The golden bird with its silvery young
(May 2003)

World first breeding sensation at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation, owned by Sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammad Bin Ali Al-Thani and located close to Shahaniyh in central Qatar, of the rare Flame Bowerbird (Sericulus aureus ardens) sometimes also called Golden Bird owed to its unique coloration.

Very little is known about the beautiful, but elusive Flame Bowerbird, it is found only in the wildest parts of New Guineas mountain rainforests, and has only rarely been seen by scientists, and only photographed in the wild once or twice. So far their nest have never been found in the wild nor have the eggs or young’s ever been described by science.

At the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation the first ever, data’s on this species biology, behavior and now also reproduction, have been collected, from the six birds that currently lives at the Preservations breeding centre.

One of the things that have been most astonishing for the experts at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation is that the young of these amazingly gold colored birds are covered by silvery gray downs.

In this first case the single egg was removed from the mother and artificially incubated in a machine. The care and rearing of the 12,3 gram newborn has been taken over by the, very successful, Al Wabra bird handrearing team. The chick is still blind and depends entirely on the care of its human surrogate parents. It is fed every one and a half hour with fresh Papaya, Mango, Insects and meat from newborn rats. The baby will stay under intensive care and monitoring until it is old enough to start eating by itself probably around six weeks of age.

For further Information please contact Simon Bruslund Jensen per email awwp.bird.@alwabra.com
Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
P.O. Box 44069, Al Wabra,
Doha State of Qatar
Office phone: +974 471 90 24
Office fax: +974 471 90 26