Above: Promising signs: a pair of white storks have been seen building a nest in an oak tree at the Knepp Estate A PROGRAMME TO help white storks breed once more in southern England has had its first signs…
Above: Raffle prizes (from left): Daniel Lutölf’s quality 2019-bred hen and Simon Gage’s December 2018-bred cinnamon sky pied hen A FORWARD-THINKING BUDGERIGAR club that ran the first-ever electronically screened online raffle at a UK show in 2018, says this year’s…
Above: The young kakapo after the first ever brain surgery on a bird. Photo: Massey Wildbase Hospital IN A FIRST for avian medicine, an unfledged kakapo chick (Strigops habroptilus) was given life-saving brain surgery. With only 144 kakapo left…
Above: Interesting mutations bred by and photographed by Trevor Mayes. Left is a black-cheeked black-breasted normal grey hen. Right is a black-faced black-breasted grey-cheeked cock. Photo: Trevor Mayes RARE ZEBRA FINCH mutations will have a stand-alone section at the 2019…
Above: Still missing: a song thrush cock of T. & S. Paterson, which had won best British at Ollerton & Bevercotes CBS’s 2018 open show POLICE OFFICERS IN Durham have seized three of more than 20 stolen exhibition softbills.…
Above: Dr Rob Marshall (centre) gave his first talk in England in 2013 at Northdowns BS. The talk at the L&SCBS marked only his second bird club talk in this country, and on the day the club’s president David Harmer…
Above: Cirl bunting are making a comeback on the south Devon cliffs. Photo: Andy Hay NUMBERS OF RARE cirl buntings (Emberiza cirlus) on the Devon coast have quadrupled at the RSPB Labrador Bay reserve since the charity started borrowing…
Above: The Hon. The Irish Society makes about 120 grants to groups or individuals in County Londonderry and also in neighbouring areas A GENEROUS GRANT has enabled one of the few remaining CBSes in Northern Ireland – formed in…
Above: red-headed Gouldian finch: more dominant and preferred by females RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED how the plumage of a wild Australian songbird has maintained distinct colours for generations and actually breaks the rules of evolution. Gouldian finches have three distinct…
Above: Harry Hockaday with his best young bird at the 2018 Gwynedd BS open show. Although he has retired from budgies, he keeps silkie chickens and at the time of writing had 40 eggs in an incubator A STALWART…