WELCOME This is the home page of my Splendid Grass Parakeet web site. It provides latest news (below), information and pictures of the birds I keep, details of my aviary and information on how I look after my birds. Ian Sadler Nest Box Cam This web site streams live video from inside the nest box of one of my breeding pair of Splendids. Currently this is breeding pair A in the Brown aviary.. Home Housing Feeding Breeding My Birds Birds for sale YouTube Cam Capture Chick Photos Cam Archive Nest Box Cam Photo Gallery Avicultural Society of Australia:- Birds.org.au Colour mutation pictures:- Grassparrots.free.fr Bird chat:- Feartherd Flyer.net Birds for sale:- Birdtrek.co.uk Birds4Sale.co.uk BirdTrade.co.uk Birdtrader.co.uk Solwayparrotclub.co.uk Gentic calculator:- Gencalc.com Bird seed suppliers:- Probird.co.uk Haiths.com Junglegoldlimited.com Bird clubs:- Solwayparrotclub.co.uk Splendid Grass Parakeets Splendid grass parakeets, also called Scarlet chested parakeets (Neophema splendida), are native to the inland southern parts of Australia. The cock bird with its scarlet chest, yellow underbelly and intense blue face is undoubtedly the most colourful of all the grass parakeets. Hens are much duller and don't have the red chest and less blue on the face. Young birds, both cocks and hens, look like the adult hen but have less contrast in the colours and a light coloured beak. They are relatively small parakeets, slightly bigger than a budgie at 18 to 21cm. Normal Cock...................Normal Hen................. Juvenile Normal Cock The Splendid is one of the six neophema, the others being the Turquisine, Elegant, Blue wing, Rock and Orange bellied. There is also the Bourkes parakeet although this has recently been reclassed as neopsephotus. Splendids make excellent aviary birds, they are very friendly with each other and other bird species. Like most grass parakeets they are also very quiet birds, which for me is an essential requirement as I have a number of neighbours within close proximity of my aviaries. The Splendid has now become firmly established in aviculture, which has resulted in a number of readily available colour mutations of which the white breasted blue has to be the best and most sought after (see links) In my opion, most of the combined colour mutations do not match the brilliant colours of the normals - some just look like big budgies...what is the point? Anyway, breeders should always endevour to breed back some good quality normals, not only to retain the natural splendid, but also to ensure that any later mutations are good quality, strong, fertile birds. Latest News 23 July 2008 ------------ Wrong! 3 chicks have hatched...maybe 4? . 22 July 2008 ----------- 2nd chick. Because they are late I reckon these are the last two eggs to be laid after she started sitting, the other 4 eggs probably won't hatch! . 20 July 2008 ------------ At last! 1st chick hatched on camera. . 16 July 2008 ------------ Chicks and parents moved into new aviary . 13 July 2008 ------------ All 4 chicks now out of nest box B. 6 fertile eggs in nest box A. Due to start hatching on the 18th July. . 10 July 2008 ------------ 1st chick left nest box B today. . 7 July 2008 ----------- 6 eggs in nest box A...too many! However, some looked fertile when candled. . 1 July 2008 ----------- 4 eggs in next box A. She started sitting last night. . 24 June 2008 ------------ 1st egg in nest box A. She's nested at the far edge of the nest box next to a big piece of old tree stump. I had loads of trouble moving the camera to get it in shot. Chicks starting to feather-up in nest box B. New aviary, near completion. . 14 June 2008 ------------ All 4 eggs have hatched. My other pair of splendids are now showing some signs of breeding. Nest box cam is now back on line. . 11 June 2008 ------------ At last eggs are hatching in nest box B. 1st egg hatched yesterday. Today 3 chicks out of the 4 eggs. Photo's to come. Pity I don't have the web cam in this box! . 23 May 2008 ----------- Got a new hen today, a seagreen. I'm told she's just turned 12 month old. I'll pair her up with normal cock soon. 2 eggs in nest box B and she's started sitting. Also, layed foundations for a new aviary. Hopefully, I'll eventually have some birds that produce chicks!! . 15 May 2008 ----------- My hen died today trying to lay the second egg. The nest box cam will be shut down till further notice. Not a good year!!!! . 14 May 2008 ----------- 1st egg layed in nest box A. . 3 May 2008 ---------- Nest boxes back in. I've broken up a rotten tree stump into small bits for the nesting material this time, this should be better at retaining moisture! Despite this, my birds are probably still a bit young for breeding! Although, they are a bit older now and the weather has improved, so with a bit of luck they should breed. . 2 May 2008 ---------- Unfortunately both clutches of eggs have failed to hatch. All 6 pair A eggs were infertile. Two out of the four pair B eggs had fully developed chicks dead in the shell. It looks as if I was a bit impatient in putting the nest boxes in. Both pairs are first timers, of which the pair A cock and the pair B hen are not quite a year old and the others could be younger. Also the weather has not been ideal. I'll get the boxes cleaned out and set up again. This time I'll not use too much peat, as it does dry out very quickly and the lack of moisture could account for the chicks dying in the shell. The camera will be off-line until I get the boxes sorted out. I'll get this done as soon as possible, as I have two very upset hen parakeets. . 22 April 2008 ------------- Pair B eggs are overdue. I estimated them to start hatching on the 18/19th (although with the egg binding problem the dates could be wrong). The eggs don't look infertile. Pair A eggs (nest cam) due 29/30th April. Re-introduced nest box capture page (although unable to use motion detection using Camstreams). . 16 April 2008 ------------- Having problems streaming live video from software on my own PC. I've now changed to Camstreams webcam streaming service. Hopefully this should provide a continuous live stream from their server. Had to ditch motion capture (for now). Both parakeet pairs are now sitting. Pair B eggs are due to hatch in a couple of days. . 14 April 2008 -------------- Added a 2 speed option to nest box cam(bc) video stream. . 13 April 2008 ------------- Trying out some different streaming software. There are now two options for the camera. YC, uses yawcam as before. BC use broadcam, which uses true streaming and buffers the video (it also has sound). I currently have it set at 1Mb/s broadband, my PC can't view it at any higher, so it's at the best quality I can manage for now! . 12 April 2008 ------------- It's now dark outside and she's remained sitting on the eggs. At last! Unbelievably she's laid another egg today, 6 in total. She's obviously showing off to the camera. This is my theory; Perhaps Slendids instinctively know to start sitting just after the next to last egg has been laid. As they on average lay 4 eggs, then generally they sit after the third. As my parakeet has laid 6 eggs, then she knew to sit after the fifth egg was laid. Just a thought! I am surprised that a young bird has laid so many eggs. I bought her last September from Carlisle and was assured she was bred early that year, she did look like a young bird. However she has always been less playful/inquisitive than my other 3 parakeets, which I know are all early 07. I await the hatching - keep watching. . 10 April 2008 ------------- 5 EGGS and still not sitting?? I don't know if this is normal. Any knowledge would be appreciated? . 9 April 2008 ------------ Still not sitting???? . 8 April 2008 ------------ 4th egg laid today. I thought she'd be sitting by now! . 6 April 2008 ------------ Just missed the exact moment the third egg was laid (My computer chose to sieze up for a few seconds the instant she layed). Still I've managed to capture footage just before the event and almost instantly after (the egg is still wet). . 2 April 2008 ------------ 1st egg in nest box A. Bit hard to see at the moment on infra red - also partially covered??? . 30 March 2008 ------------- It's been an eventful week; Firstly, sad news..lost one of my Waxbills. I found it dead, stuck behind the parakeets nestbox. Maybe it got spooked in the night and got itself in a position were it couldn't turn itself round. A preventable accident! Next; My hen parakeet in the cage got egg bound. She'd been looking a bit poorly for a few days with egg laying and then I found her yesterday in a terrible state - almost dead, she couldn't even lift her head off the cage floor. I moved her into a cage and placed her next to the radiator in the house, although I expected her to be dead within the hour. Amazingly however I was proven wrong, she started to look a lot better after a few hours and began eating and picked up plenty of cuttlefish bone bits in order to get her calcium levels back up. After 6 hours I had back in the breeding cage, much to the pleasure of the cock bird. This morning, she laid the fourth egg that had been giving her all the trouble. I don't think she'd started sitting, so with a bit of luck all the eggs should be OK. Finaly, the pair in the aviary have started being more affectionate to each other and the hen as been busy preparing the 'nest'. I think there'll be eggs sometime this week. . 22 March 2008 ------------- Captured some odd behavior on the web cam (below). A lot of curiosity towards the opaque window that lets the light in for the camera, hope this is not going to be a problem. Also the slightly aggressive behavior is of concern, I'm a bit worried these birds are not going to breed. . 20 March 2008 ------------- New page added. Nest Box Capture. Motion detection is used to capture images from the nest box cam for every hour in the day. There has been plenty of activity in the nest boxes, but as yet nothing to show for it. . 9 March 2008 ------------ Decided to put the nest boxes in early. Seagreen cock and cinnamon hen in cage. Normal cock and cinnamon hen in aviary (with webcam). Still not entirely happy with this hen, it's not showing the same vigor as my other hen. Still I'll give it a chance. . 2 March 2008 ------------ Birds wormed today. . 22 February 2008 ---------------- Nest box cam up and running. Although it's not in a nestbox yet, that'll have to wait till the breeding season. I've got it inside the aviary for now, in the enclosed part. Pity the birds don't sleep where they're supposed to. Because it's infra red colours can be very washed out in daylight, cock splendid has a pink chest for example. The camera is more suited for inside the nestbox. Currently I'm running via a basic streaming server, no buffering therefore picture is a bit jerky..but consistent and reliable. . 11 February 2008 ---------------- New page added: Youtube videos...intend to include some of my videos + any others of interest! Hope to get a web cam up and running in the next few weeks. . 24 January 2008 ---------------- Website uploaded. 20th July, 1st chick in nest box A 23th July, nest box A More photos on Chick Photo link.... Contact me: Ian Sadler, isparakeet@tiscali.co.uk South Cumbria visitors since January 2008 visitors location counter All photos and videos on this site are my own - please respect the originator! © Ian Sadler 2007-2008