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| 31/12/2004 |
Beautiful Kookaburras |
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Big, bold, beautiful Blue-winged Kookaburras have landed in our Birds of Prey exhibit here at Australia Zoo. These Kookaburras are sharing the exhibit with Tina, a female Wedge-tailed Eagle (that cannot fly), Hali, a female whistling kite and Onyx, a male Peregrine Falcon. What an amazing display, to showcase some of Australia’s awesome Birds of Prey.
Our Bird team is over the moon, about our newest editions, and the rest of the Zoo staff keep on hitting us up and quizzing us about the extraordinary noises coming from the aviaries. We answer with a smile, that the ‘cackle’ that they are referring to, is our pair of Blue-winged kookaburras, ‘Spike’ and ‘Matilda’.
Spike and Matilda arrived from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast. Spike was born in October of 1994 and is roughly 10 years old. While Matilda hatched in December 1995 and has not long turned 9 years old. These two ‘love birds’ have been together since January 1997 and are a proven breeding pair.
There are 2 species of Kookaburras in Australia. The Laughing Kookaburra, often referred to as the Laughing Jackass and the Blue-winged Kookaburra. Kookaburras are in fact large Kingfishers, and there are 8 other types of Kingfishers that call Australia home as well. Kookaburras or giant Kingfishers are not as brightly coloured as the smaller species and they also differ by living in family groups.
Blue-winged Kookaburras have been known to hang out in family groups of up to 12 individuals, all feeding chicks from one nest. The Laughing Kookaburra, announces their permanent territory, morning and night with their famous loud ‘laughing’ calls that are echoed out in chorus, by all members of the family group. The Blue-wings are not as vocal with their territorial behaviour.
Blue winged Kookaburra sexes can be distinguished by their tail feathers. The male has deep blue tail feathers while the female has a stunning rufous coloured barring with dark blue.
Blue winged Kookaburras prefer wetter environments and are found mainly in the north of Australia. Laughing Kookas are found throughout Eastern Australia as well as being introduced to South-Western Western Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, where they are now widespread.
To wrap up this week’s website update we would like to wish everybody a safe and Happy New Year. We hope you will continue to catch up with us and our weekly exploits, joining us on our merry mission, doing what we do best… providing our birdies with everything they need and desire, and continuing to strive to present our birds and exhibits at their very best. See you next year!
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Spike and Matilda |
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A Kookaburra |
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| 24/12/2004 |
Christmas time |
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Ho ho ho….Gee, I hope those turkeys have flown the coop and headed for the hills, because Christmas is just a skip away.
On that note, the Zoo Bird team would like to wish everyone a joyous and safe Christmas. We hope the big red fella with the white beard and the reindeers leaves you all a pleasant surprise!
Well, Xmas has come earlier this year for the Zoo Birdy crew. Our section has had a steady flow of new arrivals, and this week is no exception, with more new additions to our Zoo bird collection.
From Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast, we have received two beautiful male Sacred Kingfishers, and to join ‘Wally’, our lonely Wonga pigeon, six more “Wongas" have landed. We can assure you Wally is stoked. He hasn’t stopped calling since they arrived and if he doesn’t stop soon, we might have to tell him to put a cork in it. We are also delighted to tell you we have ten more Chestnut-breasted Mannikins to join our small flock in the rainforest aviary.
Our big news this week is to inform you, ‘Airlie’ the Cassowary was successfully caught and transported by plane to the Rainforest Habitat, up at Port Douglas in far North Queensland. We wish ‘Airlie’ all the best and hope the big fella enjoys his new surroundings, continues to impress the crowds, and keeps on educating the public on the plight of his fellow endangered species.
This weeks profile is Marty the Magpie Goose a.k.a. ‘Knucklehead’. Marty loves to pick a fight and doesn’t know how to back down. He loves to start something he can’t finish and often bites off more than he can chew!
Honestly though, we all love Marty and his no nonsense attitude. We’d love to give him a big hug, but he would probably follow it up by giving us a right hook!
Marty can be found roaming the wetland exhibit and he likes to lurk in the shadows. He can often be spotted, lying in wait for any unsuspecting keepers to stroll by. The unlucky ones often have ‘a couple put on them’, before they know what has hit them. Usually they are left shaking their head, nursing their wounds and left with the image of Marty making his get away, high tailing it and giving you a mouthful as he goes.
This black and white goose that carries on like a bear with a sore head, is quite an impressive, good looking bloke. He does have his admirer as well. This lovely lady is ‘Peepa’ a beautiful female Wood Duck, who finds ‘Marty’ irresistible... You can often find her following Marty around, and apologising for his behaviour.
The Marty monster… umm Magpie Goose is one of the true blue, dinkum Aussie characters of the wetland exhibit. Our day would be pretty boring if he wasn’t around to keep us on our toes and checking around the corner. So if you come across Marty in the wetlands, we suggest not to look at him sideways or stare at him for too long. We also recommend to watch your back and mind your step! |
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Bon Voyage Airlie! |
Marty Monster |
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Marty and Peepa |
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Blue-faced Parrot Finch, Red-browed Firetail,
and a Chestnut-brested Mannikin |
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Those of you familiar with the Australia Zoo family, would be aware of a delightful member, who was a favourite to us all. She wasn't a crocodile or a reptile; she was a delightful Magpie Goose called 'Maggie'. Unfortunately, after almost two decades, she recently passed away.
Maggie was the sweetest, most affectionate, beautifully natured bird that anyone could wish to meet.
There are many tales to tell of Maggie the Magpie Goose. There are many people that have been touched by her, and she was adored by so many. Maggie was a little ray of sunshine that would greet you with a smile on her face and always had a story to tell.
Maggie was born in the wild, and arrived here at the Zoo in June of 1987. When she arrived, she was decked out in adult plumage, and thought to be at least 12 months of age.
Everybody knew Maggie was getting long in the tooth, but we all thought she would be around forever. Some days she had a limp, some days she didn't. This mature lady had so many admirers. She loved it when somebody gave her the time of day and pulled up and sat with her. Often she would grace you by hopping in your lap and allowing you the privilege of giving her a scratch and she didn't mind a pat either.
Maggie was a dignified, absolutely wonderful goose that found a place in everyone's heart that got to know her. She has gone now, and yes we will miss her, but we all know how lucky we were to have known her.
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Maggie the wonder goose |
Terri with Maggie |
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Maggie at work. She loved getting under your feet |
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Come and check out Babinda in her pond or Swannie our beautiful Black Swan |
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Our new big, black, beautiful bird with the blue neck and dangly red wattles who gets around with, what looks like a helmet on her head is ‘Babinda’ a Southern Cassowary. This stunner, we are happy to report, has really started to settle in now. She is even starting to get territorial and she doesn’t mind giving us heaps either!
If you have a ‘gander’ at the photos, you can get some idea how much our new big girl, loves the water. During our daily visual checks that we carry out on the birds and their enclosures throughout the day, we can either find ‘Babinda’ doing one of the two things. The first is eating, this girl loves her tucker and is easily knocking back 10 kg of mixed fruit a day. Or you will find her in her pond, and it is not uncommon to find her with her legs in the air and her head under water!
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Babinda splashing around in her pond |
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Babinda with her head under the water in the pond |
This week, it is our privilege to introduce to you, one of our personal favourites of the Wetland exhibit. ‘Swannie’ is a beautiful, black Swan. She hatched on the 20th of October, 1998 and arrived here in May of 2000, from Currumbin Bird Sanctuary on the Gold Coast.
Swans are the largest and most majestic of all water fowl. They are also among the heaviest of all flying birds. Our endemic Black Swan is the only member of the swan family whose plumage is a virtually all black and is our sole Australian species of Swan.
Swans may look clumsy on land but they are more graceful on the water than any other. Swans are mainly vegetarian and their long necks are adapted for reaching down in the water and browsing on any vegetation within reach.
‘Swannie’ is a stylish and sophisticated lady, who has a confidence she displays, that make us think, she knows she is as beautiful as we think she is.
So if you want to check out a good looking bird, get yourself down to our Wetland exhibit and feast your eyes on ‘Swannie’ our beautiful Black Swan.
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‘Bopping, break dancing brolgas'…You should hear these guys! Every morning and afternoon the commotion that our six busy brolgas make is simply awesome.
The trumpeting whoops and hollers that resonate out of our Wetland exhibit, is enough to make your hair stand on end. Sometimes you have to fight the urge not to run home screaming ‘the Indians are coming!’.
Seriously though, if you are in the Wetlands when the brolgas ‘go off’ you’re going home with a story to tell; especially now that our latest arrivals ‘Fred and Ginger’ have settled in, and accompany ‘Bruce and Marilyn’ and ‘Elvis and Woodstock’, in their daily ruckus and ‘shindigs’.
Speaking of Elvis, we had better give you the run down on our resident rockin’ boy brolga with the cool moves who whipped ‘Woodstock’ off her feet when he arrived. You should see the ‘grooving’ and ‘getting down’ these two get up to, when the wind gets up and the mood takes hold.
Elvis is a strapping young bloke, who landed here from Taronga Zoo, in Sydney NSW. He has been with us for almost spot on two years now. He has spent this time wining and dining ‘Woodstock’ and if all his sweet talking pays off, we hope one day we’ll have more brolgas to join in the raiding parties, down in the wetlands.
To wrap up our weekly update, we would like to inform you of another new arrival to our ever growing bird collection. This week a superb specimen of a sacred kingfisher has landed on our doorstep from Healseville Sanctuary in Victoria. This bloke is a treat, and we have called him ‘Jetson’.
Before we go off with the birdies, just thought you would like to know our Red-collared Lorikeets have been at it again. We are delighted to tell you we have two young chicks to boast about. These two have also been earmarked for the free flight show. So do drop in, catch the Bird Show and hopefully you will be amazed, and go home with an appreciation of their beauty and a realisation of the plight of our native Australian parrots.
Until next time Bird Show birds rule too!
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‘Wobbly, wide, wonga pigeons’...Yet another wet week here at Australia Zoo, and we’re sure our ducks have been staying up and partying hard all night lately…after all it is good weather for ducks!
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Burdekin Ducks (the party animals) |
On a serious note, the Zoo looks great and has a clean, green look to it and all the birdies have smiles on their dials. We certainly don’t have to tell them there’s going to be lots of food around now that it has rained. They are well aware they had better ‘pull their feather out’ and find themselves a mate or miss the boat altogether. Of course this seems to have spread like wildfire…they all seem to be getting a little bit romantic.
J.J., Babinda, Fred and Ginger the Swift Parrots (or ‘bachelor boys’ as we know them) and our lovely new Noisy Pitta ‘Nellie’ are all settling in well, ‘hooking’ into their tucker and busy claiming their own bit of turf.
Getting back in amongst the wetland birdy profiles, we would like to introduce to you a special lady Brolga called ‘Woodstock’. After arriving as a splendid young six month old sheila from the Territory Wildlife Park, way back in October 1996, ‘Woodstock’ has kept her nose clean, stayed out of trouble, never had a day off, never given the keepers a hard time and never needed to see the vet! To tell you the truth if all the birds were like ‘Woodstock’, life as a bird keeper would be cruisy!
However Woodstock’s little world has changed gears lately, since we introduced a hunky, young bloke Brolga called ‘Elvis’. Elvis has similar interests to ‘Woodstock’ and enjoys spending time with her, singing, dancing and digging in the dirt chasing worms.
Next week we will introduce young Elvis, and profile the bloke who has swept ‘Woodstock’ off her feet! Until next week hoo-roo from the Zoo Bird crew.
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A Noisy Pita makes the avery her home |
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Hello, to all our friends of the feathered ones out there! Welcome back to our weekly website update. Well it was pretty quiet one this week and we don’t have that much to have a yarn or bend your ear about, but we can let you know that ‘Fred’ and ‘Ginger’ our pair of new Brolgas that arrived last week have settled in nicely and have taken to their new enclosure like a duck to water.
‘Babinda’ our new cassowary, on the other hand did not seem to like the open feel of her new enclosure and was unsettled. We decided to swap ‘Beepa’ and ‘Babinda’ and put them in each others enclosure because of Beepa’s thick, mature vegetation in his enclosure and also the ‘cool cat’, level headed attitude of the ‘Beep-mister’, who we quite rightly believed would not be fazed at all.
After erecting a holding cage between the two enclosures, and opening a gate for Beepa, we conditioned him to feed in there for a couple of days. On the day of the ‘swap’, all we had to do was place the food bucket in the holding cage, hold our breath and wait forBeepa to enter, then say ‘whoola!’ and quickly shut the gate.
Part two of the procedure required opening a second gate between the enclosures, spreading fruit on the ground to entice Babinda into Beepa’s old enclosure, which took all of five minutes, and ‘hey presto!’, we now had Babinda swapped over… after we shut the gate of course.
Part three involved releasing Beepa from the holding cage and into Babinda’s old enclosure or shall we say his new enclosure. Fifteen minutes later, we were sitting back and observing the birds inspecting their new surroundings with positive behaviour. Beepa didn’t even blink an eyelid and Babinda was having a dip in her new pond!
Oh, and one more thing… we got a new edition again this week. Our new arrival is a beautiful young female noisy Pitta. She is another treasure to add to our growing collection of birds in the Rainforest aviary.
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Peter releasing a Noisy Pitta into
the Rainforest Avery
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Pitta are renowned for using a tool, often utilising an ‘anvil’; a stone or log is often used to break snail shells. Pittas are brightly coloured, long legged and short tailed ground birds found in rainforests. Noisy Pittas are found along Queensland’s east coast. So, if you do pop up to the Rainforest aviary when you visit the Zoo, be sure to stop and have a chin way about our noisy Pittas and the birds in general!
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