AMADOR BIRD TRACKS Monthly Newsletter of the Amador Bird Club June 2014 The Amador Bird Club is a group of people who share an interest in birds and is open to all. Happy Father’s Day! Pictured left is "Pale Male" with offspring, in residence at his 927 Fifth Avenue NYC apartment building nest, overlooking Central Park. Perhaps the most famous of all avian fathers, Pale Male’s story 3 (continued below) ... “home of the rare Amadorian Combo Parrot” Dates of bird club President’s Message The Amador Bird Club meeting will meetings this year: be held on: • June 13* Hi Everyone, hope you are enjoying the Friday, June 13, 2014 at 7:30 PM • July 11 warmer weather as I know that some of the • August 8 birds are "getting into the swing of things" and Place : Administration Building, • Sept. 12** producing for all of you breeders. This month Amador County Fairgrounds, • October 10 we will be having a very interesting and Plymouth informative presentation on breeding and • November 14 showing English budgies by Mary Ann Silva. I • December 12 Activity : Breeding and Showing am hoping that you all can attend as it will be English Budgies by Mary Ann (Xmas Party) your loss if you miss this night. Silva *Friday-the-13 th : drive carefully! We will be signing up for the Fair booth Refreshments: Persons with ** Semi-Annual attendance and manning so PLEASE mark it last names beginning with S-Z. Raffle on your calendar. The more volunteers the easier it is for EVERYONE. Set-up is always the Wed. evening/afternoon and manning the Officers for 2014 - 2016 booth is generally 2 shifts per day with 2 people per shift SO we need 16 volunteers President Blue Wrigley without someone having to double up. Let's Treasurer Cathy Hooper support our club as we have always done in Secretary Terry Ryan the past. Newsletter Todd Sargent Webmaster Kim Schmutzler-Agee Come Fri. and have a good time, looking forward to seeing you all....... Blue Pale Male continued... 3 was presented by a one-hour documentary, "Pale Male", by filmmaker Frederic Lilien, which aired on NATURE – WNET in 2004. A feature documentary called The Legend of Pale Male by Frederic Lilien was completed in 2009. There is even a Pale Male website, http://www.palemale.com, that documents his career ca the 1990s with LOTS of pictures. He is one of the first Red-tailed Hawks known to have nested on a building rather than in a tree and is known for establishing a dynasty of urban-dwelling Red-tailed Hawks. At right eating a pigeon —> 1 Amador Bird Club Newsletter June 2014 Breeding and Showing English Budgies Guest speaker, Mary Ann Silva Shown with one of her award winning birds! I started with birds in 1975, breeding parakeets, cockatiels and finch, later branching into exotic finch and Australian hookbills. I bought 4 pair of English Budgies in 1979 and started showing Novice in 1980. I started in a small, 5X10 aviary filled with 12 breeding and 2 holding cages. Moving out in the country I was able to expand my Budgies and get started breeding some of the rarer colors of the birds. I really enjoy the family of friends that I have come to value from raising and exhibiting birds. The Budgies are my passion. I promote ABS and the hobby whenever I am asked to speak at club meetings. Having become a new American Budgerigar Society Panel Judge in 2011, I look forward to the new challenges that this position will bring. I hope to have a good judge’s eye and get to the next level of breeding the English. Cutting and selling birds is the hardest part of the hobby for me. I have my pairs that I raise for the shows, normal and rares, but I also like the color birds that I can sell for pets. I have three adult children; two sons, 1 daughter and four grandchildren. I have lived in Sonora ten years with my new husband, Rodney. We both enjoy breeding and exhibiting the birds. A nice competition and working arrangement is easily seen in our bird room. For entertainment, Rod and I play cards together and with friends. I have been known to design jewelry while riding sidekick in the truck. I make the effort to help those in the hobby; I enjoy talking birds on the phone and having guests to my bird room and home. I look forward to seeing all of you at the meeting. Thank you for inviting me to talk about the beautiful English Budgerigar. They happen to be my favorite of all the birds. Facts about Budgies from budgiekeet.com Budgerigar-pronounced [ buhj-uh-ree-gahr ] The name Budgerigar is thought to have been derived from an Aboriginal word or phrase. Wild budgerigars are originally from Australia and are nomadic birds, moving from place to place in search of water and food. They are able to fly hundreds of miles if necessary in search of water. These hardy birds endure a climate that can be very hot and dry and also cold as well as rainy depending on the season and the weather trends. Budgies live in flocks and when conditions are favorable, they sometimes group together to form a huge flock containing thousands of budgies. Wild budgerigars feed primarily on grass seed, eucalyptus leaves and various other seeds and greens. Breeding usually occurs during rainy seasons when water is plentiful. Like other parrots, budgies build their nests in holes found in trees. They will chew at the tree cavity until they have the shape and size they need. The female budgie will lay an egg every 2 days until she has 4 to 8 eggs. While the mother budgie is busy keeping the eggs warm, it is the father’s job to feed the mother and protect the nest. Incubation lasts about 18-21 days before the eggs will hatch. Baby budgerigars usually fledge or leave the nest on the fourth or fifth week after they hatch. Both the mother and father take turns feeding the babies. Budgerigar Other interesting facts: • Budgies, like other parrots, have 2 toes that face forward and 2 toes that face back unlike other birds who have 3 toes facing forward and 1 facing back. Kingdom: Animalia • Studies have shown that the yellow feathers of budgerigars have fluorescent pigment. Since Phylum: Chordata budgies are able to see a broader spectrum of colors including some ultra-violet, these Subphylum: Vertebrata fluorescent feathers are thought to play a role in attracting a mate. Class: Aves • In the U.S. budgies are usually called parakeets which means long tail. However there are Order: Psittaciformes several different types of parrots called parakeets so this name can be confusing. Family: Psittacidae • Budgie eggs are white. Subfamily: Psittacinae • Budgies can turn their heads around 180’. • If an adults budgie’s cere (the flesh above the beak where the nostrils are located) is blue it is a Genus: Melopsittacus male, if it is brown or tan it is a female. Species: Melopsittacus • The average life span of a domestic budgie is 5-8 years however some have been known to live undulatus 15 years or more. 2 Amador Bird Club Newsletter June 2014 The Story of LB the Peach Faced Lovebird by Terry Ryan The Amador Bird Club helps lost or unwanted birds find their way home or to a new home! I received the e-mail below but hadn’t viewed it when Kathleen called me on May 20th. I had to make a delivery to Sutter Creek that evening so I decided that was a good time to go up Shake Ridge Road to pick up the lovebird. I didn’t think it would be such a drive home to Glencoe! Good morning. Picture of found Lovebird By Kathleen Please take a look at what my husband found next to him on his welding frame on Monday. He was very thirsty and hungry. We have an Indian Ringneck (Mr. Green Jeans 17 yrs old), so we had an extra cage to put this little guy in. On Tuesday, I contacted Amador animal control and gave them our phone number in case someone is looking for this little guy. So far, no calls, nothing. He seems very healthy. We only feed Harrison’s pellets, so that is what he is getting too. He does not like hands coming at him, but he is tame. When he walks on the bottom grate of his cage, he appears to limp. He holds his left foot up in his feathers most of the time. We don’t see any injury, but not sure. He seems very healthy and active. He has been molting, as he has new feathers coming in. He is safe with us for now, but we just rescued a black lab, 2 years old this year. We don’t let her have unsupervised contact with Mr. Green Jeans, as we are not completely sure of her background. I have a co-worker that may be interested in adopting this little guy, but if she can’t take him, I would really like to make sure he goes to a good home. It’s like a miracle that he landed in our front yard. Thanks for your help. So, I picked up the lovebird and when I put her in a cage when I got home she started tearing up paper and putting it in between her feathers. Beryl said that it was probably a hen for she had heard that was common for lovebirds to do that.