EI5 and 4 The older boy came out of the nest box a few days ago. I waited until the younger one had all his pin feathers fluffed out, and then I put him on the floor of the cage and took the nest box away. This was Inga's third round of breeding, and I didn't want her to start laying new eggs in the box.
The little one spent a day or two on the floor of the cage, but then he found his way up to the perch, near his brother.
He's really not as small as he seems. In this photo, he is crouching down while the older one is stretching up. But they are smaller than their parents, and their tails are very short for now.
The little one spent a day or two on the floor of the cage, but then he found his way up to the perch, near his brother.
He's really not as small as he seems. In this photo, he is crouching down while the older one is stretching up. But they are smaller than their parents, and their tails are very short for now.
Here they are with their dad, Eagle.
The older one looks very much like his mother, while the younger one, below, has a lot of yellow on his back, just like he did when he was getting his pin feathers in.
The lighting of this photo makes the younger brother look much paler, almost like a cream, or pale fallow Bourke's. The way to tell the difference between the two kinds of fallows is by the color of the nails and beaks. The bronze fallows have brown nails and darker beaks, whereas the pale fallows have flesh colored ones. Since both parents are bronze fallows, then genetically these chicks are also bronze fallows. But I know the father carries the pale fallow gene, and if the mother does as well, then there is the possibility of having both fallows combined in one bird. I'll be keeping an eye on the color development of their nails and beaks.
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