The Los Angeles Zoo is celebrating the arrival of two tropical Snake species and a Blue-throated Macaw, one of the rarest birds in the world.

Photo Credits: Tad Motoyama (1,3,4,5); Ian Recchio (2,6)

Eight Bushmasters, which are venomous Pit Vipers native to Central and South America, hatched in December (second photo from top). This is the fourth clutch of this species to hatch at the Los Angeles Zoo since the first pair of Bushmasters arrived at there in 2008.  The little hatchlings will eventually grow six to 10 feet long and weigh up to 15 pounds. Bushmasters inhabit forests and though their bites can be fatal, these Snakes are rarely encountered by humans.

Unlike Bushmasters, which hatch from eggs, a Mangrove Viper gave birth to five babies on December 26 (third photo from top). In Snakes that give birth to live offspring, the eggs are held inside the body until they hatch, resulting in live birth. This is the first time Mangrove Vipers have reproduced at the zoo. Mangrove Vipers are venomous Pit Vipers that live in India, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asia.

Staff working behind the scenes at the Avian Conservation Center are hand-rearing a Blue-throated Macaw chick that hatched in December (top photo). Normally, the chick’s parents would care for and feed the chick, but they experienced some minor health issues that required medication and could not feed their baby. Staff took over and offer food via a syringe several times a day.

Found only in a small region of Bolivia, fewer than 250 Blue-throated Macaws live in the wild. In the past, these Macaws were heavily exploited for the pet trade. Though this practice has been greatly reduced, trapping still occurs. Today, the Macaws' biggest threat comes from clearing of suitable nesting and feeding trees. These birds are listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

See more photos of the Macaw chick and a Bushmaster hatching from its egg below.

Growing more elegant each day, this Sunbittern chick is the first of its kind hatched at Woodland Park Zoo (on November 20) in nearly 15 years. This chick was photographed from one to nine days old to show its progress. At one day old, the chick is covered in fluffy down feathers. Adult feathers begin to grow in after 3 weeks.

Zoo staff regularly weighs the chick to keep track of its growth and make sure it is hitting all of its developmental benchmarks. At its latest weigh-in, it added up to about 3 ounces (90 grams).The chick rests on a nesting structure atop the scale, with a craggy texture designed to make it easy for the bird to grip with its feet. (And yes, it does look like a plate of worms!)

The call of the sunbittern is one of the most recognizable sounds in the rain forest exhibit. This little chick isn’t very vocal so far, though it does hiss a bit when it’s surprised. The sunbittern has large feet that spread the bird’s weight making it easier to walk on muddy rain forest terrain. 

Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

Seen here at 9 days old, the Sunbittern’s characteristic long neck begins to distinguish itself. Note the long legs—a forest floor walker with a slow and deliberate gait—already growing in at 9 days old.

Fourteen Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers were hatched in captivity at Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire this week, a first for the UK and only the second flock ever to have been born in captivity. These latest chicks are part of an emergency conservation breeding mission to ensure the species against imminent extinction in the wild. Four further eggs are expected to hatch in the coming days and, if successful, will bring the total flock size to 30. The size of the flock is critical to triggering breeding behavior in the birds, which are mature enough to reproduce at two years old.

The birds were hatched from eggs taken from the tiny remaining wild population which breeds on the sub-Arctic tundra in the Russian Far East, and flown by helicopter and plane on a week-long journey via Anadyr, Moscow and Heathrow before arriving at WWT Slimbridge. The dramatic decline in Spoon-billed Sandpiper numbers was first observed in 2000. Now fewer than 100 pairs are thought to remain. Russian and international field workers travel each year to the breeding grounds in Chukotka to monitor numbers and have been critical in raising the alarm.

Although the long term decline of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is thought to have been driven by inter-tidal habitat loss in East Asia, the roots of the current problem have been identified some 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away in coastal Myanmar and Bangladesh, where the birds spend the majority of the year outside the breeding season. Bird trapping by some villagers is suspected to have driven the steep decline in numbers. Local and international conservationists have had some success in stopping this practice by helping villagers find and fund alternative livelihoods. Once these threats have been tackled, birds from the conservation breeding program will be returned to the wild to increase the remaining wild population.

Photo Credit: Photo 1, 2: WWT/Paul Marshall, Photo 3, 4, 5, 6: WWT/Sacha Dench

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo welcomed two Kori Bustard chicks that hatched June 9 and 10. Keepers are hand-raising the chicks, which increases the likelihood that the chicks will breed successfully once they reach sexual maturity. Hand-rearing has another benefit; several wild birds of prey reside on Zoo grounds, and raising the chicks inside the Bird House eliminates the chance of conflict. The Zoo’s Nutrition department developed a specialized diet that contains pellets, crickets, peas, greens and fruit, and keepers feed the chicks every two hours between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Although the chicks will not be on exhibit until late August, Zoo visitors can see their parents at the Kori Bustard exhibit, located outside of the Bird House.

Also making their summer debut at the Zoo’s Bird House are two Burrowing Owl chicks, hatched on May 24. At first the chicks are helpless and their eyes are closed. By age 2½ weeks, they are able to control their body temperature and begin to emerge from their burrows to beg for food. At 3 weeks old, they begin jumping and flapping their wings, and at 4 weeks, they are able to take short flights. Visitors can easily identify the chicks by their juvenile plumage, which lacks any of the white bars and spots of the adults. Burrowing Owls are one of the smallest owl species in North America. The average adult is 10 inches in length—slightly larger than an American Robin.

Photo Credit: Smithsonian National Zoo

On June 5, a pair of Victoria Crowned Pigeons, Violet & Ozzy, hatched a healthy chick for the first time at Colchester Zoo. The chick was first seen with its head peering out of the nest by keepers on the June 9. The chick will be tended to by both parents until it is 13 weeks old, when the chick becomes independent. 

Curator, Clive Barwick says, “Victoria Crowned Pigeons are known to be notoriously clumsy parents as both eggs and chicks have been known to be accidentally kicked out of nests! The first week after the chick hatched was very tentative, but we are glad that our young and inexperienced hen proved highly competent”.

According to the IUCN Red List the Victoria Crowned Pigeons current status in the wild is vulnerable due to hunting and logging. Colchester Zoo is proud to be part of the conservation of this species and are very pleased to have their first ever Victoria Crowned Pigeon chick. Victoria Crowned Pigeons are one of the largest pigeons in the world and are native to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Their habitat is generally lowland forests and roosting in trees, their diet consists of fruit and seeds.

Photo Credit:Colchester Zoo

Pennsylvania's ZooAmerica welcomed two Roadrunner chicks in June.These chicks will grow to be 20-24 inches (50-61 cm) from tail to beak and 10-12 inches (25.5-30.5 cm) tall. A large black-and-white mottled ground bird with a distinctive head crest, Roadrunners scurry across the terrain in American deserts, as depicted in the well-known Warner Bros. cartoons. It can fly, but for only short distances as its wingspan can't keep its large body in the air for long. These chicks are members of the Cuckoo family, characterized by feet with 2 forward toes and 2 behind. 

Roadrunners feed on insects, scorpions, lizards, snakes, rodents and other birds, supplementing their diet with plants in winter. Because of its lightening quickness, it can prey upon rattlesnakes. It snatches a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracks it like a whip and hits its head against the ground until it's dead. It swallows the snake, but often can't take in the entire length at one time. That doesn't stop the Roadrunner! It will continue to on it's way with the snake dangling from its mouth, consuming another inch or two as the snake slowly digests.

Photo Credit: ZooAmerica 

Read more about ZooAmerica's Roadrunners below the jump:

This Easter peep laughs (or will when it is fully grown)! The chick is a Laughing Kookaburra, hatched on March 2 at Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo. The little bird has grown and changed quite a bit over the last 5 weeks. First time parents -- mom Jayke and dad Maverick -- have been very busy taking turns carrying insects and mice to the nest box to keep their youngster well fed. This is their first chick and it is thriving under their excellent care.

The parents are the zoo's only Kookaburras and were identified by the Species Survival Program (SSP) as among the most genetically valuable pairs in captivity. They are one of just six pairs in the United States recommended to produce offspring this year.  

In the wild, young Laughing Kookaburras often stay with the family to help raise their younger siblings. A spokesperson for the zoo said they hope that this youngster will get the chance to help its parents raise another brood soon. The photos below show the baby at one week, and again at five weeks.

Photo Credit: Carmen Murach/Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo

Taronga Zoo’s bird Keepers are celebrating the hatching of a very precious Andean Condor chick. The parents, Connie and Bruce, are the only breeding pair in Australasia and their Keepers were hopeful that this breeding season the pair would produce two offspring.

To help the parents achieve this, the Bird Team incubated the first egg they laid. On the November 23, after two months of very careful monitoring and special conditions (including regular candling to check that the egg was healthy and had good vein development), a very strong chick pushed her way out of the egg, much to the delight of all!

This chick became even more of a triumph for the Zoo as the second egg, which the parents subsequently laid and incubated themselves, didn’t make it.

Taronga’s Keepers are currently hand raising the youngster who is thriving. The very curious female, who is yet being called "Muppet" in lieu of any here-to-fore official name, will eventually be a star in the QBE Free Flight Bird Show, swooping her massive wing span across the audience as she flies on to stage and educates people about her wild cousins which are threatened in the wild. 

Photo Credit: Taronga Zoo

Four Black-winged Stilt chicks hatched at Perth Zoo in Australia at the end of November. These chicks are the first in a new generation of stilts and are part of a regional breeding program for this native Australian species.

Chicks are gray and with a sandy hue on their wings. When fully grown the will sport stark white feathers on the head, neck and belly while the feathers on their back and wings will be black with a greenish sheen on males and a little more brown looking on females. Adults are 13-14 inches (33–36 cm) long, with their distinctive pink legs making up about 60 % of their height which gives them an advantage in deeper waters over other wader birds (hence the name).

Black-winged Stilts can be found on the shores of large, inland water bodies and coastal habitats. They breed in freshwater or brackish (slightly salty) wetlands with a sand, mud or clay bed. While they are not currently considered endangered, they can be threatened by climate change and continued destruction of wetlands by man.

Photo Credits: Perth Zoo

Every spring in South Africa, Johannesburg Zoo’s flock of flamingos gets busy with preparations for their new chicks. Flamingos start laying eggs around September & October, after carefully building raised nests from mud in their enclosure. Weeks before breeding season starts keepers provide clay-like substrate to the enclosure for the birds to build with. Initially the clay is kept wet once a week to ensure nest stay moist and keep their shape.

Unfortunately, the hen sometimes makes the mistake of laying an egg on the grass or the egg may roll off the nest. For those eggs abandoned by the parents’ zookeepers collect and incubate them for 28 to 30 days in the hope that the chicks will hatch and survive. This is no easy task as the eggs need very specific conditions of 99.5 degrees (37.5 degrees celcius) and 75% humidity to grow.

The first egg laid this season unfortunately rolled off of the nest and was collected by birdkeeper, Elaine Bratt. It was incubated from September 22, and to Elaine’s delight a little chick hatched on October 20! Named Nu, it is the first official flamingo chick of 2011 and is being cared for around the clock, just as its parents would do. Nu was joined by Kuba on November 8. The two live in the zoo’s bird rearing facility called “The Brooder Room”. Each has its own room with a heat lamp to keep the temperature constant. The chicks are fed every 2 to 3 hours a special diet of sardines, shrimp, boiled egg, maize meal, calcium and multi-vitamins.

Photo Credits: Photos 1-2 Lorna Fuller, Photos 3-4 Candice Segal/Joburg Zoo