaries the parents will eventually try to chase their offspring away so that they can have their next clutch, but to be honest I have never heard of someone breeding so few roseicollis in such a large aviary.

 

[Zara]

Will you allow these birds to breed in the future? I would look into banding them so you know which birds are siblings and who the parents are.

I would definitely keep an eye on the little ones to be sure they fit in well with the rest of the flock. My friend has a large aviary and bred her lovebirds in there. Most integrated without a hitch, but I know there was one case later on where the flock rejected one bird. They chased him down and killed him.

 

[Gigibirds]

Welcome to the avenue, Nico! I also have an aviary of lovebirds (roseicollis)! In my experience, the babies have always been accepted. You have a large aviary, and there is enough space for your birds.
I have experience with baby birds born in an aviary (and I also know more people who have) and in my experience they have always been accepted into the flock with no problems. A few people I know, however, have had a couple of babies that were not accepted, and they were bullied by the adults. However, I have only heard of this happening a couple of times, so I would bet that you will be fine. Good luck!

 

[fluffypoptarts]

You need to be careful. Don’t give this more aggressive bird the chance to escalate with fragile baby birds. Take Zara’s words to heart.

 

[Leonida93]

So this is the aviary. From the pictures everything looks smaller but it is 14 m2. As you can see from one picture the new born ( the yellow one) looks outside the nest. No the pairs were not bonded. I have collected badly kept birds over the past few years with the idea of giving them a second chance in a beautiful space. I'm not interested in breeding again. I just wanted to do it once to have this beautiful experience but from now on they will just enjoy their life in the wild. The reason why I am not planning to have more birds is because otherwise they would destroy the plants. With this number I can manage to keep the plants in a good shape. My idea was to wait until the babies come out to see the reaction of the others that as I said before have always welcomed the new birds without big complications. My only concern is that they would kill them immediately and I wouldn't have the time to act. In case I see things go bad should I remove only the aggressive ones or maybe I should move the babies and try to put them back in again once the grow a little..?

Another question is once they leave the nests should I move all the other nests immediately or maybe I better wait a few days? I have heard they still go back to their nest after the leave it for the first time. Today I have noticed that the mother is going around nests almost as if she is going to lay eggs again (which of course I dont want).

Thank you all in advance for your great help!

 

[Leonida93]

Welcome to the avenue, Nico! I also have an aviary of lovebirds (roseicollis)! In my experience, the babies have always been accepted. You have a large aviary, and there is enough space for your birds.
I have experience with baby birds born in an aviary (and I also know more people who have) and in my experience they have always been accepted into the flock with no problems. A few people I know, however, have had a couple of babies that were not accepted, and they were bullied by the adults. However, I have only heard of this happening a couple of times, so I would bet that you will be fine. Good luck!

Thank you very much! Your words make me feel better since you have had experiences similar to mine. When should nests be removed after the babies fly out for the first time? I would like to do it as soon as possible since the mother is already going around nests looking for a new nest and I would like to avoid other babies at the moment.

 

[Zara]

That´s a very beautiful aviary!

You have multiple nests? Maybe remove the others, just leave the one up with the chicks inside?
I´m not much help I´m afraid, but I hope all goes smoothly and the youngsters integrate well into the flock

I´m curious how you clean the aviary floor?

 

[Leonida93]

That´s a very beautiful aviary!

You have multiple nests? Maybe remove the others, just leave the one up with the chicks inside?
I´m not much help I´m afraid, but I hope all goes smoothly and the youngsters integrate well into the flock

I´m curious how you clean the aviary floor?

Thank you very much. Truth is I clean the bottom of the aviary very rarely. Since it is very large and there aren't many birds inside it never gets very dirty. Everything follows a very natural process. Drops are absorbed by the soil and insects and ants eat the seeds and pieces of fruits that drop. I clean the soil rarely and only remove the weeds. I have had parrotts in cages and in smaller indoor aviaries before but I can definitely say that the way they behave in a natural environment is just incredible, I could watch them for hours. Their senses are constantly triggered by sounds, other small animals (lizards for example), butterflies, rain, wind, etc.

Regarding the nests I'm afraid that if I move the other ones (some are occupied by other parrotts) then they would all try to get into the only one left...

 

[Gigibirds]

Wow, your aviary is absolutely gorgeous! As are your birds!!

When should nests be removed after the babies fly out for the first time?

Well, to be honest, I don't really know! My most recent babies are maybe 5 months old, and I still have their nest box in the aviary. They are two siblings who live with their mother (we lost the father) in a 'private' aviary, and I never got rid of their nest box. The problem was that they still slept in it every night, so I wasn't sure if they were ready to leave it or not! So what I did is this: When they were only eating solid food, and they weren't being fed by the parents anymore, I took the lid off the nesting box. That way, they can still sleep in it and go there to feel safe, but the mom doesn't want to have more babies there (because it isn't dark and cozy in the same way).
So if your lovebird babies start sleeping on a perch outside of the nesting box, then you can definitely take it out. But for now, just remove all the others that don't have babies in them. If your lovebirds keep on sleeping in the nest box like mine, then I would recommend that you just take off the lid when they stop depending on their parents for food. But they should be ready to have the box removed by the time they are 3 months old (they are supposed to wean at 2 months old, but sometimes they are a but slow).

Good luck with your birds! I love your aviary - it is so beautiful!