Green-crowned brilliant (above): the rich umber throat indicates that this is an immature bird, probably a male © Shutterstock.com/Ondrej Prosicky These jewel-coloured flower-kissers captured the heart of the youthful GEOFF GRADWELL and he has remained smitten Of all the…
Above: A male scarlet honeyeater forages high in the flowering trees. Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Silva Vaughan-Jones So what does a scarlet honeyeater eat? The answer, says top Australian softbill man JOHN KEARNEY, is more complex than you might think. Continues…
Above: Chestnut-backed tanager: a fine softbill which has been bred recently by Peter Moore © Shutterstock.com/Andrew M. Allport Fans of keeping and breeding exotic softbills must never forget the songbird crisis in the East, warns GARY BRALSFORD WITH…
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…