The Western House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) is a small muroid rodent mammal.
The Western House Mouse has a rounded body with short grey-brown to light-brown fur, a pointed nose, large rounded pinkish ears, and a long tail. Its underbelly is light beige. Its nose is pinkish with whiskers. It has pinkish feet.
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The New Caledonia Flying Fox (Pteropus vetulus) is a bat, and a mammal, in the Pteropodidae family. Ptero means winged. It is not a fox.
The New Caledonian Flying Fox has long, silky brownish-red fur. It does not have a tail. Its head looks like the head of a small fox. It has long pointed ears, large eyes, and a small grey nose. It has long, black, clawed fingers, and large black wings.
Its wings are flexible and look like a human’s hand, except that the digits (fingers) are longer and bats have a thin membrane of skin, called the patagium, between the fingers. These features enable the bat to move in the air and to change direction quickly.
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The West European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a mammal. It is also known as the Common Hedgehog.
The West European Hedgehog is brownish with up to 6,000 brown and white spines. It has a stumpy, domed-shaped body with a short tail.
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The European Wildcat (Felis silvestris) is a wild cat, and a felid mammal.
The European Wildcat is like a domestic cat, but with longer sandy-coloured fur, a shorter non-tapering bushy tail, and larger sharper teeth. It has striped fur with a dark dorsal band and a whitish underbelly. Its eyes are yellowish-brown, and its nose is pink. It has large ears.
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The Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) is a small passerine songbird.
The Black Drongo is all black with glossy feathers and a distinctive forked tail. It has a small white dot at the base of its mouth. It has dark-brown eyes.
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The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a common and widespread mammal.
The Red Fox has reddish fur with yellow tints. Its winter fur is dense, long, soft, and silky. It sides are lighter than its back and its chin, lower lips, throat and front of the chest are white. The tip of its fluffy tail is white. It has a long body, long narrow head, and short legs. Its front paws have five toes and its back paws have four toes. Each toe has a strong claw. It has oval-shaped pupils with excellent vision.
The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a large bird of prey, a raptor, and an accipiter in the Accipitridae family. It is also known as the Eurasian Griffon Vulture. It is related to the White-Backed Vulture (Gyps africanus).
The Griffion Vulture has a white head and a white neck with ruff feathers. It has broad dark wings and short tail feathers. It has a whitish beak.
The Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is a small bird, a passerine (songbird) in the finch family.
The Common Chaffinch has a blue-grey crown and nape, with pale olive-green to brown back, and rusty-brown underparts. The female is duller in colour. Both the male and female have white bars on their black wings and white sides on their black tail.
The Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is a large freshwater waterbird.
The Dalmatian Pelican has mainly silvery-white feathers on its body, with curly feathers on the back of its head. It has a large orange-red lower mandible (jaw) and a yellow upper mandible, with a large pouch. It has yellow to purple-blue eye-rings.
The Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is a large, water bird, living in wetlands.
The Australian Pelican is mostly white, with black wings. It has a white panel on the upper wing and a white V-shape on its back. It has a very large pale-pink beak with a pale-pink pouch. Its eye-ring is pale-yellow. Its eye-ring turns yellow-orange, and the beak changes colour to blue, pink, or red, in the breeding season. Its beak has a small hook at the tip. Its eyes are brown and yellow and its feet are blue-grey, with four webbed toes.
The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a widespread medium-sized bird.
The Common Starling has glossy black feathers with an iridescent sheen of purple or green. It is speckled with white spots. Males have long throat feathers. Its legs are pink and its beak is black in winter and pale yellow in summer.
The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) – or budgie – is a small Australian bird. It is also called the Common Parakeet or Shell Parakeet.
The Budgerigar in the wild is green (on the body) and yellow (on the head) with black scalloped markings on the neck, back, and wings. In captivity, there are many colours, such as blue, white, yellow, and grey. It has cheek spots that are usually blue or grey, with three black spots across each side of its throat. Its beak is pearl or clear, with a pearl-white cere, and is down facing. Its legs are blue-grey. It has a long, blue tail.
The Australian Eastern Raven (Corvus coronoides coronoides) is a medium-sized black bird.
The Australian Eastern Raven is all black, with a black beak and grey-black legs. The upperparts have glossy feathers, with a purplish sheen. It has throat hackles with rounded tips (that looks like a beard). It has white eyes. The upper beak (mandible) has short bristles. The beak is tipped with a slight hook.
The Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) is also called the Common Blackbird. It is a thrush from Europe, Asia, and north Africa.
The Eurasian Blackbird is black with grey legs, a yellow-orange beak, and yellow eye-rings.
How does a parent bird feed its young chicks?
Newly-hatched altricial chicks are born featherless, blind, and helpless.
Chicks open their eyes after about four days. They take time to gain all of their feathers. Initially, the down feathers make young chicks look fluffy. They sit close to their parents to keep warm and safe.
During this time, young chicks stay in the nest. Adult birds look after and feed their young – sometimes, just the mother, sometimes just the father, and other times both the mother and father look after their chicks.
The Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a honeyeater bird found in eastern and southeastern Australia. Its name comes from its noisy vocal calls. It is sometimes called a Chattering Honeyeater.
The Noisy Miner is grey, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye, and white tips on the tail feathers.
The Fischer’s Lovebird (Agapornis fischeri) is a small parrot from Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania, Africa. However, it has been exported around the world and is a popular pet.
The Fischer’s Lovebird has short feathers with a green back, chest, and wings. Its neck is golden yellow to darker orange, and the top of its head is olive green. In the wild Fischer’s Lovebirds are green, but as a pet, several colour variations have been bred, such as yellow and blue.
Its beak is bright red, with a white line separating the beak from the forehead. The upper surface of its tail has some purple or blue feathers. It has a white circle of bare skin around its eyes, which is called an eye-ring.
The Great Tit (Parus major) is a common and widespread passerine bird in the Paridae family of song birds. It is also known as the Great Titmouse.
The Great Tit has a distinctive black head and neck, large white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts. Its wings are green to blue-grey with white wing-bars. The tail is blue-grey with white tips.
The Spotted-Necked Otter (Hydrictis maculicollis) is a freshwater semi-aquatic mammal. It lives on water and on land.
The Spotted-Necked Otter has a long, slender body with short, chocolate-brown to reddish-brown water-repellent fur, with white spots on its chest, neck, and throat. It has a short nose, round ears, and a nose pad (like a dog). It has short legs with webbed feet for swimming, but it also walks on land. It has long whiskers, called vibrissae. It has a long, tapered tail.
The Lilac-Breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus caudatus) is an east African bird found from the Red Sea to southern Africa, and most abundant in the grasslands of Kenya.
Lilac-Breasted Rollers have bright plumage (feathers), with a lilac throat that deepens into a darker lilac breast. The crown to mantle is olive, and the cheeks and ear coverts are a lilac-rufous (reddish-brown). They have long black and blue tail feathers.