Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine No.5767 Budgerigar basics Back Issue

YOU KNOW THAT moment when, as they say, “light dawns” on a subject? I had an apt example of this a few years ago, thanks to Bill Naylor. Bill wrote a piece in these pages about birds’ ability to see colours in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, which are invisible to humans. I’d known about this before in a general way. However, Bill used the example of the autumn crop of wild berries, which look dull to us, but to hungry birds transform the hedgerows into a shimmering mass of UV colours. That image suddenly opened my mind to the immensity of our cage birds’ visual world, so much more vivid than ours, full of meanings that we’re only starting to guess at. There’s another mind-opening UV story on page 3 this week. Cock blue tits, we’re told, assess their hen partners
according to the UV-reflecting lustre of the hen’s crown feathers. And there’s a payoff – but it’s not that those “shinier” hens lay more eggs; it’s that they make better mothers and fledge more young. Nobody knew this before: it’s a fresh insight into the life of a garden bird that we see every day. I wonder how many other everyday miracles of vision are going on in our birdrooms, unsuspected by the most observant fanciers? I must say “well done” to the fanciers who have donated birds to replace those stolen from young Thomas Winkworth’s birdroom (see page 2). Online forum owner
John Wrenne, in particular, has been wonderfully generous. Aren’t birdkeepers brilliant? Now I hope that Thomas can enjoy his time out of the limelight and focus on the most important thing of all: learning the craft of his hobby. “Some roller canary clubs advertise their contests in this paper, but others do not.” So says experienced roller canary man Graham Wellstead (page 7). If your club doesn’t, could you have a word in the appropriate ear? The publicity won’t cost the club a penny. And the roller fancy does need publicising, wouldn’t you agree?