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Vol 28 Issue 7 • Feb-Mar 2015
Eastern Rosellas GANG GANGS
Eclectus DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH
Fostering Eggs Canary Nutrition Pet Parrot Relationships
Vol 28 Issue 7 U Feb-Mar 2015
Eastern Rosellas GANG GANGS
Eclectus DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH
COVER IMAGE GOLDEN-MANTLED EASTERN ROSELLA BY PETER ODEKERKEN
Fostering Eggs Canary Nutrition Pet Parrot Relationships
features 413 COLONY BREEDING NEW GUINEA ECLECTUS PARROTS
By Armin Brockner 426 FOSTERING PARROT EGGS— PRACTICALITIES AND ETHICS
contents Volume 28 Issue 7 446 BIRDWATCHING IN BOLIVIA— PART 2
an international parrot convention in Auckland on 10–12 April 2015.
By Sharon Sowter
460 BREEDING THE TWELVE-WIRED BIRD OF PARADISE
450 BIRDS OF SUPERSTITION AND MYTH
By Paul Granston
By Rosemary Low What are the options if a female or pair refuses to incubate eggs?
Birds are commonly linked to good and bad luck, sickness, health, the gods and the afterlife.
442 GANG GANG COCKATOOS
452 NEW ZEALAND PARROT CONVENTION 2015—SPEAKER PROFILES
By Peter Odekerken This species has an endearing nature but can prove difficult for the inexperienced breeder.
regulars 416 BREEDING AUSTRALIAN PARROTS: EASTERN ROSELLAS
By Barry Blanch The Eastern Rosella is a long-lived and strikingly colourful bird, easy to care for and excellent for all levels of bird keepers.
By Rebecca K O’Connor Rebecca looks at how to build a positive relationship with your bird and how to rebuild it if necessary.
420 FINCH FOCUS: THE DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH
439 WHAT’S NEW
423 BUSH TUCKER: FOODS FROM PROTEACEAE FLORA
By Des Boorman Proteaceous plants are enjoyed by most parrots including nectar-feeders. 429 CANARY CHATTER: CANARY NUTRITION—PART 2
By Brian Bohl Brian discusses fibre, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and water and the vital role they play in canary wellbeing. 432 ABOUT BIRDS: MIRACULOUS BIRD BEAKS—MULTIPURPOSE TOOLS
By Kit Prendergast As well as allowing it to feed and vocalise, a bird’s beak is involved in preening, climbing, nesting, feeding young, in offense and defence, courtship, sexual selection and regulating body temperature.
465 VALE
Ted McAnespie By Geoff rey Wheeler
The Parrot Society of New Zealand will celebrate its 25th anniversary with
436 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR BETTER BIRDS: FIVE EASY WAYS TO BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR PARROT
By Russell Kingston Elegantly marked in black and white with beige hues, this species has an endearing personality.
By Anne Hoppmann Birds of Paradise are world renowned, due to the male’s colourful plumage. Weltvogelpark Walsrode is the only zoo in Europe in which this species has been bred.
• Pyrrhura Parakeets (Conures)— Aviculture, Natural History and Conservation • Understanding Parrots—Cues from Nature • Parrots and Finches— Healthy Nutrition 440 HOOKBILL HOBBYIST: A BUSY COCKATOO IS A HAPPY COCKATOO
By EB Cravens Cockatoos can make good companion animals, but it takes a lot of work, dedication and imagination on the keeper’s behalf. 448 AVIAN HEALTH WITH DR BOB: A MEDLEY OF SMALL ANIMAL HOSPITAL CASES
By Dr Bob Doneley Dr Bob gives us a look behind the scenes of his work at the Avian and Exotic Pets service at the University of Queensland.
455 FINCH FUNDAMENTALS: A FIRETAIL AMONG THE KIWIS—PART 2
By Marcus Pollard Marcus continues his journey visiting breeders in New Zealand. 458 THE WISE OWL: THE FIREFIGHTING LYREBIRD
By Milton Lewis We often think about the effect of bushfire on flora and fauna, but individual species of birds may also influence the spread and therefore the consequences of fire. 462 CONSERVATION:
• Forces Unite to Protect the Purplecrowned Fairy-wren By Geoff Vivian • Loro Parque: Lear’s Macaw Update By Dr Matthias Reinschmidt • WPT: Be a Parrot Hero with WPT By Carolyn Pradun 464 LAST CHIRP:
• Joint Winners in Writers’ Competition By Sheryll Steele-Boyce • Eleven-year-old Takes the Floor at Geelong ASA By David Pace • Recognition at Loro Parque Convention in Tenerife By Loro Parque
466 classifieds 411
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARMIN BROCKNER
Colony Breeding New Guinea Eclectus Parrots
New Guinea Eclectus Parrot female
INTRODUCTION
Eclectus Parrots form a closed group which splits into 10 subspecies. Little is understood of the Westerman’s Eclectus Eclectus roratus westermani, mainly sourced from 11 museum specimens. Being a jungle dweller, it is extremely difficult to observe in the wild, with its range extending from the various archipelagos of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia to the Solomon Islands Group. Field studies have revealed details about the breeding behaviour of the Westerman’s that can be utilised in captivity. Eclectus females occupy their nest box for months. As a rule, multiple females share a brood tree in separate nests. Several males attend each female during mating and feeding. I still remember well when I tracked down these forest giants in New Ireland, where almost 20 Red-sided E. r. solomonensis Eclectus males were sitting. At that time I did not understand why only males were staying. Today, I know that the females had already claimed their nests.
New Guinea Eclectus Parrot male
COLONY LIFE
During my time at the Loro Parque breeding centre in 2011, and with this research in mind, we decided to rethink our handling of New Guinea Eclectus Parrots Eclectus roratus polychloros as they had only produced unfertilised clutches. We relocated the collection’s five pairs in group housing. The aviary measured 3m high x 18m deep x 24m wide. It was equipped with plenty of perches and swings and various plants that the birds loved. You could watch them as they constantly nibbled on the plants, eating fruit and buds or just resting in them.
New Guinea Eclectus Parrot group in the colony aviary
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breeding australian parrots WORDS BY BARRY BLANCH PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE BLANCH
EASTERN ROSELLAS E INTRODUCTION
The Eastern Rosella Platycercus eximius eximius is the most common and nominate of the three subspecies. These medium-sized, multi-coloured and hardy rosellas are found over a large area throughout New South Wales, Victoria and parts of South Australia. The Eastern was often previously referred to as the ‘Rosehill Parrot’—named after the suburb in Sydney in which they were abundant during early settlement years. The name ‘eximius’ means excellent and prompted the use of the Eastern Rosella image as an iconic company trade mark on bottled and tinned food produce labels. There are two races found on the mainland, the Eastern P. e. eximius and the Golden-mantle P. e. cecilae while P. e. diemenensis is found in Tasmania. Despite being sociable, the Eastern Rosella is very wary of people. Eastern Rosellas are very common in aviculture throughout Australia, with many mutations bred in captivity since the mid-1980s. There are now more mutations kept than the true form. The Golden-mantle subspecies is still very much sought after for its extraordinary brilliant colours.
WILD HABITAT AND RANGE
Eastern Rosella P. e. eximius
Eastern Rosellas inhabit large and varied areas, including some parts of the mountainous Great Dividing Range, hilly areas, and mostly fertile areas of grassland and open plains in close proximity to trees and water. In recent years land clearing for improved pastures, orchards and crops has provided readily available food sources while limiting nesting sites. Rotting, damaged or abandoned timber fence posts, stumps, telephone poles or hollow tree limbs and trunks provide ideal nesting sites. Eastern Rosellas are ground-feeders and benefit from weed and grass seeds or spilt seed in paddocks. These birds remain in the same area, usually in flocks that vary in size depending on the season. Despite being brightly coloured, birds camouflage among the foliage and are difficult to see unless disturbed. The birds range throughout south-eastern Australia, from south-east Queensland down through New South Wales and the majority of Victoria and around to a small area of southeast South Australia. It has been noted that in some habitat areas, Eastern Rosellas come into contact and intermingle with other species, such as Yellow and Crimson Rosellas and Mallee Ringnecks. Eastern Rosellas—mainly the nominate P. e. eximius—have become well established in New Zealand, particularly in the North Island, with a smaller confined population around the Dunedin area in the South Island, after being introduced in the early 1900s–mid-1960s. Eastern Rosellas cause localised damage to fruit crops and are now considered pests by farmers in Australia and New Zealand.
P. e. eximius
The Golden-mantle Eastern Rosella P. e. cecilae
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The common nominate Eastern subspecies’ range extends from the central NSW Hunter Valley region, south through Victoria and around to the far eastern Murray Bridge areas of South Australia. There have been occasional reports of Eastern Rosellas inhabiting some parks and garden areas on the outskirts of Adelaide, including the Mt Lofty Ranges.
bush tucker WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DES BOORMAN BApp Sc (Hort Tech)
FOODS FROM PROTEACEAE FLORA F Proteaceae is an extremely variable family both in morphology and distribution. Typical Proteaceae family are Grevillea, Banksia, Dryandra, Hakea, Macadamia, Lambertia, Xylomelium, Petrophile and Isopogon genera. There are many other Australian genera that may be foraged but I have no experience with them. I have found proteaceous plants extremely handy, particularly for feeding cockatoos, and the flowers are great for lorikeets and Crimson-winged Parrots. Proteaceae are renowned for the presence of cyanide in the seed, which is extremely toxic to most mammals, but parrots seem to have adapted to its presence. Grevillea pteridifolia has a greater concentration of cyanide in the seed coat but it also occurs throughout the seed1.
Terms to Know I will use the terms dehiscent, indehiscent and follicles in this article. Dehiscent fruits are those that release their seeds once ripe and, as such, need to be collected when they are mature but not ripe or all the seed will be gone. Indehiscent fruits are those that remain unopened on the plant after maturation and ripening and are released from the plant when it is burnt. This seed can remain on the plant for many years, but older seed may be of less nutritional value. Indehiscent fruits are great to collect because they remain available for use year-round. Follicles are dry fruits typical of the range of Proteaceae discussed in this article and can be solitary on the inflorescence spike, such as Grevillea, or in an infructescence such as a Banksia cone.
BANKSIA AND DRYANDRA
I include these two genera together as they are remarkably similar, with recent reclassifications combining the two. However, the infructescences of certain species are structurally different, so I will address them as separate. The Dryandra genus is restricted to South Australia and Western Australia and is in limited cultivation, so rarely available. Dryandra species are widely distributed in southern Western Australia and would be foraged on by Red and White-tailed Black Cockatoos and most likely Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos (but this has not been observed). Proteaceae have an interesting way of stocking seeds to ensure satisfactory nutrients are available for germination and early growth. Proteaceae seeds rarely contain starch and are very high in dry matter protein, with significant quantities of oil in the seed as well. Nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen may be disproportionately higher than carbon in similarly sized seeds from other families.2 There is limited research data available, but several papers shed a great deal of light on the reason black cockatoos particularly expend great effort to obtain seeds from heavily armoured Banksia cones when it appears they receive only a small reward for the effort. Stock et al (2013)3 conducted significant nutritional trials of a range of Banksia, Hakea and several exotic species regularly eaten by Carnaby's Cockatoos. Their results concluded that a range of Banksia species such as B. attenuata, B. grandis and B. littoralis had crude protein levels of 74.5%, 77.4% and 77.4% respectively. These levels are extremely high—in comparison, insect larvae such as maggots have protein levels of 63.99%4 —so it can be seen that these seeds are nutritionally extremely rich. At these levels a Carnaby's Cockatoo would need 567 B. attenuata seeds per day to satisfy its minimum daily field metabolic rate. Western Australian Banksia species produce seed of extremely high nutritional value and it is easy to see why they make up such a large component of the diet of Red, White and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos.
Female Gang Gang Cockatoo extracting and eating B. integrifolia seed
BANKSIA Coastal Banksia Banksia integrifolia Dehiscent follicles ripen through late spring and summer and are great food for Gang Gang Cockatoos. As Gang Gangs are not big cockatoos, they have difficulty extracting seed from Banksia cones of any species other than B. integrifolia. In November 2014, I observed wild Sulphur-crested Cockatoos eating B. integrifolia cones in Sydney's northern suburbs.
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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROSEMARY LOW
Fostering Parrot Eggs Practicalities and Ethics
S
ooner or later every breeder will be faced with the dilemma of what to do with eggs that the female (or pair) cannot or will not incubate. What are the options? The most obvious solution is to place them in an incubator— but not everyone lives in an area where the power supply is reliable and, even if it is, handrearing the resultant chicks from the egg is never easy. Some breeders have used bantams or pigeons with success to hatch eggs—but this comes with the risk of infections from such birds. Whichever species you keep, fostering eggs when an emergency occurs might be a better option than using an incubator or non-psittacine birds. This is because it can be difficult to hatch some eggs from day one. Also, in an incubator, getting the humidity right can be a problem which most incubating birds do not experience. If the humidity is incorrect, the chicks might be malpositioned within the egg or fail to hatch because it is too dry. Alternatively, the chick might hatch in a dehydrated condition and die soon after. The specialist breeder has a big advantage. Fostering eggs is easy if you have the same species with eggs at the same stage of incubation. If not, there are several factors to take into account before fostering out, which means you need to know the habits of the species and of that particular female.
These Yellow-shouldered Amazons were fostered by a pair of Yellow-crowned Amazons and socialised with their own species when independent
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A female Eclectus Parrot will generally only sit for 1–2 days after the incubation period, and then she might destroy the eggs
HOW LONG WILL THE FEMALE SIT?
My experience of fostering eggs relates only to parrots. I know, from working with many pairs of Eclectus, that a female will sit only one or two days past the incubation period of 28 days, then she destroys the eggs. When fostering eggs to a nest that contains only infertile eggs, this must be taken into account. It might later be necessary to remove the eggs to another female or to an incubator to ensure the eggs are not destroyed. Amazon parrots are quite different. They will usually sit well past the incubation period. I have never forgotten an extraordinary happening with a Yellow-crowned Amazon Amazona ochrocephala. A pair of closely-related Yellowshouldered Amazons A. barbadensis—an endangered species—destroyed their first clutch, so the three eggs of the second clutch were transferred to an incubator. The female Yellow-shouldered had laid the first egg on 1 June—late in the year for Amazons. Only the Yellow-crowned had eggs at that time—the first laid on 10 May. The clutch was infertile. I left the eggs in the nest in the optimistic hope that the female would still be incubating when the Yellow-shouldered eggs were due to hatch. On 25 June, when the first A. barbadensis egg started to pip in the incubator, I placed the pipping egg in the nest of the Yellow-crowned. She had then been sitting for 47 days! (The incubation period is about 27 days.) The chick hatched the next day and was fed. When the other two eggs hatched, they were also transferred to her nest. The pair reared two, and the third chick was handreared from the age of four weeks. This was a truly unusual experience because very few female parrots would sit for 20 days over the normal incubation period. I had been lucky! Most species will not incubate for more than one week past the due date.
Gang Gang Cockatoos INTRODUCTION
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER ODEKERKEN
442
The Gang Gang Callocephalon fimbriatum is probably the most desired cockatoo among the numerous foreign aviculturists I have met over the years. Overseas, these birds are found only in expensive collections. Most aviculturists dream of one day being able to obtain a pair. In Australia, we are indeed lucky to have a much greater chance of doing so. I recall an overseas aviculturist showing me his collection, but avoiding a complex behind his house. I asked what he kept there and he replied, ‘Oh, just ringnecks’. Almost on cue, I heard the call of a Gang Gang come from the complex! He then showed me his pairs and admitted he was secretive about them because he was concerned about theft—they are worth tens of thousands of dollars overseas.