Zoo Ostrava The Annual Report 2009

The yellow cardinal at Ostrava Zoo
Yveta Svobodová
Yellow cardinals (Gubernatrix cristata) are small and lovely perching birds currently rather low in wild
numbers (1,500 to 3,000 birds), with continued decrease. This is namely caused by illegal hunting and loss of
habitat. Capture for keeping in cages poses the main threat for this lovely-singing, nice and vivid bird listed
as Endangered in the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. This is a CITES-protected species, listed under
Appendix II.
A young uncoloured pair of these birds was acquired in the late 2008. The choice turned out to be good as
the birds were getting along very well, which they were showing by following each other, sharing the same
perch and feeding together. In the quarantine period, both individuals were housed in a cage with dimensions
1.5 by 1.20 by 0.40 m (width x height x depth) fitted with perches and thin branches. Subsequently, they were
relocated into a larger facility sized 1.80 by 2.20 by 2.30 m (width x length x height), with the possibility to
fly out into the outdoor aviary 3.00 by 3.60 by 3.20 (m), which the birds share with a pair of green-winged
macaws (Ara chloroptera).
In their indoor exhibit, the birds have available many branches of varied thickness and length and plenty of
small twigs, the bottom of the display being covered with fine sand and tufts of grass. There are two baskets
available for nesting with a lesser and greater diameter, and a single budgerigar nest-box; there are also
diverse nesting materials, like tufts of fine grass, fine grass cut to provide longer locks (about 10 cm), cut birch
twigs and soft coconut fibres. The nest-box was installed on the highest spot within the cage (2.10 m), while
the two baskets were placed some 1.50 / 1.80 m above the ground. The fine grass as well as the coconut fibre
was scattered around the floor; some grass was tied to the branches in form of tufts. Approximately in the mid
of May, the female started to sit in the larger basket (diameter 15 cm), which she had littered with soft grass
and coconut fibre, while the male preferred the nest-box, to which he was supplying the nesting material. All
this time the birds seemed to be in disagreement as to which should be their nesting site. The male eventually
succumbed, starting to assist the female in littering the basket. Subsequently, the birds kept on carrying
the materials offered into the basket, where namely coconut fibre was preferred. The pair developed a nicelooking
nest littered to form a ring.
On 21 May 2009, three pale blue eggs with brown spots were discovered in the basket, which the females
duly incubated for some 14 days. On 31 May, the first chick hatched; it had dark red plumage sparsely covered
with black hair-like feathers. The remainder of the chicks hatched on 1 and 2 June. The chicks were kept warm
by the female. The birds were fed with scraped carrots mixed with boiled egg and bread-crumbs plus boiled
shelled oats, boiled rice, loose mixture for insectivorous birds, small mealworms, fly larvae, UNI Nutribird
pellets, apple, orange, red pepper, salad, Chinese cabbage, millet spikes and the Agapornis parrot mixture
blended with pigeon mixture.
On 3 June in the morning, the basket was found to be empty and the chicks were scattered around the
cage. One of them was still alive, but the others were dead and bruised. The chick that survived was partly
bruised as well; it was put into the incubator and hand-fed using a syringe and tweezers. The incubator indoor
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