The Waddesdon Manor Aviary houses a specialised collection of softbill birds (fruit and insectivious feeders) and rare and endangered species of pigeon, dove and partridge. Many of these species are managed through European studbooks due to their status in the wild.

Some of the species kept here are extremely rare in aviculture in the UK, we’re the only public collection with Banded Pitta (Pitta guajana guajana) , Collared Hill Partridges (Arborophila gingica) and Moustached Laughingthrush (Lanthocincia cineracea).

We hold at the start of each breeding season approximately 150 birds representing 38 species although overall numbers soon accelerate to 200 during the breeding season.

We have achieved several first UK breeding successes including White Bellied Go Away Birds (Corythaixoides leucogaster), Black and White Laughingthrushes (Garrulax bicolour) and Brown Breasted Barbets (Lybius melanopterus). One hundred and sixteen species have been bred at Waddesdon in the last thirty years.

The 2009 Breeding season has been very good with four new species bred here.

Green Naped Pheasant Pigeons (Otidiphaps nobils nobilis), Mindanao Bleeding Hearts (Gallicolumba cringer), Spotted Laughingthrushes (Garrulax ocellatus), Moustached Laughinthrushes (Lanthocincla cineracea) have all been successfully reared to independence this year. The Green Naped Pheasant Pigeons (Otidiphaps nobils nobilis) were only the second recorded breeding of this species in the UK. Also pleasing was the 200th breeding of four of the critically endangered blue crowned laughingthrush from china. Barbets have also produced well with spot flanked barbets and brown breasted barbet producing ten young between them. Thrushes also did well, chestnut backed and orange-headed ground thrushes producing fifteen young. The total for 2009 so far stands at fifty-seven birds reared to independence.

What we are doing now completing the ringing of all the bred and sending off feather samples for DNA sexing. Once we know the sex of the birds we start notifying studbook co-ordinators of the details so that the birds can be moved on to other collections as part of the breeding programme. Exchanges with other collections are then targeted so that as many unrelated pairs as possible can be put together. Once that is completed we look at which birds can be sent out on breeding loan an which birds we need to bring in. This is all part of preparing for the next breeding season. Then by the end of the October we are into the analysis of the breeding season; looking at what has worked and where lessons can be learnt. Deciding what changes can be tried where species have not successfully bred. We work on the principal that if something hasn’t bred then we are doing something wrong; it is rarely the bird’s fault. So we look at diet, nest box or platform design, nesting materials supplied, what other birds are housed in the aviary and anything else that could have contributed to them not breeding.

By the start of November we look at the bird collection in general and update the collection plan. It is this process that decides if we continue to work with a species, or if new species should be brought in. Conservation is the key to this, as the work we do should have real value in the overall aim of saving bird species as living creatures.

Related posts:

1. Waddesdon Manor – A National Trust property
2. Behind the scenes in the Collection
3. The Five Arrows Hotel Waddesdon
4. MAD about Waddesdon – latest news.
5. Helping to spread the word!