Hornbill's Quote of the month....... Actually, Lovebirds which aren't handraised are very dull and rather nervous, they have a particularly discordant call as well. I don't know what handrearing does for them. Kakarikis I've heard are good- they are a bit like little monkeys the way they climb about so plenty of personality and I'm pretty sure they're very quiet BUT I wouldn't call them colourful(dull green) unless you have lutinos etc. Of larger Parakeets, Ringnecks are beautiful in all their colour forms, but VERY noisy at times. I would still recommend Cockatiels as the ideal starter (in parrotlike birds) If you want really small quiet birds, go for finches, or softbills or something though.
Softbills can be a better choice if you want a planted aviary because they don't destroy them so much. The easiest of the softbills is probably the Peking Robin. They're not really as characterful as parrots and their allies though.
Hornbill- we shall all want to know what birds you decide to keep after all this. Maybe you've been put off Lories and Lorikeets now? Another tip- when you read the books, such as the Lorikeet book you've got, remember they often paint a very optimistic picture of birdkeeping and the particular species under discussion- that's what the book is for. They sometimes playdown the 'not -so- good' aspects such as noise and mess. Conditions aren't the same as in the zoo. If you have neighbours, they may complain if you keep noisy species- many parrots and parakeets are particularly noisy early morning and evening. Aviaries can attract vermin such as mice and rats too. If your birds die or get sick, its heartbreaking and you feel guilty... But birdkeeping nevertheless is a great hobby under the right conditions and with your knowledge I'm sure you would make an excellent 'aviculuralist' My only advice would be to start or learn with simple and quiet species and then progress...
I have looked at Pheasants and Turacos and these aren't too expensive or hard to look after. Unfortunatly my favourite pheasant to keep, from the pheasantry I've looked at, is the Cabot's tragopan and it's £800 for a pair!! Luckily this is the most expensive and the cheapest is the Golden pheasant at £40 per pair.
You're problem is you've got expensive tastes...... How about a pair of zebra finches....(!) Actually Touracos sound quite suitable for you- exotic but quite easy to keep I guess- in a nice sheltered and planted flight. Not noisy. Plenty of interest for you in preparing their food... I've no idea how expensive they are though.. Golden pheasants are okay- but a lot of pheasants tend to pace up and down the wire in small enclosures which makes them seem stressed.
The sites I've looked at are: Welcome to Touracos.co.uk Allandoo Pheasantry We are now taking orders for 2008. Prices are per pair of birds: Golden Pheasant £50 Lady Amherst Pheasant £50 Mikado Pheasant £80 Lewis Silver Pheasant £200 Himalayan Monal Pheasant £120 Brown Eared Pheasant £160 White Eared Pheasant £250 Ijima Copper Pheasant £180 Temminck's Tragopan Pheasant £180 Satyr Tragopan Pheasant £280 Cabot's Tragopan Pheasant £800 Siamese Fireback Pheasant £120 Bornean Crested Fireback Pheasant £400 Vieillot's Crested Fireback Pheasant £400 Grey Peacock Pheasant £120
jeez, lucky you guys over there. We don't even HAVE touracos, but if we did they'd be mega-expensive to buy. Note to self, must move to England....
Australia's the same! The last touracos that I'm aware of in Aust. were 2 male white-cheekeds (Donaldson's race) which were at Taronga in the late 1940s-early 1950s. (Can't afford to move to England, but I sure am coming over for a good look around!)
anyway, getting back to your choices of birds...as most people on here would probably agree its best to start with a cheaper easy-to-keep species such as kakariki (yes I know, I'm still biased), and then you could either replace that species with a more preferred one when you feel you have enough experience or simply convince your parents to let you set up more aviaries. Colourful not-too-noisy birds, apart for the psittacids suggested in the thread, could be touracos, fruit doves, laughing thrushes, African starlings. Really in the UK you're spoiled for choice if you're not too set on a parrot species.
I've seen Touracos at about £480 a pair. I'd be vary wary of getting them in case they keeled over after a couple of days. (Not that I'm suggesting thats likely.) Pheasants would be fairly good, but they need a fair bit of room. They could be kept with other smaller birds in the flight. I'd say that Golden Pheasants are OK for a beginner, but make sure they're pure-bred. You can tell by the colour of the legs. I definitely have an article about keeping exotic pheasants, shall I see if I can find it? Have you considered quail? They are very easy to find and look after. I've kept and bred Japanese Quail and Chinese Painted Quail with ease.
If I got a pheasant, the first species I'd get would be the Silver, as I like the lophura Genus. The turacos I've seen were 100-300 pounds depending on the species.
Silvers are incredibly easy to keep- quite similar to domestic chickens in temperament. The males are sometimes aggressive to people they don't like- I had one that attacked ladies....
With Silvers, you can build up to Swinhoe's, and then to Siamese fireback, then Crested fireback, Cresteless fireback, Kaiji pheasant, Salvadori's and Edward's pheasant. Then you can have BULWER'S!!! I also like Temminck's tragopan and the grey peacock pheasant. They are, to my knowledge, also easy to keep, and relatively easy to breed.
No, I just think that maybe I'd like both. To be honest, there are so many animals I'd like to keep, and as a teenager, it's easy for me to dream about all these species. But in practical terms, I'd probably only getting a few species. I'd try to get Lories, pheasants, turacos and ground thrushes, as they seem to be the nicest birds going. In My opinion.
just bear in mind the obvious "will-they-get-along" question. As in, pheasants in a smaller aviary generally can't be kept with other birds that frequent the ground (which includes when the other birds are breeding and their chicks leave the nest and sit on the aviary floor). Lories don't get along with anything much. That sort of thing. Pheasants and touracos should go all right together. Pheasants and one of the smaller lorikeet species should be alright too. Also in aviaries the male pheasant often hounds the female constantly, so they need to be separate, in trios, or have adequate refuges for the female (depends on the type of pheasant too of course, and on individual temperament). How much room do you have for the aviary (or as will probably happen, aviaries!)
I don't know yet, we might build it at the bottom of the garden, or I might just wait until when I'm older and then I'd have lots of aviaries.
I guess at your age as well, you must consider how much longer you will live at home. Since I've moved out I've nowhere to keep my birds so I've had to leave them at my parents. They're 'being phased out' as it where, but given their longevity they may still be there for a good few years yet. Thankfully my mum doesn't mind looking after them whilst I am at uni- but its something worth considering, particularly if there is no-one who would look after them.
