PARTIAL SUCCESS
Enclosure & environment
Choice & control
Live planting
Bird
Outcome: Breeding
Zoo — bird park
Six years of broken eggs, until the aviary was planted and the pair chose their own site.
PHOTO
S. Jeong
Senior Keeper • Gyeongju Bird Park • South Korea
Illustrative photo, not the birds in this case. Pexels.com.
—— THE EXTRACT
PUBLIC
When years of adding nest boxes produce nothing, change the space rather than the furniture — and let the birds choose where to nest.
CONTEXT
1 pair of Victoria crowned pigeons, both around 10 years old, at Gyeongju Bird Park. Both birds are wary of people and territorial, so keeper entry was already kept to a minimum.
PROBLEM
For about six years the female laid every year from the perch, and the eggs fell and broke. No nest was ever built, and several changes to nest boxes and routine made no difference.
APPROACH
The keeper planted the aviary instead of adding more furniture. 3 to 6 months later, once the plants were shedding lower leaves, the male carried them to a high spot of his choosing and the pair built their first nest — then abandoned it after a month without laying. The keeper screened the sight lines to the visitor path and the neighboring aviary, and offered several possible nest points, including at floor level, instead of one.
RESULT
The pair built on the floor and laid a fertile egg, and the female sat on it. The male's share of incubation fell away, so the egg was moved to an incubator. It hatched, and the chick has been reared to sub-adult. No manufactured nest box was ever used.
STILL OPEN
Nesting has worked once; natural incubation has not. The aim is a pair that builds, lays, shares incubation and rears without intervention.
SPECIES & FACILITY
PUBLIC
Common name
Victoria crowned pigeon
Scientific name
Goura victoria
Group held
MEMBERS
Where kept
Gyeongju Bird Park
Country
South Korea
Facility type
Zoo — bird park
Work carried out
MEMBERS
PROVENANCE
PUBLIC
Source class
Individual (staff member)
Declared Interest
NONE
Evidence tier
OBSERVED
Gathered by
Keeper's written questionnaire; no dated log
Record held
MEMBERS
Instrumented: dated measurements or clinical documents.
Observed: the contributor's own notes, unverified.
Reported: recalled, undocumented.
The tier describes the record, not the contributor. How a case was gathered does not change its tier; a second person confirms the account, it gets a Corroborated flag.
THE CONTRIBUTOR
PUBLIC
PHOTO
S. Jeong
Senior Keeper
Gyeongju Bird Park • South Korea
Senior keeper at Gyeongju Bird Park
Open to everyone: the extract, the contributor's position and institution, the photograph, the species and facility details, provenance, disclosure and citation.
Members only: the full account and figures, what was tried and did not work, and contact with the contributor.
HOW TO CITE THIS
PUBLIC
Jeong, S. (2026). Six years of broken eggs, until the aviary was planted and the pair chose their own site. Chureeda. https://chureeda.com/case/kjbp_victoria
————— END OF THE PUBLIC EXTRACT —————
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