strange red bird , can anybody help id it?

[Chas]

Sorry to go on...but further my last post. There is a reason that Red/Orange Bishops are not native to the UK. The climate and habitat is not suitable. Your escaped bird will not have been bred in capyivity they have rarely or never breed in UK aviaries. It will have been captured in the wild exported to England and sold to a birdkeeper via a pet shop or dealer. This bird will already have had quite a journey before it ended up in your garden. It will be aclimatised to our climate and that is why it is managing to survive. It could be that the other birds that you are describing are escaped individuals from the same source, in fact that seems very likely. You need , if you dont mind me saying, to try as hard as you can to find the owner so he can:
a. recapture his bird(and others) and
b. make sure that his aviaries are secure and nothing else escapes!

[GME]

Originally Posted by paulchandler6

Wow. What was that all about.

Paul

I was crying laughing at Dan Salter's comments!! Quality. Perhaps a little cruel, but they made me laugh!!!

p.s. beautiful bird btw!!

[paulchandler6]

Dans comments made me laugh to, cruel......no.

Paul

[honeybee]

Me too, very fun Dan..

Are birds still caught from the wild for the pet trade? So cruel.

[paulchandler6]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Are birds still caught from the wild for the pet trade? So cruel.

Unfortunately yes! It still appears to be widespread mainly from South America, Africa and the far East and to a lesser extent Europe.
Not sure if it still is but Amsterdam used to be a major port where imports of birds came in. Hope the EU have been able to control that.
Its a big money game and is difficult to control or even stop.

Paul

[GD303uk]

Hi all,
Thanks for your posts,
I have and am learning a lot from them,
your all right of course it would be irresponsible for me to release another non native bird intentionally, I also don’t agree with caged animals or the trade of them, its a shame it goes on , I suppose larger aviaries are better than indoor cages, I didn’t think of advertising the Bishop for its original owner to find, maybe I should, but I would feel like returning him to prison , silly I know but he is doing ok and has plenty of company and feed, my initial concern was that he would be targeted by the Sparrow hawk or freeze in the winter, but he has done amazingly well, I know its a little selfish of me to want to keep him free and feed him in my garden , I get a lot of pleasure seeing him every day feeding and flying about my garden, he is a great little character and does get on great with the other finches and sparrows, he even ignores the fighting starlings to get to some food and they ignore him, for a little bird he is feisty, as I look out of the window he is there feeding with 20+ other sparrow and finches, they make a great noise and make the tree look alive with activity, the bishops will chase any bird off his chosen branch of millet and usually has one or two branches for himself.
i will keep you all posted
and thanks again for all you input it is very helpfull.
take care
G

[honeybee]

Let us know how it gets on. Hope the sparrowhawk doesn't eat it.

[RoyW]

I know that this is a very old thread, but I've only seen it because it's just been mentioned here.
Like the other thread, the bird in this one is also not a Southern Red Bishop!
This one is a Northern Red Bishop, Euplectes fransciscanus (black forehead, but no black on the throat).