Crimson's collection

Last up-dated 8 March 2002

When I was 14 years old, my parents allowed me to keep my first bird, a budgerigar, which started bird-keeping as my life-time hobby. Since then I had kept a variety of birds, ranging from the common cockatiels to the less common green pigeons, etc.

All aviaries and gardening are designed by myself. I try to put more plants inside the aviaries, so that it looks more natural. Furthermore, I grow some orchids from Malaysia and Thailand around the corridor as decoration. I have total 7 aviaries. Sizes are varies from the smallest 6 fts x 10 fts x 6 fts high to the biggest 10 fts x 20 fts x 6 fts high. My collection can be divided into 4 groups : 1) parrots 2) doves/pigeons 3) toucans 4) softbills.

PARROT -  I have been keeping parrots for over 15 years. I am particularly fond of small-sized species from South-east Asia, Indonesia and New Guinea. Some of my favourites are hanging parrots, fig parrots. Hanging parrots roost in an up-side down position like the bats and the courtship behaviour is very interesting - the red feathers of the throat seem to be inflated and a globule of food protrudes from the male's beak, like a child blowing bubble gum, and is sucked in by the female.

Any comment? Please contact me aracaris@hotmail.com

Toucan - In 1997, it was "my dream came true" when the Toucan family was first made available at the local market !! Unfortunately, the toucans are always expensive birds, and I cannot afford all available species. In the first beginning, I tried to house my Black-necked Aracaris with Guinea Touracos but the touracos were killed after couple days. Therefore, I decided to house them as well as my Keel-billed Toucans and Swainson's Toucans in their own aviary.

Softbills - I keep all softbills such as Green Broadbills together with my pigeons because they are docile and safe with other birds. Doves and Pigeons - Starting from summer 1999, I have started to keep exotic pigeons from Indonesia and New Guinea. They are very shy and nervous, so I house them in large planted aviaries. In summer 2001, I successfully bred Celebes Green Imperial Pigeon (Ducula aenea paulina). This is the 1st breeding record in Hong Kong. The 2nd chick hatched in end of October 2001. I have kept Black-knobbed Imperial Pigeon, Elegant Imperial Pigeon, Celebes Green Imperial Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon, Cinnamon Ground Dove, Celebes Quail Dove, Thick-billed Ground Pigeon, Pink-spotted Fruit Dove, Pink-necked Fruit Dove, Orange-fronted Fruit Dove, Superb Fruit Dove, Rose-crowned Fruit Dove, Orange-bellied Fruit Dove and Black-naped Fruit Dove.