The Parakeet aviary
The Lovebirds already had their own big birdcage. The Gras-parakeets now have a bigger aviary of their own. The new mega birdcage is 11 meters wide, 50 meters long and 6 meters high! Indeed, more than 3300 m3 flying space for these lovely birds. The construction of this birdcage started in February with the tremendous help from the 330 DS/HS Hrstcie of the Royal Dutch Army. They, with their long cranes, put most of the construction at it’s place.
Of course, visitors can walk through the birdcage and feed the birds. The walking paths are clearly visible now and some parts are ‘protected’ by large tree trunks, so the birds can eat and drink without being ‘harassed’ by their visitors. Well, harassed, they immediately come towards the visitors. They, as intelligent as they are, know that visitors must carry some fruit and nuts and they’ll try to take it from you.
About intelligence: We had to remove one of the neck-link parakeets from the cage. This particular bird stole several earrings from female visitors. It sat down on your shoulder and with a quick nibble on the ear it removed the lock and away it went with sometimes very expensive earrings. In a short time we had more than 10 complaints about this bandit who even stole earrings from an inheritance! The volunteers of our park have searched the premises thoroughly but the stolen goods where nowhere to be found. Some female volunteers tried to fool the bird by walking around with earrings to see if the bird would come and steal theirs en eventually see where the bird hid the other jewels but the bird was too clever to fall for this.
The ‘Midden Brabant College’ (sector green) from Tilburg did a tremendous job helping to build this aviary. They were our guest for a week in preparation for a training period in their 4th grade. We hope that this cooperation will last for a long time!
The volunteers have, also made possible by our sponsors, finished the birdhouse. And the final result is fabulous! The birds are having a great time in their new environment. You can tell by the bold trees which were full of leaves a month ago! The mouse parakeets even started building a big nest near the exit.
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