BOURKE PARAKEET BABIES AS THEY GROW, a Rosy, Lutino, Rubino & a Normal

Peaches and Storm's first clutch. She laid five eggs and hatched them all, but one red-eyed youngster disappeared within the first few days. The other four thrived. See them completely grown up at the end of this video.

Peaches is an Opaline Fallow Rosy hen out of Rosie and Pretty Boy, both Rosy Bourkes with dark eyes. Storm is a Normal Bourke. His father is a Lutino (yellow) and his mother is a Rosy. They produced a very diverse, beautiful clutch!

Peace & Blessings!

 

 

Bourke Parakeet Babies, Four Different Colors in Same Clutch

Had a request for updated photos of our recent baby Bourkes. We were preparing for my husband's surgery last Monday, hours away from home. Everything is going fine, but he will have at least six weeks before adequately recovering. Being a caregiver takes time and energy away from other endeavors.

The Lutino hen before her feathers were all in.

Sweet little Rubino, my favorite actually.

It's been quiet among most of the birds. Only one pair is currently producing. All others are on vacation until next year. Peaches and Stormy had their very first clutch later than everyone else.

Rubino in front, a Normal, Lutino and Rosy.

This beautiful mixed clutch is a thrill to get. Stormy is a Normal Bourke male who is split. His father is a Lutino and his mother is a Rosy. A grandparent must be a Normal, since he is. Peaches is out of our Rosie and Pretty Boy, both are Rosy Bourkes. Peaches, the mother of this clutch, is an opaline fallow with red eyes.

We're getting feathers here and very alert.

Only one young pair, Peaches and Stormy, have a nest box. All others had their three clutches in Spring and Summer, so will wait until next year.

We're growing up! Dad at door, Mom in center.

Mom in center, standing. Only 3 babies showing, but there are 4.

Here we are at six weeks, fledged and weaned already.
Rubino in front, Lutino and Normal. Rosy below.
Photo taken October 24, 2015.


PEACE & BLESSINGS TO ALL!

 

ROSY BOURKE PARAKEETS, SOME NEWLY HATCHED BEING FED

No Baby Bourke Peeps Yet

Bourke Parakeet, Peaches, is about to become a mother.
She is an opaline fallow hen with red eyes and very sweet.

I was able to candle two of Peaches' eggs. They are fertile. Since this is her first clutch she's very protective. I candled those two while she was briefly outside the nest box. When she hurriedly returned, I didn't get to inspect the remaining eggs as I didn't want to upset her.

 

I've had experienced hens that were not hand fed or hand tamed who allowed me to move them aside to see their eggs or babies without incident. They trusted me.

 

Peaches is hand fed and very tame. However, she will scold and peck at me if I simply place a finger on the edge of the door to her nest box. She's determined to protect her first clutch.

 

I looked in her box again this evening and don't see any egg shells. That's a definite indication that an egg has hatched. No hatches yet. Although, she did move a bit when she turned to scold me and at least one egg is dark and looks like it's on the verge of hatching. Perhaps tomorrow. Her first egg is 21 days old today. Our weather has been cool some days and that can delay hatching, which is usually 18 to 21 days for Bourkes.

Our male Bourke, Storm, is of Normal coloration, so we may end up
with a diverse clutch like this one from another pair a while back.

Since she and the male are inexperienced, it's possible that the first couple of eggs won't be fertile and only the later three will be. The first two were laid several days earlier than the others, which leads me to consider that possibility.

 

May all your birds stay healthy and happy,

Rosie (who also writes as Zara Heritage on Amazon.com.

My novel, Cast Me Not Away, is available as an eBook or in Print). 

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013O0VB6E

 

 



Peace and Blessings.

Bourke Parakeet, Red-Eyed Opaline Fallow Hen on Eggs



Peaches on five eggs, first is due to hatch Labor Day.

Here is the only hen we still have producing. All others had their three clutches for the year. This will be Peaches' first clutch ever. She's two years old, but her mate, Stormy, was only hatched last January. He is feeding her regularly and even going into the box with her already. Most of my male Bourkes wait until the babies are two or more weeks old before they venture into the nest box with their mates and offspring.

 

Because of Stormy's youth, we will watch closely any babies that hatch. There is also the possibility that the eggs won't be fertile, but we witnessed several matings that looked successful to us. We are optimistic. So far, an opportunity to candle the eggs has not occurred. Since it's her first clutch, I'm leaving her alone more than I might otherwise.

 

We will let you know the outcome in a week or two.

As you can see, she changes position while on eggs.

Peaches' mate, a Normal Bourke we named Storm.
His father is a Lutino, so we hope to get interesting babies.

PEACE AND BLESSINGS!

 



Bourke Parakeet Baby Update

The last clutches of baby Bourkes from this summer have all gone to their new homes ... all 14 of them. Earlier clutches from these two and others were sold and gone before these babies arrived.

 

Rosie and Pretty Boy's 3rd Clutch of 2015

 



The same clutch from above, now out of the nest
and ready to sell to other bird lovers.



These four are from Fuchsia and Flame's 3rd Clutch.

Here are Fuchsia and Flame's four, all out of the nest
 and able to go to new homes. Miss them already.

 

One little lady, Peaches, is two years old and on her first clutch ever. She is a pretty Pink Opaline Fallow, red-eyed hen. Her mate, Stormy, is a Normal whose father was a Lutino (yellow and pink). If her eggs are fertile and hatch, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

 

I bought Stormy a few months ago and he only hatched last January. He's very young to be a father. If their mating was successful and the eggs hatch, I will watch very closely to be sure all the babies are adequately fed. Sometimes young fathers aren't very good at it ... yet, he's feeding his mate and that's a good sign. If necessary, I'll help with feeding the new hatchlings.

Will keep you updated on this late-in-the-year clutch.

May all your birds thrive.
Peace and Blessings.

 

 

My Novel, CAST ME NOT AWAY, is Now Available

Link to Amazon:  CAST ME NOT AWAY

Historic Facts: In 1939 a secret program, Aktion T4, was instigated by the Nazi’s designed to rid Germany of all children deemed unworthy of life. Later, it expanded to include mentally or physically handicapped adults. It is estimated that over 275,000 died under this edict and it set the stage for the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, Catholics and other enemies of the state.

Through it, the Nazi’s determined that death by gas chamber was more efficient and less costly than lethal injection. Hitler’s Nazi Party was horrible and cruel to millions ...

but let us not forget that it first began with the children ...

 

SYNOPSIS of CAST ME NOT AWAY:  Fast forward to a time and place where the future meets the past, and the abortion/euthanasia movement reaches its inevitable conclusion. Family size is strictly regulated everywhere, not just in China. The unborn are routinely aborted and unwanted children are labeled as useless, and sent away to be gassed and their bodies incinerated.

In this time of darkness, Mira Hastings and Grayson Stevens join a cadre of other brave individuals who stand against this mountain of evil by putting their lives on the line to rescue ill-fated children from certain death. In a bold attempt to bring down the beast, they publicly expose the greed and corruption that drives the system. Declared enemies of the state, Mira and Gray are forced underground as they flee the wrath of a vengeful government. On the run they encounter danger at every turn. But, with the aid of a network of supporters, they also encounter hope, joy…and love.

God Bless our Children. There, but for the Grace of God, go we.

 

Peace & Blessings,

Zara (also Rosie)

For Zara Heritage Books Website, Click Here

 

 

 

Great Egrets and Double-crested Cormorants near Coos Bay, Oregon

Rosie Bird's most recent video. Love the southern Oregon coast.

Peace & Blessings!

Bourke Parakeet Babies, Parent and Hand Fed For Sale on Oregon's South Coast

 

HELLO ALL!

 

These lovely Rosy Bourke babies are for sale.
All are hand fed and banded.

I've been so busy with my novel, "Cast Me Not Away," that is to be published soon, that I've not been able to do my favorite past time: blogging here.

 

Another time consumer: I agreed to hand feed baby Bourkes for two people. When I do this, I don't normally ask for a deposit. Feeding baby Bourkes is an act of love, but time consuming and more expensive than with parent fed babies, so I should take a deposit.

I removed two of Fuchsia's offspring and two of Rosie's to hand feed. They are ready, but the buyers are not. As has happened before, one said, "Oh, I thought North Bend was near Bend." Bend is in Eastern Oregon far from the south coast of Oregon where I live, near Coos Bay. No matter how often I emphasize where I am, there are still mistakes. The other buyer had a family emergency. Does happen.

 

So, I have four pretty babies waiting for new homes. Also have some parent fed Bourkes that I'll let go for $75 each or the very tame, hand fed youngsters are $125 each. Also, have two adult bachelors, both red-eyed opaline fallow Rosies that I'll consider selling. Both were hand fed and very tame. Kept them for a Lutino hen, but she's now paired with a Normal brown fellow.

I cannot ship. It's too far to PDX. I will meet people south of us in Coquille or Bandon, Oregon, or north of us to Reedsport or possibly Florence. We will be making a trip to Eugene in August if I still have birds at that time. More are coming, but they will be parent fed. I band all birds with closed bands giving hatch number, year of hatch and our initials: EGL.

If interested, write to me at:  rosie.birds@gmail.com

Peace & Blessings!

 



BOURKE PARAKEET DIET AND OTHER ISSUES, A QUESTION

Recent Inquiry. Some emails result from Rosie Bird Videos, and possibly not from this blog.

Rosy Bourke hen and her chicks.

QUESTION:

Good morning,

Please can you answer a few questions for me? I have recently acquired a pair of Rosie's and have not been able to get more info on them:

What seed do the eat? They don't seem to eat the parakeet seed but are in the budgie seed.
What supplement, veggies or fruit can they have?
Can they be put together in a cage with show budgies?
Do they have to be separated from other birds to be able to breed?


Grit, oyster shell, white mineral block, cuttlebone,
nestling food and brown rabbit circular salt block .


ANSWER:

Bourkes  primarily eat budgie seed, but can eat finch seed and some things in cockatiel seed. They like vegetables. I give mine cooked corn, peas, green beans and carrots. Fresh broccoli and/or kale are both very good. Mine won't eat fruit ... a few will try apple, but not fond of it. They should always have at least cuttlebone available. Other good things are mineral block, oyster shell and rabbit salt blocks (for the vitamin D in them).

When breeding I give mine egg food (boiled egg, including shell and bread crumbs blended together).

Bourkes can be housed with other birds in an aviary of adequate size. Larger birds may harass them, however. If you have a mated pair, the males will usually chase one another, and hens will also chase the other hen (an exception might be siblings, but more often than not, they will still be aggressive to the competition). Housed in an aviary, always provide more nest boxes than you have pairs. A budgie or cockatiel box is fine. In a smaller cage, it's okay to put young birds together until mature during breeding season. Then there may be problems if both sexes are present. I've had no trouble housing just hens, or just males together. Mix the sexes, however, and there will be problems when there's plenty of daylight (or artificial light) to simulate breeding season.

Please go to my website and enter "breeding" into the Search box. Many early posts will come up on this topic. There's even one on egg food.  Here is a link to one of them:

 

http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/breeding-bourkes-splendids-or-other.html 

 

Lutino Bourke hen.

Peace and Blessings!

 

Bourke Parakeets: Determining Sex

Nest box being attached in February to begin new season
of breeding, egg laying and raising of young Bourkes.

QUESTION:
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 1:35 AM, David wrote:
Hi Rosie,
I’m trying to sex 2 bourkes. One is the wild type the other being a Rosie.
Hope you may be able to help.
Regards,
David
----------------------------

 

Baby Bourke at 9 days old, ready for banding with
Budgie sized bands. His feet are at maximum length.
Any bigger and he couldn't have been banded.

 

ANSWER:

On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 10:53 AM,
Rosie Bird wrote:

Hello David,

Wild types are easy once they are mature. Males have a tiny line of blue feathers over the cere (nostrils). Females don't have that. Males are also slightly brighter in pink and blue areas, with brighter turquoise in shoulders. However, this feature varies between birds. So, the blue line above their cere is the main determining factor.

 

Normal Bourke Parakeet. This is a male. His colors
are slightly brighter than the hen's. Male Bourkes of
the wild variety also have a tiny line of blue feathers
above the cere (nostrils). Difficult to see in this photo.

Normal Bourke hen and chicks.

 

As for Rosies, only their behavior will give them away, short of having them DNA'd. Once mature, males will often display in ways that hens do not. They also seem to sing more and occasionally wolf whistle.

When I'm going to sell young Rosies and am unsure of their sex, I've sometimes sent a tiny blood sample in for DNAing. It requires clipping a toenail slightly short, dabbing a smear of blood on a card, and then dipping the "injured" toe into corn starch to staunch any further bleeding. I resisted doing that for years, but once done, I realized how easy it was and didn't seem to hurt the little birds. I use Health Gene in Canada. It's only $12 and they send a lovely certificate that follows up after an email giving the sex of the bird.  http://www.healthgene.com/avian-dna-testing/

Below is a copy from The Splendid Bourke Bird Blog on BlogSpot. If you go there and enter "Sexing" into the Search Box, you will get lots of posts on this topic. http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/

"Male Bourkes throw their shoulders back and flair their wings slightly at the shoulder, standing tall. I call this strutting. You won't see a hen do this and males do it at a very young age.

Hens take longer to behave like hens. If there is a male bird present they squat down and raise their tail, cheeping, (preferably for another Bourke, but I've seen them display for other parakeet varieties when no male Bourke is around). On rare occasions I've seen a male do this in front of a hen who doesn't want to mate...I think he's showing her how. :-) Birds have preferences for their mates too."

Peace and Blessings,

Gail

An Oregon Coast Sunset taken above Larson Slough,
about five miles from our home.

 

PEACE AND BLESSINGS!

 

 

Did Ancient Cultures Keep Pet Birds? Yes! Yes! Yes!

This was too good not to share.


My pet Rosy Bourkes.

Rosie.birds@gmail.com received an inquiry about where to find info on pet birds kept by ancient cultures. My husband, author E.G. Lewis, is a guru on ancient Roman culture and he answered for me. If you're also interested in pet birds kept in first century Rome ... here you go:

"My wife forwarded your request to me since her post on the Splendid Bourke Bird Blog was derived from one I did for my Sowing the Seeds Blog, here: 

 

http://eglewis.blogspot.com/search/label/Pets%20in%20the%20Ancient%20World

 

As you read it, you will notice that some of the conclusions are based on logical assumptions as much as anything else. The Bible references, Job for instance, assumes that if someone asks, “Can you make a pet of him like a bird?” it must have been a common practice. Alexander the Great’s connection to parrots is well documented. I conduct most of my research via the internet., but I can offer a few print sources.

The Amores by Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso…commonly known as Ovid. In Book II, Elegy VI, he laments the death of his lover’s pet parrot. A hard copy would probably be available at your local library. If you simply need the quote, it can be found here: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/AmoresBkII.htm#anchor_Toc520535838 You can also download a copy at the site.

 Gaius Valerius Catullus, another Roman poet, mention his love’s pet sparrow in section 2-3. It can be accessed here:  http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_poems_of_Catullus

Here is one book I came across: Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird, By Bruce Boehrer,  University of Pennsylvania Press.  It is available on Amazon as a used hardback for $2-$4. It is also available on Google books.

Finally, I’ll suggest another internet resource:  www.unrv.com  is a site entirely devoted to the Roman Empire. If you want to take the time to search out a page that deals with day-to-day Roman life, etc., or you can post a question and hopefully get several responses. I’ve used them for my novels when I can’t find an answer anywhere else."

 

Lastly, this is Gail again, here is a link to my husband's site on Amazon.com. He has nine books in print and as ebooks. Some are also now in audio. Blessings, Gail  

 

http://www.amazon.com/E.-G.-Lewis/e/B0037BDQGY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1424720867&sr=1-2-ent

 

Author, E.G. Lewis. -- My husband, Ed,
with  our wonderful Chinook.

 

 

Exotic Bird Expertise ... Visit the Label List of Topics

NOTE: To find a topic that interests you, or to get questions answered, please scroll to the Label List in the Lower Right Column and select a topic to bring up many previous posts. If you have a problem, you can write to me at rosie.birds@gmail.com  (Be sure to make birds plural). Peace & Blessings.

Exotic Bird Update From a Busy Writer Behind on Blogging

I can't believe the entire month has gone by and I've not posted anything. Going to squeak in a post on the last day of January just so the month's count won't be zero.

 

I'm busy editing two books. Cast Me Not Away should be perfect by the time it reaches print ... can't believe how long this book is taking. Began it in Nov., 2009. It's written, but being chopped and edited like crazy.  Zara Heritage is my pseudonym ... my real name belongs to so many others.



Potential Cover



Potential Cover

My Small Exotic Birds book is on hold until the novel above is finally done!  Which cover do you like best?

 

Meanwhile, all my breeder pairs want nest boxes. It's been sunny and warm as it usually gets every February on the Southern Oregon Coast. It's happening a little early this year. However, I'm making them wait a while longer. All our hens were allowed three clutches through Spring and Summer  and need a good long rest. Rosie raised 12 healthy babies last year, more than any of the others in 2014. We shall see what happens this year.

 

I've added a Lutino Bourke hen and am eager to hopefully see babies from her. Isn't she pretty? So is the mate I hope she will accept. Sweetheart is 3 years old. If 18-month-old Sunny absolutely refuses him, I do have a handsome male hatched early last summer, but he's still young.

Sunny and Sweetheart. Hopefully to become a mated pair.

Everyone have a wonderful 2015. May all your birds bring you joy, and if you're raising exotic birds, may all their eggs hatch and their offspring become beautiful, healthy birds.

Peace and Blessings for 2015.