May-Jun 2016, Volume 26 Issue 3

I can hear voices in my head, someone is calling me, the voice is getting louder, “hello?”, “HELLO”, “HELLOOOOOOO”! I’m now stirring, my eyes are open and the voices are coming from a desperate Blue and Gold Macaw named Tico. He now calls the dog “Harry”, “HARRY”, “HARREEEEEEE”! Now I’m wide awake but I stay in bed just to hear the conversation coming from the living room. Tico is talking especially loud, to be heard above the whistles and chatter from the Greys. Time to get up as Tico is calling “Brekky!” in a pleading voice. The day begins.

Bird keeping for us, started 28 years ago when our daughter bought her mother Janice a Cockatiel for her birthday. From that day onwards, Fred has been busy building and making over 100 flights, breeding cabinets, nest boxes and all repairs until now. No more aviaries. We don’t show birds, we just enjoy the pleasure and sorrows of bird breeding and meeting like-minded people.

My name is John Nunn and I have been an aviculturist for more than 50 years. I live on a block of land near Hamilton in the North Island of New Zealand with my wife Julie, who is also passionate about birds, which is a definite advantage. Over the years for some unexplainable reason I have enjoyed many successes with species that are hard to breed, they seem to respond to my way of doing things. I have had moderate success with yellow bib lories and am the most successful breeder of Black Wing Lories, producing 18 young in the 6 years I had them. Sadly, since selling, the black wing Lorie has become virtually extinct in New Zealand now. My next major success was with Hooded Parakeets, my latest project is very scarce here in New Zealand, the Green Cheek Conure. My first season with the Green Cheeks produced 11 chicks from 2 pairs, almost doubling their numbers here.