The Eagle has Landed

Not everyone knows that we have a new family member. Last fall I went to the annual bird show in Grand Rapids and came home with two new canaries. Curly is the male. He is a green crested canary. Laura is the girl and she is a red factor with some "blue" which looks gray.
In late December Laura decided it was time to start nesting. I found an egg in her food dish. So I set her up with a nest and she laid four eggs. It turns out Laura is not going to get the "Mother of the Year" award. Her first hatchling died because she didn't feed it and her second one almost died. Fortunately I took over and supplemented his food and was able to get him through the first critical two weeks. However on Wednesday we noticed that he was missing some feathers on his head. We watched closely and discovered that his mom was plucking the feathers out. Poor guy, every time he would beg for food she would reward him by pecking at his head. We decided it was time for our little bald eagle to be on his own. So now "Eagle" is alone in his cage but not quite ready for it. Several times a day I have to catch him and hand feed him nestling formula. We put a little "plate" of bread on the floor and sprinkled soaked seed and egg food on it, with the hopes that he will learn to feed himself. He is a bit hard to see here....but check him out. Hopefully we will have updated pictures in a few days. Meantime momma Laura has been banished to another cage and is now harassing poor Curly!.