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More detailed information about our birds will be added to this post later. For now, please enjoy a few sample photos of our birds. Senegal Parrot Greenwing Macaw Fledgling Scarlet Macaw Sun Conure Sleder-billed Conure Jenday Conure fledglings Violet Turaco Blue-fronted Amazon Blue-crowned Conure Dusky-headed Conure (Lutino and Normal) Gold-capped Conure Mexican Green Conure Papuan Hornbills Papuan Hornbill nestlings Livingston's Turaco Laughing Kookaburra Nicobar Pigeon Trumpeter Hornbill with hatchlings Trumpeter Hornbill nestling Silvery-cheeked Hornbill Blue-bellied Roller Red-knobbed Imperial Pigeon Crested Coua Helmeted Curassow East African Crane, aka Gray Crowned Crane Gray Crowned Crane Blue Crane, aka Stanley Crane White-headed Buffalo Weavers Nicobar Pigeon Blue Crowned Pigeon Vulturine Guineafowl African Sacred Ibis African Sacred Ibis Picazuro Pigeon Great Curassow Helmeted Curassow Helmeted Curassow Green-cheeked Conure color morphs text

Australia, 2025 A full article and description of this trip will be uploaded later. For now, please enjoy some sample photos from this trip.

Sample photos from Italy 2025 trip. A full article and description of this trip will be uploaded later. For now, please enjoy some sample photos from this trip. text

By Steve Duncan, Avian Resources Originally published in the Avicultural Society of America, Avicultural Bulletin Wild Greater Vasa Parrot In September 2022, I had the wonderful experience of visiting Madagascar for an entire month of wildlife viewing and photography. At the top of my list was to see and photograph Greater Vasa Parrots in the wild since I have several pairs at home and enjoy their unique personalities. They also provide me the privilege of rearing their chicks each year. I’m always excited to see species in the wild that I work with in my aviaries at home. During the trip, I was rewarded with opportunities to watch wild Vasa Parrots at many of the locations we visited in Madagascar. Due to its long isolation, the island of Madagascar is a land of unique and bizarre wildlife located in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar separated from Africa along with India roughly 165 million years ago in the middle of the age of dinosaurs. It then separated from India nearly 90 million years ago while dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. India broke away and drifted far to the northeast to eventually collide with Asia. Madagascar has been an isolated island ever since allowing its flora and fauna to evolve and adapt to conditions there without much influence from species on mainland Africa or India. Africa remains Madagascar’s closest neighbor separated by the Mozambique Channel. At its narrowest point, the Mozambique Channel is only 420 km (260 mi) wide, but this distance is enough to make colonization from mainland Africa difficult for most species. Even for birds, this distance has resulted in more than 55% of bird species on Madagascar being endemic only to the island. There are three species of psittacines on Madagascar: the Greater Vasa Parrot, the Lesser Vasa Parrot and the Gray-headed Lovebird. All three of these occur only on Madagascar and nearby Comoros Island. I was fortunate to be able to see and photograph all three species on my trip. Greater Vasa Parrot Lesser Vasa Parrot Gray-headed Lovebird pair Humans arrived on Madagascar relatively recently. Estimates range from only 1200 years ago to 2000 years ago. Prior to human arrival there, the island was almost completely covered in forests. Since the arrival of humans, the forests of this island have been steadily cut and burned to produce charcoal and to make way for agriculture. Estimates are that between 60% to 80% of the original forests have already been lost. With a rapidly growing impoverished population, the pace of this destruction has drastically increased in the past century. Adding to the problem is that non-native eucalyptus and pine trees are replacing the native trees. These foreign trees do not provide suitable habitat for Madagascar’s unique animals. Vasa Parrots are a large parrot belonging to Genus Coracopsis which has two additional species on islands north of Madagascar, the Comoros Black Parrot and the Seychelles Black Parrot that are both very similar and closely related to the Lesser Vasa Parrot. Both the Greater and Lesser Vasa Parrots are still abundant in the wild on Madagascar, but the dramatic loss of native forests makes their wild populations potentially vulnerable in the future. Currently, both species can be observed throughout much of Madagascar except for the central highlands. Greater Vasas tend to be more abundant in the drier western and southern areas, while Lesser Vasas prefer the wetter eastern forests. Although their relative abundance varies in different areas, both species are often seen in the same locations. On a single day hike, I occasionally observed both species, though I never saw them in the same tree or flocking together. Wild Lesser Vasa feeding on the flowers of a Royal Poinciana Tree Consistent with many other species endemic to Madagascar, Vasa Parrots are strangely different from other members of their taxonomic family. DNA studies found that the closest living relative of genus Coracopsis is the Pesquet’s Parrot of far away New Guinea which suggests that Vasa Parrots and Pesquet’s Parrots have also been isolated from each other for a very long time. In other words, the Vasa Parrot genus has no close living relatives. The extinct Mascarene Parrot of Reunion Islands east of Madagascar is the closest known relative of Vasa Parrots and Black Parrots. As the names suggest, the difference between Greater Vasa Parrots and Lesser Vasa Parrots is most noted by size, especially beak size. Greater Vasa Parrots are larger with a beak that is somewhat similar in proportion to a macaw’s beak, whereas the Lesser Vasa is a bit smaller overall with a beak more similar in proportion to an Amazon parrot’s beak. The parrot family is often synonymous with brightly colored birds, but both species of Vasa parrots and their relatives on Comoros and the Seychelles, are basically black or charcoal colored. What they lack in rainbow colors, they make up for in unique behaviors and morphology. In the wild, both species of Vasa Parrots have very similar lifestyles and social structures. They live and forage in small flocks high in the forest canopy searching for fruits, blossoms, seeds, and nuts and may fly great distances over the forests to find trees offering foraging opportunities. They are often heard before they are seen due to their loud and varied whistling calls. Vasa Parrots are often active at night when the moon is full or nearly full. The quiet nights allow their loud whistles to be heard over great distances. Female Vasas tend to be larger and more dominant than the males especially during breeding season. As breeding season approaches, females typically lose the feathers on their head revealing skin that has turned bright yellow this time of year. The females also develop a slight swelling or pouch inside the base of the lower beak. Females become very territorial toward other females around the nesting area while males are quite tolerant of others. The physical changes the males go through during breeding season are equally as strange as the female’s. To prepare for breeding season, male Vasa Parrots develop a large phallus that everts from the cloaca during mating. This anatomical feature is unique among parrots. Measuring nearly half its body length and width when everted, it is large enough that the female’s lower abdomen also must swell to be able to accommodate the male’s phallus during copulation. Vasa Parrots have a complex social structure that includes both quasi-monogamous and promiscuous mating strategies. The females will bond closely with one male but will mate with other males too. In bonded quasi-monogamous pairs, the large phallus serves to tie the pair together during copulation sometimes for up to 90 minutes. In addition to the copulatory tie performed in closely bonded pairs, females will mate with several other males in short more typical avian copulations by what is known as a cloacal kiss that lasts mere seconds. These unbonded males will also opportunistically mate with multiple females using this shorter mating style. This creates a lot of excitement among males around a receptive female and a frenzied breeding season for all. It is believed that the promiscuous mating strategy serves to encourage multiple male Vasas to feed the female at the nest site. The long duration copulatory ties between bonded pairs ensures that the bonded male has the advantage at fertilizing the eggs. Although the vast majority of chicks are the result of the long duration mating of bonded pairs, a small percentage of chicks may be the offspring of a promiscuous mating. This means that any male that mates with a female has a chance of fathering a chick and thus has an interest in helping to feed her during her time brooding in the nest. In this way, nesting females are often attended and fed by multiple males even though the chicks are most likely the offspring of the bonded male. Vasa Parrots typically lay two to three eggs in a clutch, and they will not lay a second clutch in the same year even if the eggs are removed as soon as they are laid. There is only one attempt to nest for each female in a year. The nests are located in a tree hollow or possibly in a hole in a cliff. The females stay in the nest and are fed by the males during the incubation and early nestling periods which pass quickly. Vasa Parrots have one of the shortest incubation and nestling periods of all parrots, certainly the shortest of the larger parrots. Vasa eggs hatch after only 18 days of incubation compared to 28 days for most other similar-sized parrots. The chicks hatch with a prominent bump on each side of the beak. These bumps are very sensitive to touch and will elicit an extremely strong head pumping feeding response which is important to stimulate the parents to regurgitate enough food to sustain the chick’s rapid growth rate. The enthusiastic head pumping action of the chicks when feeding can almost be described as violent. The crops of well-fed chicks can be as large or larger than their abdomens. Vasa Parrot chicks will fully develop in size and are able to fledge from the nest in only 7 weeks after hatching, about half the time of a similar-sized parrot from Africa or South America. The parents will continue to feed the chicks for several weeks after fledging until the chicks can fend for themselves, but for those few weeks, the chicks can be seen doggedly pursuing their parents around the forest canopy pleading to be fed. This rapid development is most likely an adaptation to Madagascar’s unpredictable and often short rainy season when food is abundant enough for the parrots to rear their offspring. Greater Vasa chick showing unique beak shape that is normal for this species. Parent-fed Greater Vasa chick showing full crop A Fledgling Greater Vasa Parrot at the author’s aviary showing off its very large and powerful wings that make them strong and agile in the air. Aviculture – Breeders of Vasa Parrots will sometimes house two or three males with a female. I have several pairs of Greater Vasa Parrots and keep them in bonded pairs only, but I do keep the pairs in adjacent aviaries so they can see, hear, and interact with each other. This seems to satisfy their interactive social needs. Vasas are quite active birds and need a large enough enclosure to allow for their rapid and agile flying abilities. As the breeding season approaches, the females will begin to spend more time in their nest boxes and will undergo the changes already described as egg laying draws near. I use a tall vertical wooden nest box measuring 25cm X 25cm on the bottom and 120cm tall. The nest box is kept in place year-round. The male’s lower abdomen will noticeably swell with the development of his phallus. The pairs will often be observed copulating for extended periods of time from the onset of the breeding season until the first egg is laid. Nighttime vocalizations also increase at this time of year. Vasa Parrots seem to have a ravenous need for extra calcium during breeding season, probably to accommodate the rapid growth of the chicks. In the wild, they have been observed using stones to rub against seashells to create a powder that they will consume. I provide my pairs with cuttlebone in addition to a high calcium pellet, and fresh sprouts, fruits, and vegetables to satisfy this need. I have allowed the parents to attempt hatching and rearing chicks themselves but often the chicks fail to survive this way. My pairs are generally good incubators, but sometimes neglect one or more chicks in the first few days after hatching. Since Vasa Parrots are rare in United States aviculture, I have made the decision to hand-rear the chicks myself to avoid losses due to parental neglect. I’ve found that the chicks are very easy to hand-rear from day-1 and grow just as rapidly as they do when parent-reared. I always keep more than one together, so they have their own species for companionship. Once fully weaned, the youngsters are placed in a juvenile flock next to the breeding pairs. To maintain a captive population, it is important to allow the next generation of Vasa Parrots to mature as part of a social flock of their own kind. Vasa Parrots that have been kept as single pets for their early development are unlikely to develop appropriate social behaviors to successfully reproduce later in life. As pets, Vasas are delightful and enthusiastic birds. They can learn to mimic words and sounds. They do not tend to develop aggression problems toward their keepers. Due to their high-energy and active nature, it’s best to provide them with plenty of room to fly and exercise. It is also important to understand the annual reproductive cycle that both sexes undergo. Single male pet Vasa Parrots will sometimes evert their phallus during breeding season in what appears to be a horrific cloacal prolapse. This is completely normal and should not be taken as a reason to rush the bird to the veterinarian for emergency surgery. The phallus will normally retract on its own within minutes but may remain everted for an hour or so. Female pet Vasas will go bald and develop the swelling under the beak and the lower abdomen during breeding season. Females also begin making unusual chuckling vocalizations that are used to encourage their mates to begin feeding them heavily. The female’s change in behavior and anatomy is also perfectly natural and should not be taken as an indication that the bird is ill. Greater Vasa Parrot chicks aged 3 days and 7 days Wild Greater Vasa Parrot flock feeding in a mango tree Active and agile, Vasa Parrots approach life with enthusiasm and gusto. They have adapted to the unique and unpredictable environment found on Madagascar which seems to have endowed them with a heightened sense of urgency. Hopefully, those qualities will carry them forward into a future that seems uncertain in Madagascar in the face of massive and ongoing habitat loss. It is a privilege to be able to work with them in captivity, and it’s my hope that we will be able to preserve both the wild population and the captive population for generations to come.

By Steve Duncan, Avian Resources Originally published in the Avicultural Society of America, Avicultural Bulletin     In August of 2014, I was able to visit a very special place to me, The International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. My connection with ICF began decades prior. In fact, the summer of 2014 marked the 30-year anniversary of my internship there.   My introduction to ICF began in 1980 when I was a senior in high school. At that time, I was already an aviculturist with African Greys, Rosellas, African Waxbills and a few other bird species. I had a keen interest in conservation too.  My English teacher gave an assignment to the class that turned out to set a chain of events in motion that helped shape my life. The assignment was very simple – write a four-page paper. That’s all. It could be an essay, a research paper, a creative fictional work. The choice was completely up to the student as long as it was at least four pages. I had already chosen biology as my major for my approaching college studies, so the choice was simple for me. I would write a research paper on the critically endangered Japanese Crested Ibis, a bird I had recently read about in a very short article in the AFA Watchbird magazine. Besides, the teacher wouldn’t know anything about a Japanese Crested Ibis so I could write whatever I wanted about it, but I was going to do my best to find good factual information.   It was thought at the time that the Japanese Crested Ibis was down to just a hand-full of individuals in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea - not the best place for anyone to conduct field research so there was little literature to use for my research paper. I decided to write a letter to the editor of the AFA Watchbird Magazine where I had first learned about the plight of this bird. I received a reply from Watchbird editor, Sheldon Dingle, who encouraged me to contact the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, since George Archibald, one of ICF’s founders, had just been to Korea and had seen the ibis there. Thus began a life-long friendship with Sheldon, somebody I had always admired for his wit and wisdom in the pages of the Watchbird.   On Sheldon’s advice, I did write to the Crane Foundation and received a small sampling of information about the Japanese Crested Ibis, but what is more important is that the Crane Foundation also informed me of internship opportunities there. That was a bit of exciting information that I would keep in mind for the next 4 years as I was studying Biology in college. During my senior year in college, I decided the time was right, so I applied for and was granted an internship at ICF for the summer of 1984. This was a wonderful opportunity to work with some of the world’s most endangered birds learning about their husbandry, incubation, artificial insemination, and to simply enjoy Baraboo, Wisconsin, which is a whole different world from my Anaheim, California upbringing.   Even though I had followed ICF’s accomplishments over the years since then, I wasn’t able to return in person until August of 2014. Since I was travelling with family on a road-trip through Wisconsin, I was eager to finally stop by and visit. I contacted Bryant Tarr, the Curator at ICF, who graciously agreed to show me around and provide important insights into ICF’s current operations.   About ICF The International Crane Foundation was founded by George Archibald and Ron Sauey in 1973. From its humble beginnings on Ron Sauey’s parents’ horse farm in Baraboo, Wisconsin, ICF has gone on to accomplish many firsts in crane aviculture including the first world captive breeding of Siberian Cranes and of Hooded Cranes. ICF is also the first institution to successfully breed all 15 species of cranes.   The current facility is 225 acres and houses over 100 cranes. The facility is divided into 4 main parts – the public display area, the breeding facility known as Crane City, an isolation chick rearing facility for chicks that are to be released into the wild, and an administrative complex complete with an extensive crane library and dormitories for interns and a conference center. The intern dormitory housing is a far cry from the office trailer I stayed in 30 years ago.   ICF has a full-time staff of about 45 people in Baraboo in various departments including Aviculture, Communications and Education, Field Ecology, Site Maintenance, Development, Veterinary Services, and Administrative. A seasonal team of up to 20 interns spread among many of these disciplines helps out as well. In addition to the Baraboo staff, ICF supports about a dozen staff members abroad in China, Russia, India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. ICF also collaborates widely with many research associates and local non-governmental organizations across the globe.    Aerial photo of ICF. Crane City breeding compound at top. To the right of that on the other side of the trees is the Isolation Chick Rearing facility. At the center bottom is the administrative complex. The lower left portion is the public display area with the circular shaped “Pod” display. (photo from Google Earth)   From 1976 to 1982, George Archibald took on a now famous endeavor – to breed a certain Whooping Crane named Tex who was hopelessly imprinted on humans and would not accept a mate of her own species. Tex’s genetics were very important to the tiny gene pool of Whooping Cranes. George often spent the entire daylight period with Tex during breeding season to perform all the mating dances and rituals necessary to get her to lay an egg. With artificial insemination, Tex finally laid a fertile egg in 1982. The resulting chick, Gee Whiz, was only 2 years old when I was at ICF, and he still lives there today. Gee Whiz has produced dozens of offspring, many of which are now flying free thanks to the reintroduction efforts that can be undertaken with captive-bred offspring that are raised in visual isolation from humans by the use of crane puppets and costumes. ICF has a separate unit dedicated to isolation rearing of cranes for reintroduction to the wild.   Gee Whiz the Whooping Crane, Grus americana   ICF is more than a crane breeding center though. From their earliest days, working with foreign countries to preserve critical crane habitat was always an important part of the work they do. George Archibald is equally talented at the diplomacy and passion required to encourage foreign countries to protect crane habitat as he is talented at establishing captive populations of cranes. ICF has instituted crane conservation programs in Russia, China, North America, and Africa. These programs are enormously valuable for preserving critical habitat for wild cranes.     Then Versus Now My internship in 1984 was during a time of transition for ICF. The breeding facility was still located at the old Sauey horse farm. A new facility was being built a few miles north at the current location. All the incubation and chick-rearing was carried out at the new facility. Some adult display birds were at the new facility also, but all the breeding birds were still at the old facility. ICF was running regular tours for the general public at the new facility and public education was increasingly an important daily activity handled by educational interns.   The cranes become very familiar with the aviculture staff and would often play and dance when we entered their pens for maintenance. Since the public tour groups stayed on the outside of the pens, the cranes essentially ignored them as the guides would lead the groups by and provide information about each species to the visitors. It was always fun to quietly tag along with a tour because as the guide stopped in front of a pen to talk about the inhabitants, I could softly call to the cranes who would recognize me and become very animated, calling and performing their dancing displays which delighted the visitors and the tour guide as well.   At the new facility, a large, off-exhibit breeding compound, dubbed Crane City, was planned, but construction had not yet started in 1984. Today, that facility is well-used and hugely successful, housing roughly 50 pairs of cranes. Each pen has a 12’ X 12’ totally enclosed shelter connected to a 50’ X 60’ chain-link pen. The chain link is covered in opaque green shade-cloth to provide privacy to the pairs. All pens are covered in flexible netting to keep wild cranes out and the captive cranes in. Remote cameras are set up to observe each pen. The pens can be flooded to create the marshy habitat that encourages them to breed. The current breeding pens at Crane City are actually very similar to the original breeding pens at the old horse farm, but we certainly did not have remote cameras and closed-circuit monitoring 30 years ago. Service Aisle at Crane City breeding facility One of the newer shelters in Crane City. Most of the original wooden shelters have outlived their 25 year life-span and are being replaced with shelters such as this that are more resistant to weathering. Interior of a crane breeding pen showing a pair of Whooping Cranes and flooded marshy area.   The old crane nursery has been converted to administrative offices, and the new nursery is located off-exhibit since most of the chicks are reared for release. This marks one of the biggest changes in protocol between then and now. When I was at ICF, nearly all cranes were incubator hatched and hand-reared with full human contact resulting in tame adults. Today, the chicks are parent-reared by their own biological parents or by another pair of the same species, or they are isolation-reared for potential release. If cranes are foster-parented by a different species of crane, they will imprint on that species and will usually not accept a mate of their own species when they mature. Typically, all of the Whooping Cranes are isolation-reared as potential release candidates while the other species are parent-reared. This is also reflective of ICF’s crane population, of which Whooping Cranes are the most numerous by far. There was only one Whooping Crane, “Gee Whiz”, when I was there. Now, the main focus of producing chicks is to produce Whooping Cranes for release, and ICF houses 36 breeding Whooping Cranes, a large portion of the captive population.   One of the primary crane public display enclosures is named, “The Pod” which was just completed when I was there. It was designed by Herb Fritz, a student of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, which shows in its artistic, yet highly utilitarian design. The Pod is a large, circular complex with pens radiating out from a central service area. Each section is designed to house a pair of cranes. There is a chain-link divider in each section to either allow for separation of the pair for various reasons or to allow one side of the enclosure to weather while the cranes are in the other side. During my recent visit, there was a pair of Indian Sarus Cranes, Grus antigone , incubating an egg. The male was a known egg-breaker so he was separated on the other side of the divider leaving the female to incubate on her own but still in close contact with her mate. The egg has since hatched, and the male will be introduced to the same enclosure once the keeper staff feels the chick is large enough to avoid potential aggression. The reintroduction will be closely supervised of course.     Indian Sarus Crane, Grus antigone antigone, at up to 6 feet tall, this is the tallest flying bird in the world.   Aerial View of the Pod (photo from Google Earth)  Brolga Crane, Grus rubicunda, enclosure showing chain link divider between two holding areas. The Pod is still in use today, although one section has had some of the pen dividers removed and a mural of an African savanna has been painted on the walls to create a large, very attractive display for a pair of Blue Cranes.  The large Blue Crane pen faces the rest of the African species of cranes, the Grey Crowned Cranes, Black Crowned Cranes and Wattled Cranes which are housed in newer enclosures with nice shaded seating for quiet observation by the public. These four species of African cranes are part of ICF’s newer push to preserve habitat in Africa and promote conservation there.  The remaining pens in The Pod house Hooded Cranes, Demoiselle Cranes, Black-necked Cranes, Siberian Cranes. White-naped Cranes, Sarus Cranes, Brolga Cranes, Sandhill Cranes, Eurasian Cranes, and Japanese Red-crowned Cranes to round out all the world’s 15 crane species.   Blue Crane Enclosure in the Pod Blue Crane, Anthropoides paradiseus, also known as the Stanley Crane or Paradise Crane.   Black Crowned Crane Exhibit During my internship, ICF did not have Black-necked Cranes, Hooded Cranes, Demoiselle Cranes, or Black Crowned Cranes. Today, all 15 species of Cranes can be seen there. In fact, the Black-necked Cranes arrived just days after my internship was completed. I remember helping to prepare the pens for their arrival and the excitement of the staff in anticipation.  Black-necked Crane, Grus nigricollis   The most impressive enclosure though, is the relatively new Whooping Crane Amphitheater. This pen is over an acre in size and bean-shaped as it faces a large amphitheater with plenty of seating that looks out over a large pond. A berm is built up on the opposite side of the pond from the seating. The berm hosts a heavy growth of native tall-grass prairie and wetland vegetation which visually hides the enclosure walls beyond. The effect is completed by a backdrop of native oak woodland in the distance. The result is an absolutely natural-looking prairie wetland complete with a gorgeous pair of endangered Whooping Cranes strolling about and foraging in their habitat. The visual effect is truly stunning as all hints of the enclosure are completely hidden from view while sitting in the amphitheater. The exhibit must be appealing to the birds too since wild Whooping Cranes have stopped in for a visit during their migration through the area. Whooping Crane Amphitheater   Whooping Crane, Grus americana in the Whooping Crane Amphitheater. One might not know this is an image of a captive crane. As part of the aviculture staff during my internship, my daily routine began at the new facility checking in on the nursery and incubators. We would then drive the few miles to the old horse farm to care for the breeders there. Once that was complete, we would return to the new facility to care for the display birds and chicks, and perform any needed tasks including cleaning and repairs. Today, all the cranes are at one facility, although golf carts are very handy to get around the 225 acres.   Not all 225 acres are developed though. The vast majority of the acreage is preserved as natural habitat including tall grass prairie, oak woodland, and prairie wetland. Three miles of nature trails wind through the property. The public displays are near the front. Crane City is near the back of the property, and the isolation chick rearing unit is separated a bit away through a grove of trees for complete privacy. Even the enclosures for the cranes on public display are very natural with a host of native species sharing the space with the cranes. Some of the 3 miles of nature trails Spacious and Natural Wattled Crane Enclosure  Wattled Crane   Crane Husbandry Cranes are well known for their dances and loud trumpeting calls. Despite the fact that Cranes congregate in huge flocks during the non-breeding season, they remain monogamous. Cranes have developed an extensive ritualized body language to communicate with each other and maintain the pair bond amid these large flocks. It is this body language that ICF founder, George Archibald, did his PhD studies on. There are stereotypical threat displays that are common among all species of cranes but with unique attributes to each species. Most of these displays could be disregarded as normal preening behaviors and postures to the casual observer, but with experience, it becomes very easy to spot the communication that is actually constantly happening.   The most impressive displays are the unison calls. The bonded pairs of cranes perform a unison call that is unique to each species. Just like any good duet, each partner has their own specific role. The males perform one part of the call while the females fill in their part. The result is a cohesive call that sounds like a single bird calling. Each sex has specific postures during the unison call as well; usually the males have the more exaggerated positions with wings tilted up or heads thrown back farther. (for a video of Siberian Cranes performing a unison call, and more photos of ICF, please go to asabirds.org/cranes ) Siberian Crane, Leucogeranus leucogeranus, Performing Unison Call   During my time at ICF, the diet was very simple - a proprietary pellet made for cranes. The breeding pellet had a bit over 20% protein, and the maintenance pellet is slightly less at under 19% protein. During the winter months, the pellet diet was sometimes supplemented with corn.  Unlike similar-looking fish-eating birds such as herons and egrets, Cranes feed primarily on vegetable matter including roots, tubers and grains. Chicks will eat more animal protein, mostly in the form of insects and other invertebrates, and adults will take live food opportunistically, but the bulk of the diet is vegetable-based. The only time live food (waxworms) was offered when I was there was when a pair of White-naped Cranes was rearing their own baby.   Today, the diet is more varied. Commercially available Zeigler Bros Crane Pellets is the base of the diet with breeder pellets (22% protein) and maintenance pellets (15% protein) and for the chicks - starter pellets (24% protein), but a huge variety of additional items are offered including fruits and vegetables, berries, nuts, corn, seeds, mealworms, waxworms, smelt, crawfish, pinkie mice and more. Chicks get live food in the form of mealworms and waxworms regularly in addition to live minnows, worms, snails, clams, and such when chicks are being encouraged to forage on their own in wetlands for eventual release.   Cranes are fiercely monogamous so they are typically kept one compatible pair per enclosure. Occasionally, there can be some aggression between mates and the pairs may be split up into adjacent enclosures.     In the non-breeding season in the wild, cranes are highly gregarious and will congregate in huge flocks for migration and overwintering. Pairs remain close and display in spectacular dances, leaping into the air, often while tossing twigs into the air at the same time. This behavior helps maintain the pair-bond among so many other birds. These dances have inspired many traditional human cultures around the world in art, folklore, and dance. Red-crowned Cranes, for example, are highly revered in Japan where they represent long-life and fidelity and are very common in traditional textiles, paintings and origami. Japanese Red-crowned Cranes, Grus japonensis   In the wild, these migratory and over-wintering flocks are often of mixed species. Prior to my time at ICF, the cranes were sometimes kept in mixed-species flocks during the non-breeding season to simulate this natural seasonal cycle, but an outbreak of deadly herpes virus that spread among the communal flock stopped that practice. The breeding cranes are now kept in single-pair enclosures year-round.   Most of the crane species can handle the year-round weather in Wisconsin and are allowed the freedom to enter or exit their shelters except during extreme winter storms. A few of the tropical African species, such as Crowned Cranes and Wattled Cranes, must be kept inside and heated during freezing temperatures. Black Crowned Crane, Belearica pavonina. Of the two species of Crowned Cranes, the Black Crowned Crane was once more critically endangered. Unfortunately, the Grey Crowned Crane has suffered dramatic population declines and is now as rare as the Black-crowned Crane in the wild.   One of ICF’s early successes was with the critically endangered Siberian Crane. Successful breeding of these cranes was very challenging. They nest at very high latitudes in Siberia, close to the Arctic Circle, where it can be daylight for all 24 hours of the day. High powered artificial lighting was installed over the breeding compound to simulate this very long photoperiod. ICF’s founding breeding stock mostly came from various zoos and most of the Siberian Cranes in captivity at the time had been pinioned for display in typical open-topped waterfowl enclosures. Pinioning involves amputating the distal portion of one wing to prevent flight and is a permanent alteration. Many times, pinioned male cranes cannot successfully mate since they need their full wings for balance during copulation. Some of the Siberian Cranes had also been kept singly for some time so there was some concern about aggression if they were to be kept together as pairs. The solution to both the pinioning issue and the aggression issue was to house the birds in adjacent enclosures and use artificial insemination.  The birds could still see each other and perform the pair-specific behaviors without risk of over-aggressive birds causing injury to their mates. Artificial insemination also allowed more genetic combinations because a female could be inseminated with semen from different males without having to form new pair-bonds, something that would normally be impossible during a single breeding season. Siberian Crane, Leucogeranus leucogeranus   Artificial Insemination Artificial insemination (AI) is an oddly straight-forward process that I will summarize. The cranes do not typically volunteer for the process, but with regular attempts, about 3 or 4 times per week, they can be conditioned to respond more favorably. Tame or imprinted cranes are generally better candidates for AI, but even wild, un-tamed birds can be used successfully once they become accustomed to the routine.   To collect the semen, the male is restrained in a natural standing position with the handler and crane facing each other, but the crane’s head and neck will go through the legs of the handler so the head is behind the handler.  The handler massages the inner thighs for a few seconds or minutes depending on the cooperation level of the crane. A second person massages the abdomen and dorsal area near the tail by applying gentle pressure and moving toward the vent. The crane should respond with grunting noises and will lift the tail and sometimes voluntarily evert the cloaca. The semen is stripped from the vent by milking the cloaca gently after the bird responds to the stroking. In very cooperative birds, the semen will ejaculate just from stroking the thighs and does not need to be stripped from the cloaca. The semen is collected in a small glass container or in a pipette.   To inseminate the female, a similar process is used but the handler will stroke the back just in front of the tail and the outer sides of the thighs where the male would normally make contact when mounted during copulation. The female will respond by raising her tail and opening the cloaca. The opening to the oviduct will appear inside the cloaca toward the left side. The semen can be inserted gently inside this opening by use of a smooth-tipped syringe.   If semen samples are very small, the use of a semen extender made for turkeys can be used. The semen extender is simply a fluid to increase volume, but it also contains some sugars to help maintain sperm vitality. ICF has also successfully used frozen semen samples that were collected then stored in liquid nitrogen coolers for later use. The use of cryogenically collected semen is a valuable tool to manage the genetics of such critically endangered birds. On Site Lab for Semen Evaluation and Microbiology   Egg Management Cranes will only lay 2 eggs per year if allowed to hatch and rear their chicks, but they will lay replacement eggs if the eggs are removed. Since many of the cranes are endangered, the goal is sometimes to rear as many as possible so pulling eggs as soon as they are laid was the standard protocol. In this way, cranes can lay a dozen or more eggs in a breeding season, greatly increasing the population much quicker than allowing them to rear their own offspring. Today, most crane species are allowed to incubate and rear their own offspring since breeding is controlled by the Species Survival Plans, but Whooping Crane eggs are still artificially incubated to increase production and provide young birds for release.   The eggs are still incubated in Petersime and Humidaire incubators that were in use during my time, and some newer model GQF incubators have been added to the mix. Historically, eggs were fumigated with formaldehyde gas initially before going into the incubators. Today, formaldehyde gas is no longer used as it is highly dangerous. The eggs are now sanitized with ozone gas when they are brought in for incubation.   Incubator Room at ICF   Part of my internship at ICF was to collect data on the weight loss of the eggs and to record the angle at which they floated when placed in water. Crane eggs are heavily pigmented and are difficult to candle, especially for biologists studying nests in the wild. It was hoped that fertile eggs or developing eggs could be quickly identified compared to dead or infertile eggs by observing the angle at which they floated in the water. Sadly, the experiment did not identify a difference except for eggs that are quite far along in development. In these eggs, the movements of the chick inside the egg could be observed as it caused the egg to jiggle and bob while floating. Floating eggs in water for a few minutes does no harm provided the water temperature is close to the same temperature as the eggs. The crane eggs I studied were floated in an aquarium filled with water at about 98 degrees F so it wouldn't cool the eggs causing the contents to contract thus drawing in any contaminants on the outside of the shell.   Chick Rearing – Then Versus Now For artificially incubated eggs, a few hours after hatching, the chicks are placed individually in brooders and must be encouraged to eat. Crane chicks are precocial and can eat on their own, but the parent cranes will pick up tidbits to offer to their offspring encouraging them to eat. Baby cranes instinctively peck at anything that looks somewhat like a crane beak so one of the handiest items to simulate this was a long-handled red plastic spoon that we often acquired at the local Dairy Queen. I did my part to consume as many sundaes as possible in the name of crane conservation.   Once the chicks were a few days old and eating well, they were brought outside to a very large exercise pen where they were closely supervised because chick to chick aggression was common if left unattended. The chicks were encouraged to swim in pools of water to provide impact-free exercise to their long legs. Without proper exercise, baby cranes can develop bowed legs and other developmental deformities of the legs and feet so it was very important to get the chicks out in the exercise yard regularly. Walking and running about on grass also helped keep the toes straight. If kept on a hard surface or if not enough exercise is provided, baby crane toes tend to bend to the side resulting in permanent deformation. If a toe began to bend to the side, it was often taped to a splint for a day or so to keep it in the correct position.   The crane chick exercise yard is a thing of the past though. Today, chicks that are being reared to stay in captivity are parent-reared so they get all the exercise they need following their parents around their spacious enclosures. Whooping Crane chicks that are candidates for release are raised at a separate compound in visual and audible isolation from humans. Caretakers don crane costumes and act as crane parents to provide the proper socialization skills for the growing chicks who follow the costumed caretakers about large enclosures for foraging and exercise.  A juvenile Hooded Crane, Grus monacha, with its foster parent of the same species.   Since cranes are migratory, the young cranes must learn the migration route in their first fall. There are two basic methods to accomplish this.   One method is to train the baby cranes from a very young age to follow an ultra-light aircraft that will ultimately lead them on their journey south. To accomplish this, the surrogate human parent in a crane suit will encourage the chicks to follow him/her in a model of an ultra-light. Later, a motor is added to accustom the birds to the loud sound it makes. Eventually, the birds will follow a full-size ultra-light on the ground. As the birds mature, short flights are taken until they are strong enough to begin the journey. Due to the limitations of flying ultra-lights for long-distances and the planning involved to have landing places and crane pens set up each night during the migration, this is a very difficult and arduous process, but it has been very successful at establishing new migratory routes. This trip can take several weeks to complete. An experienced wild crane can actually cover the same distance in just a few days.   The other method is to release the cranes at just the right moment when wild adults and their wild chicks are beginning to congregate before migrating south. The released birds are monitored to make sure they join a wild flock. This method obviously requires an established wild population with the desired migratory route, but it is certainly more natural and much easier to accomplish. This method is called Direct Autumn Release.   Regardless of which method is used, once the chicks have completed one Fall migration south, they are capable of returning in the Spring without any additional assistance although they do migrate in flocks.  Most cranes do not breed until they are about 3-6 years of age so they will have made the migratory round-trip several times before they are old enough to rear their own offspring. Wild Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis, at wintering grounds in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. The cranes roost in shallow water every night. The water sometimes actually freezes around their legs as evidenced by the small ice anklet on its left leg after taking off in the early morning light.   30 years is much too long When I finished my internship at ICF 30 years ago, I was certain I would return in the next few years to see the progress they had made. There was so much construction planned that had yet to be started when I was there. It was very exciting. It turned out, that I didn’t get back there soon at all, but I certainly was not disappointed when I finally did return last summer.   ICF has always been unique for their all-encompassing approach to conservation of cranes. It is amazingly inspiring to see something so successful that was started on a horse farm in Baraboo by two people with a passion for cranes. ICF’S efforts are truly global and have been that way from the start although the influence has grown over the years. The effort involves habitat conservation, captive-breeding, working with foreign governments, education of the people who share their native habitats abroad, as well as educating the general public in the United States.  ICF is successful on all these fronts which means not only good news for cranes but also good news for other species that share their diminishing habitats. Cranes are a highly revered symbol in many cultures around the world so it is a more successful strategy to focus on their survival which depends on protecting their remaining habitat. All the other species that share that habitat also win as a result. Educational signage showing the species that share and depend on the same habitat as each species of crane.   The people of ICF, the lessons I learned, and the cranes themselves never left my mind. Even the small town of Baraboo was a delightful first home away from home for me. The experience I had there truly made an incredibly positive impact on my life. It’s good to know that the International Crane Foundation has only gotten better at their important work of preserving these very special birds.   If you would like to learn more about the International Crane Foundation or about the internship program, please visit their website – www.savingcranes.org or visit them in Baraboo, Wisconsin. If you love birds, it’s well worth the trip and may be the trip of a lifetime.   Flock of Sandhill Cranes arriving at wintering grounds at Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

By Steve Duncan, Avian Resources Originally published in the Avicultural Society of America, Avicultural Bulletin     In any breeding operation, there will inevitably be those parents who do not go along with the plan of hatching and rearing their own young, so intervention becomes necessary to save their offspring. When this situation is encountered, I try to foster eggs to other pairs whenever possible. If there is no other clutch of the same age and species, I will foster to other species. This can sometimes lead to some interesting foster-parent/baby combinations. I’ve had pairs of Amazons who were very proficient at successfully hatching and feeding macaws and cockatoos. I’ve even fostered a Meyer’s Parrot egg under a “pair” of female Red Lories. They hatched and fed the chick for 2 weeks, at which time I pulled it for hand-feeding. Occasionally, I will use chickens, pigeons or doves to foster incubate parrot eggs, but of course these chicks must be pulled for hand-feeding as soon as they hatch or better yet, the eggs should be pulled just prior to hatching. Red-headed Amazon with Galah Chick When moving eggs from one nest to another or into an incubator, it is important to identify who they are. Eggsthat are removed from the nest are identified with their cage number written with a fine-point Magic Marker or pencil on the large end of the egg. I put this information on the large end for three reasons: (1) so I know where to find it quickly, (2) because it’s safer to write over the air cell in case the shell is damaged by writing, and (3) because the information will remain intact after a normal hatch since the cap of the shell will come off in one piece. Egg ID   If there are no options to foster eggs, they must be brought in for artificial incubation. Eggs that receive natural incubation for the first week or two will generally do much better than those that must be artificially incubated from the time they are laid. Incubators There are a number of different incubator models available on the market that range in price and quality. Many of the older models that are no longer in production, such as Humidaire and Petersime, are still very sought-after. Generally, you get what you pay for in incubators with the more expensive models being of better quality and having more options, but there is a trade-off to spending a lot of money on a single incubator. Instead of paying top-dollar for an expensive incubator, I typically opt to spend a similar amount of money on multiple less expensive units. This provides me with more flexibility in incubation parameters allowing you to incubate some eggs at higher humidity than others, for example. Even though southern California is fairly arid, parrot eggs generally don’t require any water in the incubator during incubation. However, if an egg has an abnormally thin shell or other fault in the shell that is causing it to dehydrate, it will need higher humidity than normal to prevent excess dehydration. Such eggs must be incubated separately from the rest. Candling Eggs – The following chart will give you a basic idea of what healthy eggs should look like compared to dead eggs. It is best to use a high-powered egg candler.   Candling Eggs Ideally, eggs should lose approximately 15% of their weight over the normal incubation period. You can use a range of 12% to 18% as a good target. If you are incubating from day 1, you can track this with a good scale and a piece of graph paper. The vertical Y axis will be used to record the weight of the egg, and the horizontal X axis will be the days of incubation. Get the weight of the egg when it is laid and record that on the Y axis of your graph at day 1. Multiply this fresh weight by .88 to get the 12% weight loss figure, and divide by .82 to get the 18% weight loss figure. Plot these 2 points on the line above the number of days it takes for the species to hatch. Now draw 2 lines from the fresh laid weight – 1 line to each of these 2 points on the other side of the graph to form two slightly diverging lines. Now you can weigh the egg every few days and plot the figure on the graph for that day of incubation. The point should fall within the two lines. If it is above the 2 lines, then the egg is not losing enough water. If it is below the line, it is drying out too fast. In the example below, the dots are just above the upper line indicating that this egg is just slightly too heavy and will need careful monitoring at hatching. Charting Egg Weight Loss If the egg weights are tracking well above the line, then intervention is needed sooner. Using a nail file, a very small amount of shell can be filled down to make it thinner and more porous to allow more evaporation. It is best to start with a small patch of shell over the air cell. Wait a couple days and weigh the egg again to see if weight loss has been improved before filing more shell if necessary. If the weight is below the lower line, then intervention is also needed because the egg is losing too much moisture. These eggs should be moved to an incubator with high humidity. If additional measures are necessary, the egg can be painted with fingernail polish to reduce the porosity of the shell. Be sure to paint the shell with stripes to avoid creating a large area of shell that can’t respire. Nail polish applied to shell in stripes to slow down water loss in thin-shelled egg.   The Hatching Process As the egg approaches hatching time, it undergoes a series of changes. The first is drawdown, where the air cell begins to extend from the large end of the egg down one side of the egg. At this point, the egg should not be turned, and the drawdown portion should be kept facing up. This is the area of the egg where the chick’s beak is and is where it will make the first pip mark through the shell to allow access to fresh air as the chick switches to using its lungs to breathe. Internal Pip – You can see the shadow of the beak sticking up into the air cell.  If everything goes normally, the chick’s beak will first break through the membrane into the air cell (internal pip), then it will make the external pip through the shell sometime after that. During this time, the chick’s lungs are taking over respiratory function. It is not unusual for the chick to sit for a couple of days without any further changes. This is the time that overanxious aviculturists often can’t resist the urge to assist the hatching process but end up injuring the chick instead.  Just prior to emerging, the chick will draw the remaining yolk into its abdomen, and the blood vessels will recede. When the time is right, the chick will pip and rotate around the circumference of the egg in about 15-20 minutes. With a couple of great heaves, called surge pips, the chick will then push off the cap of the egg and emerge. Because nothing seems to be happening before the chick rotates, many people mistakenly believe the chick is stuck and needs help. External Pip - The hatchling is beginning to crack the shell from inside   Hatch Assistance There are times, however, when intervention in the hatching process is necessary to save the life of the chick. In my opinion, people make hatching assistance far more complicated than it needs to be. Think of it this way – What’s the rush to get a chick out the shell? All it means is you have another mouth to feed. Relax! Instead of thinking of it as Hatch Assistance, it’s better to think of it as Breathing Assistance. The developing embryo has lived in this shell for well over 3 weeks. It has survived off of the contents of the egg for that entire time. The only thing it has absorbed from the outside is Oxygen. As long as the chick is getting Oxygen, there is nothing urgent. Too many people feel the need to rush in and pull a chick out of a place that has served it well for 3-4 weeks. At hatching, the chick only needs to make the transition from using the blood vessels in the shell membrane to gather Oxygen, to using its lungs instead. Once the lungs are developed, the yolk is absorbed and the blood vessels will recede. It is best to let that happen with the shell intact. There is plenty of yolk to take care of the chick’s nutritional needs for 24-48 hours after a normal hatch. There should be no rush to get a chick out of the shell if it can breathe. As long as it has access to air through the pip, it can sit there all day, even after the blood vessels recede. It’s not going to starve. It has plenty of yolk. It’s not going to dehydrate, unless you get impatient and begin removing shell too soon causing bleeding or too much exposure to outside air. For malpositioned chicks or chicks that pip below the air cell, there is nothing urgent if the chick is vocalizing. If you can hear the chick peeping, it simply means that it is able to get air into its lungs which is a great sign. If the chick has pipped below the air cell and is vocalizing, it is getting air from outside through the pip mark – also good. There is no need to rush in to help the chick if you hear it peeping. If you put a pinhead sized hole in the shell over the air cell, it will relieve the pressure which will allow the chick more room to expand its lungs. In these cases, that is the only thing I do until the blood vessels recede. With a good high-power candler, you will be able to see if any blood vessels remain. When they are gone, and the chick is still sitting there, only then is it advisable to begin removing shell from around the tip of the beak (pip mark) and slowly expose the head and check for unabsorbed yolk and free the chick from the shell if all is ready. Air Hole in Air Cell   The procedure is a bit more delicate for malpositioned chicks that are not able to pip the shell. The egg must be monitored with a high-power candler to see where the tip of the chick’s beak is located. This is sometimes indicated by a slight discoloration from inside the egg shell where the beak is rubbing but not able to break through. A tiny amount of shell can be lifted with a pin without disturbing the shell membrane underneath. Allow the underlying membrane to dry. Often times, the blood vessels will then recede from the area allowing you to safely make a very small hole in the membrane to allow air inside for the chick to begin breathing. Once the chick is breathing, you can relax and let it absorb the yolk and allow the blood vessels to recede on their own before pulling the chick out of the shell if necessary. Since this external pip is below the air cell, a small amount of shell has been removed without disturbing the underlying membrane. After a couple hours, the membrane will dry out and a very small air hole can be poked through it to allow the chick to breathe fresh air.   In may be beneficial to CAREFULLY inject some air under the shell membrane to form an air pocket at the tip of the back from which the developing chick can begin to transition to relying on its lungs to breathe. Many people feel the need to open the air cell to see what’s going on, and wet the membrane with distilled water. Opening the air cell will promote dehydration of the chick and allow a greater chance of infection. I also recommend against wetting the membrane. That will increase the possibility of contamination and infections, and as the water evaporates, it cools the baby. Furthermore, I think it actually causes the membranes to dry out even more causing them to crack and/or stick to the chick. If you leave the shell intact, or only put a pinhead-sized hole into the air cell, you won’t need to worry about wetting the membranes. Remember – It’s all about Oxygen. If the chick can breathe/vocalize, you are in good shape. Don’t watch the clock. Just leave it alone until the blood vessels are gone. The blood vessels have completely receded, and the chick can be seen moving about inside the egg. Now the shell can be carefully removed without great risk of the chick bleeding. Once the blood vessels have receded, the shell over the air cell is removed. Before the chick is removed from the shell, free the head and check for unabsorbed yolk or blood vessels. If necessary, the chick can be placed back into the incubator/hatcher while still half in the shell and given more time. This one is ready to come out. Chicks that are ready to come out, will also have a vigorous feeding response if the sides of the beak are touched. One other tip, if you hold a hatching egg up to your ear and you hear some clicking sounds, all is well. Many people interpret that as the chick pecking at the shell. In reality, it is the sound of the chick breathing. The clicking is part of the sounds made by a newly functioning respiratory system. It is one of the signs to tell you that the chick is getting air to its lungs and you can relax. You can hold a newly hatched chick to your ear and hear the exact same clicking sound. Checking for unabsorbed yolk or blood vessels at the small end of the egg Natural incubation is best, but at times, we do need to intervene. Incubation and hatching is not complicated if common sense is used. There are few things as inspiring as watching a healthy chick make its way into the world – so tiny and helpless, yet so perfectly made to be able to develop from a single cell to a fully-functioning organism within the confines of an egg. The miracle of life certainly starts well before the chick hatches.   A successful hatch for an Umbrella Cockatoo

A sample of photos comparing different color mutations and combinations for Green-cheek Conures. Normal (Wild Type) Normal (Wild Type) Opaline (Yellow-sided) Opaline with High Red Selection Opaline with High Red Selection Par-blue (Indigo) Par-blue (Turquoise) Left to right: Par-blue Misty, Par-blue (Indigo), Violet Par-blue. Lighting can significantly change the appearance of Par-blue and Blue colors. Side-by-side comparisons are best. Pineapple - combination of Cinnamon and Opaline. The amount of red can vary significantly. Pineapple Dominant Red - Dominant Red intensifies the red and adds red color over the top of the head. Turquoise Opaline Left to Right: Turquoise Opaline, Turquoise Cinnamon, Turquoise Pineapple (Turquoise Opaline and Cinnamon) Dilute Opaline, note pigment on upper mandible with light feet. Dilute Opaline, note pigment on upper mandible with light feet. Dilute Opaline, note pigment on upper mandible with light feet. Dilute Cinnamon, note no melanin pigment on feet or beak. Suncheek - Dilute Cinamon Opaline Hi Red Suncheeks Suncheek - back view. 2 Suncheeks on left and 1 Dilute Cinnamon on right Suncheek with Dominant Red Suncheek with Dominant Red Suncheek and Pineapple both with Dominant Red Mint - combination of Dilute and Turquoise Opamint - combination of Dilute, Turquoise, and Opaline Opamint - combination of Dilute, Turquoise, and Opaline Cinnamint Cinnamint - combination of Dilute, Turquoise and Cinnamon Mooncheek, combination of Dilute, Turquoise, Cinnamon and Opaline. Left to Right: Mooncheek, Opamint, and Cinnamint