The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog: ROSY BOURKE PARAKEET BABIES, December 2, 2011

Rosie had four eggs. Three hatched, but
only these two survived. White circle
around babies are their own droppings.

Rosie and Pretty Boy's two youngsters are banded. She lost one baby for some reason. It was the only one we lost this year and survived for just a day.

Fuchsia is covering four babies and an egg.
Dark area in corner are her own droppings.

Fuchsia and Flame have four babies in the nest, newly hatched.

One egg remains. The third in this clutch has pink eyes, smile.

Photo by Joyce Sunseri

I find it interesting how various birds of the same variety behave in different ways. In my countless Bourke pairs, I've only had one male who made a habit of venturing into the nestbox wtih his mate. All the others remained outside once she took up residency. They'd feed her either at the entrance, or when she came out, but they didn't venture inside.

This photo was sent from a reader of this blog. Obviously, her pair share the box. Aren't they sweet? This clutch is from October. Thank you for sending us photos, Joyce.

Below are photos of babies waiting to be sold. Our local pet shop will take some, but not all of them. I've reduced the price to $50 each. Some are hand fed ... all are used to human activities going on around them. Most males and females can be identified by their behavior. Also, males tend to have lighter colored faces than the hens. All are sweet-natured.

Five or six birds in one cage are too many. An aviary is better.
However, these youngsters are housed here only temporarily.

The young birds in this cage regularly come out and fly around the
living room and kitchen. They are very tame youngsters that let
me return them to their home cage when I want them to go back in.