Celebrate Mother's Day at Bourton's Birdland exploring bird mums

Birdland Park and Gardens will be spotlighting the intriguing ways its avian mums care for their young throughout Mother's Day weekend (March 10-11).

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Head keeper, Alistair Keen, said: "Some of our birds will become new mums over the coming weeks so it presents the perfect opportunity to come along on Mother’s Day and see how our feathered friends bring up their young.

"We are also keeping a close eye on our colony of king penguins who are now moulting and getting ready to begin their courtship rituals."

Mr Keen and his team have noted particularly promising signs of nesting in the park's owls, which traditionally are the earliest mums each year.

Bird childcare ranges from burrowing owls that lay numerous eggs underground, to flamingos that construct a foot-high mud nest cone, enabling them to shield their egg from flooding.

The park's king penguins, which are currently preparing for courtship, take turns incubating their single egg, while in certain species, it’s the males that shoulder the majority of infant care.

Female pheasants, on the other hand, often lay up to eight eggs in a scrape on the floor, depending on their dull plumage for camouflage.

Pigeons build a flimsy nest on a foundation of twigs and lay two eggs, while parrots find holes in trees to nest in.

Female cassowaries lay eggs in several males' nests and leave them to incubate and rear the young.

Perhaps the most dedicated of all bird mums is the female trumpeter hornbill, who seals herself into a tree cavity made out of mud, droppings and saliva for three months, relying on the male to feed her as she lays and incubates eggs, before hatching the chicks.

The next step is that once the chicks are full-sized, they break out.