Some new feathered-friends have joined the Adelaide Zoo family, with the hatching of two adorable Black-winged Stilt Chicks.
Bird Keeper Emma Macchia has been busily caring for the new arrivals, which hatched mid-September.
Raising the chicks was no small feat, with the chicks requiring around the clock care when they first hatched.
Emma started incubating the first Black-winged Stilt egg in August, after noticing aggression between the breeding pair.
About 25 days later, little Chopsticks hatched, weighing just 15 grams!
Chopsticks started hatching on a Friday, so Emma took him home over the weekend in the incubator to monitor the hatch.
Needing a little assistance to hatch as he tired, Emma tended to the new arrival between attending a wedding ceremony and reception.
“Usually, these chicks are raised in clutches, so a Pelican plush toy gave Chopsticks something to cuddle up to and act as a mother figure,” Emma said.
“He was fairly independent chick from the start, and was strong, bright and ate well from the beginning.”
A week after taking the lone egg from exhibit, things settled down and the female stilt laid a clutch of four eggs and started incubating.
The bird team decided to pull an egg to hand rear, as the adult stilts haven’t had a lot of success raising young in the past, and to give Chopsticks a friend.
Noodles hatched on October 21, five days after Chopsticks.
The pair were put together two days later, and Noodles began to look up to Chopsticks as a mothering figure, showing Noodles how to feed and peck around.
“Noodles was a slower learner, and required a bit of help to learn to feed,” Emma said.
“He also bonded with the little Pelican plush toy and was often found cuddled up s
leeping with the Pelican while Chopsticks practiced being a stilt!”
One month on, the pair are thriving under Emma’s care and now weigh about 100 grams each.
The chicks are now becoming independent, but won’t be fully-feathered in adult plumage until they are about a year old, and reach breeding age at two to three years.
Seven Black-winged Stilts now call Adelaide Zoo home, with a breeding pair and chick currently living in the Botanic Aviary near the main Squirrel Monkey habitat.
Adelaide Zoo has had lots of success here at Adelaide breeding stilts over the years, with many of our offspring being sent all over Australia to continue in the breeding program.
Chopsticks and Noodles will eventually go on display in the Wetlands Aviary when they are old enough.
