The brains behind the operation: Sirius & Flo

Our Striated Caracara: Sirius and our Crested Caracara: Flo, have both moved aviaries recently. They are now near to our Savannah Arena so as Head of Lower Section of the Trust, means that I now get the pleasure of looking after them on a day-to-day basis.

It’s been very exciting to get my own little Caracara corner of the Trust; I adore working with both species, getting to see their amazing intelligence and abundance of character.  With both of these species being big problem solvers in the wild, it’s very important that we provide them plenty of enrichment opportunities.

Enrichment can be anything we add into our birds’ lives that stimulates cognitive engagement, wellbeing, physical health and encourages natural behaviour. An enrichment example are the flying routines in our demonstrations.

We want our birds to have an engaging life both in and out of their aviary, so when they’re not flying it’s a chance to focus in their aviary on enrichment that engages their different senses or more in depth, tricky problem solving.

Caracaras tend to be confident and curious birds, Sirius and Flo are both wonderful examples of this. These traits make it easy to introduce a large variety of enrichment to them quickly, both have enjoyed things such as puzzle feeders, eggs to crack open, Kongs with insects inside, a ball pit and even a custom made kerplunk style feeder that both swiftly figured out how to ‘solve’ (break) in unique ways!

Sometimes though, you can’t beat a classic. Despite the variety of things we have offered them, both birds are still very fond of a cardboard box filled with newspaper, cardboard tubes and egg cartons sometimes with the occasional hidden treat. In either case, give them an hour and you’ll come back to an aviary full of confetti! Sirius loves to display his shredded newspaper in every corner of his home while Flo prefers to take egg cartons and create a pile of finely shredded cardboard.

It’s an absolute joy to see their personalities shine through in these activities and if you’d like to see it for yourself keep an eye out when visiting or you may get a chance to see it during our species spotlight.