This morning 2 new members of our Chachalaca clan made their debut. This has become a yearly event that we look forward to.
Baby Chachalacas
They are adorable, do you keep them for the eggs?
These Chachalacas although very tame, are wild. We've been here almost 40 yrs and this old McAllen neighborhood has always had groups scattered about. I hope these two chicks make it. Last year we had one just disappear from one day to the next.
Very cute! What do Chachalacas eat? (I'm obviously not familiar with this kind of bird.)
Chachalacas eat mostly tender greens. They love fruit, bananas, mangos and oranges. They'll devour a soft flour tortilla and will eat cooked rice. When I've got seedlings growing, I have to protect them from the Chachalacas, I've learned the hard way. I used to have a nice ice plant that they completely stripped of foliage. They are mainly ground birds, foraging the undergrowth and thickets.
That's neat! (they come around to eat the various things you put out)
Yep, I also learned the hard way about protecting certain plants ! But I love birds and we just put up with their foraging. Would love to raise chukar quail again but there are so many predators, hard to keep them safe.
Very cute! Do they eat insects? That would be a huge asset!
Chachalacas are a Valley & Northern
Mexico thang. You should hear the
racket they make !
It is a cross between squawking,
rattling, laufging and cackling and
onomatopeuc, like their name
cha cha la ja .... irs unforgettable
MY comadre has told me about
how they approach the glass back
door and peck to let the humans
know they are hungry.
My compadre calls all of us feminine
friends chachalacas when we all
get together (you know who you are )
I remember as a girl we would go to
scout day camp at Benrsen park and
you could gear them akk day long
Yhey are very special !
They are so cute. You have a much better chance of them making it this year because we arent in a drought. There are more places for them to hide and the animals that hunt them arent as desperate as they were last year. Im thinking we may have baby peafowl in the next week or so. I finally got them to stop laying their eggs in the back of my truck...a mobile home just wont work!
What kind of bird are they related to? Ive never seen/heard of them either. The chicks look like guinea birds, but we cant get that close to them.
This message was edited May 19, 2012 10:27 PM
genus is ortalis
Thanks Im going to look them up in my Texas Bird book. Their Genus is ortalis and their Family is Dang Cute. : )
amen !
they are among my facorites
Those a very cool! I don't think I would mind the noise at all. They could come and visit me in NE Texas any time.
1lisac, we caught a snake last night on our peacock eggs nest. Just a bull snake but he had already eaten three eggs! Wow, I could not have imagined a snake could swallow even one peacock egg as they are so big. I was torn between the horror of the peacock hen and the fascination of how a five foot snake would possibly have swallowed three eggs. I had just checked on the hens and peacocks a few hours previous and no sign of a snake or any type of unease or disruption on the fussy hen's part. She layed then right in the middle of the chicken run with all the chickens scratching and clucking around her. Now she has scattered her eggs all over the run (can't say I blame her). Oh well, no peacock chicks this year I guess--not that I really need any more. OT I know, sorry! But the chachalacas chicks look a lot like peacock chick only shorter legs.
One year we had kildeer (plovers) make a nest in the middle of our gravel drive way. Fortunately the drive way is wide enough cars could manage to get around them. I put up signs all around about nesting birds so somebody wouldn't accidently run over them. Amazingly four baby kildeer hatched out without being harmed and Mama, Daddy and babies went on their way (hopefully sticking more to the yards and fields). I think they picked that place because their eggs blended in with the color of the gravel so well.
edited for punctuation
This message was edited May 22, 2012 10:18 AM
Ladypearl, LOL! So far we have had three killdeer families this year alone. Four in each nest. All in the gravel drive. We have a cattle panel we rolled up into a cylinder and put around the nest. Weighted down w/two t-posts layed through the panel at the bottom so the wind doesn't move anything. Once one batch hatched we moved the panel roll on to the next nest. It has been a great year for killdeer!
Wow, they are prolific there in Alba! I guess your drive is wide enough to drive around them also?
I didn't think of putting fence around them (seems like it would scare them but then they are very brave little birds). I will keep that in mind if they ever nest on our driveway again; we have some large pieces of concrete reinforcement wire (like fence) that would work well.
Prolific! They are breeding like rabbit this year! We've just discovered two more nests! I really like having birds around so I don't mind. And our drive is very long and wide enough to maneuver.
Neat! Yep, we like having them around too. They would put on quite a show to get us away from their nest when we would go to the mail box......