Abstract
"Hey, Mister! You've got a bird
badly hurt over here, you'd better
come and take care of it!" I wish I had
a dollar for every time I've heard that!
If it's not a bird appearing to have suffered
a stroke (Crowned Pigeon sunbathing)
or experiencing a seizure
(pheasant dustbathing) then it has to
be every visitor's cries of concern
(those who don't read the label
that is), the Bleeding Heart Dove
(Gallicolumba luzonica).
What subtle influences of evolution
conspired in the development of this
brazen stigmata can hardly be
guessed at. This savagely marked bird
displays an apparently fresh wound in
the middle of its white breast. However,
it is also beautifully glossed iridescent
purple and green on the neck
and mantle of its dark grey upper
parts. The wings are barred chestnut
and grey, the cap light grey; while its
underparts below the white throat and
breast are buffy peach, legs are dark
red, bill black, and eyes brown. Males,
in my experience, tend to be larger
than hens. Chunky in appearance, and
about two thirds the size of a common
pigeon, Bleeding Heart Doves are
mostly terrestrial in their foraging
behavior, arboreal, in fact, only while
resting, roosting and nesting.
I am able to work with two pairs of
these handsome little birds at present.
The first pair professionally at Tracy
Aviary, which have frustrated me for
eight years, and the second pair I have
at home which have driven me nuts
for only two years.
There are, of course, those paragons
of avicultural virtuosity such as Garrie
Landry in Louisiana, who are able to
breed these birds at will, but for
me, it's been a struggle.
The Tracy Aviary pair, consisting of
a 10-plus year old male and a two year
old female (obtained from Garrie)
were initially housed together in a
mixed species aviary where some
intermittent egg production (no incubation,
mind you) took place.
I was experiencing similar problems
at home with my year old pair (hen
from Paddy Lambett, male from Garrie
Landry).
Over the same weekend last fall, I
moved both pairs to new accommodations
The Aviary pair to a triangular
shaped cage 8' x 8' x 8' with a solid
wall at the rear, upon which was hung
a bushel basket stuffed with hay. This
cage is totally indoors, with a sand
floor, a couple of perches, and otherwise
bare with no other occupants.
My home pair is in my basement in a
cage three feet square by 12' long,
containing some Lantana and Boston
Ferns, Gouldians and Diamond Doves,
and a drawer 6" deep by 10" x 8" and
half filled with bark chips provided for
nesting, hung on the rear wall.
Within two weeks both pairs laid
and incubated! My home pair, which
had previously shared a flight with
numerous Diamond Doves, Society
and Zebra Finches, became very territorial
and killed the female Diamond
Dove sharing their flight and beat up
the male (they would have killed him,
too, if I had not come home in time).
Both pairs incubated solidly, the
aviary pair on a single egg, my own
pair on a two egg clutch. The diet
which is normally a grain mix with
diced fruit and some hard boiled egg
(at the Avia1y) was supplemented by a
small quantity of mealworms scattered
on the floor of the cage three or four
times a day. At home my feed is a
pellet/ grain mix with canned corn in
the morning and soaked seed in the
evening, and a few mealworms three
or four times a week.
Thrilled by the birds' behavior and
claiming all responsibility for the
clearly proven, new found technique
of "if they don't breed, move 'em", I
greeted each day with some degree of
trepidation expecting the eggs to be
either broken, abandoned, or disappeared.
Imagine my delight, therefore,
not to mention my relief, upon finding
the cleanly evacuated and e jected
shells upon the cage floors.
Clothed in surprisingly long, white
down, the pink-fleshed chicks continued
to be closely brooded by either,
sometimes both, parents.
Having laid three or four days
before my own birds, the Aviary chick
left the nest first. Such a peculiar little
chick at almost two weeks old, almost
all wings and legs...