new birds

Host Chris Jennings is joined by John Pollmann, DU Central Flyway migration editor, and the two discuss the current conditions in much of the Central Flyway. Pollmann, a South Dakota native, offers insight into his season along with an update from throughout the region. He describes quite the lull in migration as temperatures have remained fairly mild, even warmer than normal. Reports he is hearing is that North Dakota, and some parts of the Canadiana Prairie are still holding a significant number of mallards and Canada geese.

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Today we discuss the topic of introducing new birds into your aviaries.  Our discussion includes how to air freight birds to your home - Birdman Dad lives in Western Australia - a very isolated place due to the distances in Australia - and Western Australia has very strict quarantine laws and border inspections to keep our great state free of agricultural pests and diseases - diseases that could cripple our farming and fresh produce.  This complicates matters when it comes to importing birds from the east coast of Australia (eg: Sydney,Melbourne, Brisbane) into Western Australia.  West Aussies that choose to import birds here have to meet the quarantine restrictions - as in you can not  import some bird species at all into WA- and you have to apply to a government department to import the birds and pay certain fees.  Then you also have to book for the Quarantine officers to inspect your birds when they arrive - to make sure what you have applied to import into the state is what you are actually importing...and that is the easy part!  
Then you have the challenge of introducing these new birds safely into your aviaries so that your existing birds are safe from disease/pests introduced by your new birds and that you care for your new birds so that they survive the trip over to their new home.
Birdman Dad tries to answer and explain some common questions about bringing new birds into your aviaries in the hope that this information will help you manage bird jet lag and the somewhat complicated process of travelling birds.