We have officially received our certification under the Model Aviculture Program!  We are the first Aviary in Canada to do so!!  The Model Aviculture Program (MAP) is a voluntary program for the certification of aviculturists through inspection by avian veterinarians. MAP is designed to improve the care and breeding of exotic birds.  One of the key elements of the Model Aviculture Program is the closed aviary concept for disease control.  In order to meet MAP standards, all of our birds had to be disease tested and our facility had to pass a detailed inspection by a veterinarian with expertise in birds. We hope that more aviaries will follow our example and that this will result in a higher standard of care for our feathered friends in Canadian aviaries.  We plan to develop a page on our website with more information about the Model Aviculture Program for those who are interested.

We are so thrilled to welcome our first Red Collared Lorikeet baby! These birds are so rare in Canada and to our knowledge we have the only breeding pair! We are hopeful that Charlotte and Wilbur will continue to bless us with chicks so that more Canadians can experience the privilege of having one of these gorgeous birds enrich their lives. As an update to our last post, we did find a wonderful home for Lucy and Spaz (our Green Naped Lory pair who turned out to be two females) where they could stay together. We have now welcomed Jake and Sarah who are a proven pair of Green Naped Lories. We hope they will settle in and start a family soon. Lorikeets are such amazing birds! They do require specialized care but they reward that effort many times over with the beauty and exuberance they bring into our homes.

We are very excited to announce the arrival of a proven pair of Red Collared Lories.  These birds are very rare in Canada.  They have settled in quickly and are already showing signs of going to nest!

We are also pleased to welcome a second pair of White Bellied Caiques.  This pair comes to us from a wonderful breeder in western Canada.  They are gorgeous!

We also recently adopted a proven pair of Green-Naped Lories.  Our previous pair, Spaz and Lucy, turned out to both be females!  We have done a lot of soul searching as to what to do about this.  We are committed to our adult birds and do not like the idea of re-homing them.  However, we also need to be sure we can provide the space and time these birds require and that they are a good fit for the long term goals of our aviary.  We have decided that if an appropriate home can be found, we will consider re-homing them.  They are currently listed on our Available Birds page.

Further information about these new additions to our flock will soon be posted on our Meet Our Birds page.

New to our flock are two mature, tame, Black-Headed Caiques.   They will be introduced to one another soon and we hope it will be love at first sight.  Cathy comes to us from Quebec and is definitely a "chatty Cathy" although everything she says is in French.  To be honest,  we're not sure how much of what she says are real words as our French is quite limited but I'm pretty sure she wished me a Bonne Soire the other evening!  Baldone comes to us from the same breeder as our other Black Headed Caiques.  He had been kept as a pet but has been asking most vehemently for a girlfriend!  Poor little Cathy has been laying eggs with no male and as of late has been trying to woo my husband.  We think Baldone and Cathy are made for each other.  Let's hope we're right!

This month we acquired some stunning new young birds some of which we hope will become future breeders.  They are hand tame and already feel like members of our feathered family!  They are all relatively rare birds in Canada and include a pair of Blue Throated Conures, Derbyan Parakeets, and a single male Yellow -Backed Chattering Lory.    We hope he might become friends with our male Chattering Lory, Quincey.  So far, they just observe one another from a distance.  Lories are not generally considered to be friendly with other birds but we have not found this to be true in our own flock.  I will be posting pictures as they settle in to their new home here at The Perch!

Green Cheeked Conure chicks have come to the Perch!  We did not breed them but are hand raising them for another breeder as all of our babies are currently weaned.  The parents are a visually normal male Green Cheeked that is split to yellow sided and cinnamon and a yellow sided female.  It is too early to be sure what colour the chicks will be but we think we will have two green cheeked, two yellow sided, and one pineapple.   Will post some pictures soon!

If you have adopted a bird from us please let us know how he/she is doing!  This space is for you to post pictures and updates of Lake Erie Perch alumni!