Bourke Parakeet Banding

I have many other photos and information about banding. Enter "banding" in the Search window if you want more specifics on banding baby birds.

Mineral oil helps slide the bands on, and a sharp toothpick helps pull the last toe through.

Fuchsia's youngest baby is banded. Silver aluminum band
identifies breeder as EGL, with the state OR,
also hatch year and sequential number.
Colored band identifies parentage.

Look at how fat this baby's crop is! Looks like
it could pop apart. Fuchsia makes sure her
youngsters never go hungry.

Today's Bourke Update:

1) Fuchsia hatched all five eggs, however, her pink-eyed baby died after a few days. She now has four healthy Rosy babies, all with dark eyes.

2) Cherry hatched four of five eggs and two babies had pink eyes. One died a day later, the other lived ten days before dying. She has two healthy Rosy babies left, both with dark eyes.

3) Rosie hatched two of four eggs. Both babies have dark eyes and are doing well.
Currently, we have eight (8) healthy baby Rosy Bourke parakeets. All are banded.

Observation:

As a reader previously noted, when a bird's intestinal area is dark it seems to indicate a physical defect. All these pink-eyed babies had dark stomach areas and none of the three survived. Last year, although we lost a few with pink eyes, we also had several who survived and are beautiful and healthy. Their stomachs were not dark...a genetic problem more likely to affect the babies with pink eyes, but thankfully not every time.

Peace & Blessings.