Photo: © Shutterstock.com/wannachat. Nicobar pigeons: even from this angle the nest looks more solid than the flakey affairs built by most species of pigeon With its odd stocky build and ornate hackles, the Nicobar pigeon doesn’t look an ace…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/noicherrybeans. Streaked spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna): a species Geoff owned in the early 1990s After tough challenges in the late 1960s, Geoff Gradwell bounced back with a collection even more varied than before. Before too long, he was…
Photo: Getty Images/Arun Roisri. Good enough to eat: an edible-nest swiftlet sitting on a fragment of its nest A massive demand for its nests might sound as though it would spell trouble for any wild bird. Yet, as Tony Tilford…
Photo: Terry Gonsolvis. Terry keeps 13 different species of foreign softbill, including rufous-bellied niltava (Niltava sundara). This flycatcher shows marked sexual dimorphism There’s nothing better than seeing that long-awaited pairing up or chicks being reared and leaving the nest-box, says…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/Paul Wittet. Geoff took home the prestigious award of best foreign bird at the 1970 Scottish National with a black-throated mango (pictured) and the same special a year later with another hummer, the green-fronted lancebill Geoff Gradwell’s exotic…
Photo: Getty Images/edoardogobattoni.net. Not only bees: virtually all flying invertebrates are targeted by bee-eaters as prey. Here, a bee-eater at an Italian colony has caught a moth In the March 28 issue, German softbill breeder Thomas Wendt introduced the European…
Photo: © Shutterstock.com/aaltai. An exotic-looking specimen: the European bee-eater. There are 27 species of bee-eater listed in the family Meropidae, which are found in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Other species include the northern carmine (Merops nubicus), purple-bearded (Meropogon forsteni) and the…
Photo: Gary’s friend Colin has had pairs of white-collared kingfishers and brown-hooded kingfishers (example pictured) produce clutches already this year © Shutterstock.com/Michael Potter11 GARY BRALSFORD looks forward to the spring unfolding, with news of his own ongoing breeding preparations, developments in…
Photo: Weltvogelpark Walsrode. Weltvogelpark Walsrode in Germany has repeatedly produced chicks from its Amazilia hummingbirds. The park celebrated its 50th birthday in 2012 with a new hummingbird breeding centre In most of their wild range, hummingbirds of the expansive genus Amazilia…
© Shutterstock.com/Martin Mecnarowski. A scarlet ibis roost in mangrove trees near Caroni Swamp in Trinidad. Such gatherings are among the world’s most memorable bird spectacles AT COLCHESTER Zoo in Essex, I once heard a mother confidently telling her son that the scarlet…