Bird Days Out: Tropical Bird land
Before the pandemic hit, we managed to get in one day trip out and the place we chose was somewhere that my cousin had told me about for years – Tropical Birdland in Leicestershire. It was quite an overcast and slightly chilly day but we almost had the place to ourselves and it was a […]
Species Profile – Dybowski’s Twinspot
There’s something eye catching about the combination of red, grey and black and this is what you have with the Dybowski’s Twinspot. These birds are one of the less common members of the Estrildidae family that are nonetheless being bred around the UK in small numbers. But are they the right bird for your aviary […]
Bird Profile: House Finch (Mexican Sparrow)
One of the funny things with bird keeping is the variation of names that birds have. Sure, they only have one Latin name but they can have a range of common names. A classic example of this is the Mexican House Finch. When I first heard of these birds they were called Mexican Sparrows or […]
Violet Eared Waxbill Profile
The Violet Eared Waxbill is also known as the Common Grenadier and is a member of the same family as other eye catching finches such as the Purple Grenadier and the Blue cap waxbills. With its distinctive purple face and rump, it is an easy to distinguish bird and also one that tends to be […]
Canary Varieties – The Fife Fancy
The canary is one of the most recognisable pet birds alongside the budgerigar and is the focus of many sayings and stories. But what most people don’t realise is that there are many varieties of canary that have descended from the original wild type – so many that there are even three categories to classifying […]
Lesser or Mealy Redpoll – What’s Yours?
Of the British birds that are popular in captivity, one family that seems to cause the most confusion is the Redpoll. There are only three species in the family and one is very different but the other two, the Lesser and the Mealy Redpoll are often the cause of confusion. So how do you tell […]