New Bird Additions

Autumn is the time of year when young birds hatched during the summer move to new areas. Residents often disperse gradually, and migratory species perform spectacular migrations sometimes in huge flocks.

Moves of birds between Zoos are often done at this time of year too. The breeding season is over and new arrivals can be settled in before the weather deteriorates too far. Autumn of 2010 has seen two interesting new species added to the collection at Hamerton Zoo Park, both from private bird collections on the Continent where they were bred.

A pair of European Black Storks is housed temporarily with our group of White Storks. The Blacks are unrelated and will make a good potential breeding pair for the future. The species is a solitary nester and our pair will be moved to an aviary of their own when they have grown up. They were born in 2010 and are still in juvenile plumage.

Ten Greater Flamingoes arrived in August. They are off-show at the moment and will be moved into one of the wader enclosures (which are due to be renovated and extended over the winter) early next spring. Although only two years old our flock has already started to show some display behaviour which is very encouraging as new arrivals often take some time to settle in.