Within the past two weeks, four young pigeons have hatched in our lab. They have re-inspired my interest in creating a history of our lab for future students to read at their leisure, and use for research purposes.
So, here is a picture I took today to start things off! This is one of the new parents: Isis (Bird 25). The father is likely either bird 50 or bird 20 or each fathered one. I have caught bird 20 sitting on the hatchlings, but one of the young ones has dark spots as only bird 50 does. Isis is sitting on 2 four-day-old hatchlings, one of whose behind is peaking out under her beak (Mustache).
The babies are born with fine yellow hairs. Their feather quills start growing in quickly. The two other newborns are a week and a half old and their feathers are filling out nicely - but for a few days they looked like porcupines! Their size increases rapidly also. Mom stops sitting on them after about a week because they are so big. After she began leaving them alone, I began picking them up, taking them over to the sink for a bath, and letting them walk around on the floor for a few minutes to help get them used to being handled by people. I think this baby and its sibling will be that big by this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment