Yesterday at the bird house I was taking care of the birds on the west side. I ended up cleaning exhibits and was left with enough extra time for some enrichment.
I have noticed that the male vicoria crowned pigeon sometimes will display, whether it be out of aggression or if he is trying to impress someone, by turning his back to you and then spreading his wings for a brief moment, and then closing them. Also, he will call as he did with his recently deceased mate but in a different way. With his female, he would bellow in a few short calls as he bends his head over to the ground for each one. Now, he drones out in a longer bellow and keeps his head down the whole time. Sometimes he does this for an extended period of time as well.
As I cleaned another exhibit, containing elegant crested tinamou and a red billed toucan, I noted that the toucan had, again, put mulch in the waterfall. I don't know if he wants it blocked or maybe wants wet mulch. As I was washing the mulch down the drain, the spray of the hose was misting right where he was perched, on a nearby log. He began scratching his head and I knew that he was enjoying it. I decided to give him a shower. Oh, the reason I say that I knew he liked it by him scratching his head is because I had given a shower that morning to the rhinocerous hornbills, as I had all last summer as well, and I had noticed that as soon as I begin to mist them, they will perch under the mist and most of the time, both of them, will stand under the mist, shake their head to shake the water off, and then reach a foot behind a wing and scratch their face. Usually also followed by rubbing their beak on the perch, which is also what the toucan was doing. Anyway, I continued to mist the toucan and he didn't preen so much as rub his beak and just sit and enjoy it. After a while I continued cleaning the exhibit. I noticed though that the toucan jumped in the water after his bath, maybe my mist prompted him to bath himself, which is always a good thing. I even came back to rinse the water fall once more and he stood in the same place on a log and tried to catch the mist.
Also in that exhibit are the tinamou, as I mentioned, and I had never been aware that they enjoyed mist. Well, most birds enjoy the mist once in a while, but I don't always try it with every bird, and more with the birds that are sure to enjoy it. Anyhow, I was cleaning the bottom of the pool and the surrounding rocks when I look up and see one of the tinamou lying in the mulch with its feathers fluffed. Now, this particular tinamou I have known since its hatch last summer. Also, he is fairly imprinted in that when he was in the basement, and I would go to give his cage a food dish, the other tinamou would run away when I opened the door, and he would instead run towards me. Also, as I had been cleaning a bit earlier, he was pecking at my gloves. I saw this same tinamou lying down near the mist, so I decided that he was probably enjoying it so I stood there and let him take a bath. The other tinamou didn't really want to get wet and would walk up to the bathing tinamou, but soon move out of the water. I let him bathe for about five to ten minutes. He even lifted his wing slightly and then switched sides. He seemed to enjoy it thoroughly.
After lunch I cleaned exhibit 22, the rhinocerous hornbills, and as I was filling the pool, I noticed the male had moved to the front of the exhibit and was sitting with his wings drooped and his neck mostly extended. I am not sure if he does this on a regular basis but it seemed a bit odd and I left it in my notes for the regular keeper.
The golden breasted starlings in exhibit 10 have a chick and I observed them yesterday and gave them worms, as is protocol for parent birds. The chick was approximated to fledge on June 10 but there had been no word of this happening yet. However, as I watched, the parents didn't carry the worms to the nest box, but instead to the top of the trees in back of the exhibit. I could not see if the chick was back there but the female seemed to be pretty anxious, as she was calling a lot, and both parents were flighty.
There were some apricots that had been extra and were given to the bird house for enrichment. I found a puzzle feeder and split an apricot in half and put the halves in the feeder. The bottom half was easily accessible but the top half required the birds move the pieces to get it. I gave the puzzle to the plush crested jays and they immediately investigated. The male is often the first to check things out, and he did, and the half of apricot fell to the ground. Then both male and female pecked at it. The female decided that she liked the pit and carried it around.
There were some extra apricots at the end of the day and I wasn't sure if anyone would need them so I decided to give them to the hyacinth macaws thinking that they'd at least play with them. Not so. I threw three apricots in their exhibit and they basically just looked at me and nothing else. They didn't seem too interested.
Lastly, today a couple of visitors came up to me and seemed worried about a peacock that was "down" outside. Our peafowl roam the zoo grounds so I thought that maybe they were worried because they thought it had escaped but I went to check it out because you can never be sure. I walk outside and a peahen is laying on the ground on her side. I then explained to the folks that this behavior is called sunning and the birds do it when they are hot. They will lie down and sometimes spread their wings and pant to cool off. They lie in the sun which people can't make sense of but by doing that, they pant and it cools them off faster. I explained this to the two guests and they went back inside. I then began walking behind the bird house and noticed other guests staring at the bird. I turned around and explained it to them as well.
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