Photo: © Shutterstock.com/aaltair. Wallcreeper: note the dusky-grey head and shoulders with crimson on the wing coverts and base of primary and secondary feathers The wallcreeper is best known for scaling the Pyrenees and the Alps, but sadly is rarely seen…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Super Prin. Male plumbeous water redstart. This delightful perky species favours streamsides, and in the wild is often found on the same stretches of river as the white-capped (see below), as well as dippers and forktails (Enicurus) …
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Anusal Thuwangkawat. Red-flanked bluetail, also known as the orange-flanked bush-robin, kept by Geoff in the 1980s. Once placed in the thrush family, it is grouped with the Old World flycatchers Geoff Gradwell has spoken about the numerous…
Photo: Tony Tilford. King bird-of-paradise: Geoff was lucky enough to get hold of a juvenile bird for his collection In the 1970s, Geoff Gradwell’s collection of tropical hummingbirds, honeycreepers and tanagers was getting larger by the minute, but there…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Peter Wey. In the wild, the Mindanao bleeding-heart is found in the Philippines, notably the islands of Bohol and Mindanao As Cotswold Wildlife Park looks for a suitable mate for its male Mindanao bleeding-heart dove, Chris Green explains…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/sbw18. Wild hooded pittas enjoy a diet of invertebrates, their larvae and small lizards. Captive birds can be offered locusts, crickets, mealworms and waxmoths In a beauty contest among bird families in the Old World Tropics, the…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/YapAhock. Calculated risk: Geoff bought 10 unidentified juvenile flowerpeckers, two of which moulted out to be scarlet-breasted Geoff Gradwell has been lucky to have kept some unusual and rare species during his time in aviculture. He recalls some…
Photo:© Shutterstock.com/RachelKolokoffHopper. Southern black flycatcher: a lovely glossy songbird found widely south of the Sahara Our almost African summer must have looked familiar to many of Gary Bralsford’s hot-country species! Here he brings us up to date with his…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Christopher Becerra. Green honeycreeper: the only member of the genus Chlorophanes. This species was a regular addition to Geoff’s collection Geoff Gradwell has worked with some of the most beautiful species in the Neotropics during his career…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Renata PedrozoBrassy-breasted tanager (Tangara desmaresti): a species Geoff has kept and had success with at bird shows When Geoff Gradwell took a liking to the charismatic members of the tanager family, it was the start of a…