T H E PR E M I E R PE T & AV I A RY B I R D M AG A Z I N E
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T H E P R E M I E R P E T & AV I A RY B I R D M AG A Z I N E VO L 3 0 I S S U E 12 • D EC-JA N 2018
Blue & Gold
Finch
Selection
MACAWS Red-collared Lorikeets Moustache Parrot Mutations
PARROTS
• SELECTING • MOULTING • BREEDING • INCUBATION TIPS • BRINGING HOME YOUR PET PARROT
regulars
750 FINCH FUNDAMENTALS:
Taking the Next Step— Species to Consider By Marcus Pollard
760 AVIAN HEALTH WITH DR BOB:
Understanding Incubation By Dr Bob Doneley
CONTENTS Volume 30 Issue 12
T H E P R E M I E R P E T & AV I A RY B I R D M AG A Z I N E VO L 3 0 I S S U E 12 • D EC-JA N 2018
Blue & Gold
Finch
Selection
MACAWS Red-collared Lorikeets Moustache Parrot Mutations
COVER: BLUE AND GOLD MACAW BY JADE WELCH
PARROTS
• SELECTING • MOULTING • BREEDING • INCUBATION TIPS • BRINGING HOME YOUR PET PARROT
764 PET PARROT BEHAVIOUR: Bringing Home the Baby By Hillary Hankey 767 BREEDER PERSPECTIVE: Parrot Breeding By Andrew Rankmore
774 THE WISE OWL: Shedding those Feathers By Dr Milton Lewis 776 ABOUT BIRDS:
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770
780
787
Avian Dinosaurs—Part 2 By Kit Prendergast
780 BREEDING AUSTRALIAN PARROTS: Red-collared Lorikeets By Barry Blanch 782 HOOKBILL HOBBYIST: Joys of a Perfectly Trained Breeder Pair—Part 2 By EB Cravens 787 CONSERVATION:
• WPT: Hurricanes Challenge Puerto Rican Amazons • LPF: Healthy Feather Growth is a Vital Start By Rafael Zamora Padrón
791 WHAT’S NEW • The Australian Bird Guide • Vanished and Vanishing Parrots: Profiling Extinct and Endangered Species • Finches in Australia
features
745 KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY By Peter Odekerken Peter urges prospective breeders to arm themselves with as much information as possible about the species and its requirements before purchase. 748 MEET SLOVENIA’S PARROT-BREEDING LEGEND
By Alojz Osterman This is the story of how the gift of a canary to a child of nine led to a lifelong dedication to birds and a fixation with breeding mutations of the Moustache Parakeet.
792 WILD CORNER: Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease in a Cockatoo By Dr Claude Lacasse
754 WHAT’S IN A NAME? PIGEONS AND DOVES
793 LAST CHIRP: • Diversity Could be Critical for Protecting Parrots • Moonlit Sanctuary wins Premier’s Sustainability Award • Hunter Valley Finch Club Sale ‘a cracker’
770 THE BLUE AND GOLD MACAW By Jade Welch An overview of keeping and breeding this iconic parrot, the most common large macaw species in the world.
By Clancy Hall Clancy pays tribute to the origins of an often-overlooked and disparaged group of birds— pigeons and doves.
784 IS THE YELLOW-BACKED LORY HEADED FOR EXTINCTION? By Rosemary Low Without action to stop trapping and trade of Yellow-backed Lories in Indonesia, these beautiful and highly intelligent birds are heading towards extinction.
795 classifieds 743
Black-headed Moustache Parrot. Note the black head and blue ear coverts
Normal juvenile bred in 2016 at 14–15 months old
The bird on the right has a yellow-green body and a light black head
Note the black head, olive body. This bird has no pink on the chest
Black-headed Moustache Parrot— the purple is replaced with green on the chest. Compare to the bird on the right—a Normal with a grey head and purple chest
The bird on the left has a light black head with yellow-green colouring on the chest
Juveniles bred in 2017 at 3 months old
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AVIAN HEALTH WITH DR BOB WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DR BOB DONELEY BVSc FACVSc CMAVA
Understanding Incubation
A
rtificial incubation of eggs is man’s attempt to replicate nature by artificially providing (in a machine) the conditions a fertile egg needs to develop and successfully hatch. At this time of year (spring and summer) a lot of people are setting and incubating eggs. Whether the eggs are from backyard chickens or rare parrot species, the principles remain the same. In this article I intend to explain those principles so that, if you are going to incubate eggs, you have some understanding of what you are about to do, and can troubleshoot when problems arise. WHY INCUBATE? Incubation allows increased production, particularly in rare or valuable species. Removing an egg shortly after it is laid often induces the female to lay a replacement. Poor parenting by some birds means that eggs and/or chicks can be lost in the nest. Removing, and artificially incubating the egg, can also reduce this risk. It was thought at one time that handrearing birds made them bond more closely to people, so artificial incubation was (and still is) widely practised to provide ‘bonded’ chicks for the pet market. This concept is, by and large, no longer accepted by most aviculturists as the behavioural problems of birds raised in this fashion often make them anything but suitable pets. In some cases, artificial incubation is used as a means of disease control. There are many diseases that are not vertically transmitted—passed on through the egg. These diseases can often be reduced or eliminated by artificial incubation. For other people, incubation is simply a facet of the bird-keeping hobby that they want to try their hand at. EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT Before starting to incubate, it is important to understand what is happening inside the egg. Embryonic growth is divided into three approximately equal trimesters— early, mid and late terms. (See Table 1 on page 763 for the incubation period of common bird species.)
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PARTS OF THE EGG Inner & Outer Membranes Chalazae
Germinal Disk Yolk Inner Thin Albumen Air-cell
Blastoderm
Middle Thick Albumen Outer Thin Albumen
Shell – Inner mammillary layer
EARLY TERM In poultry and Cockatiels the following events occur: • Day 1: The ‘blastoderm’ (early embryo) develops, becoming doughnut-shaped as cellular division occurs. • Day 2: Brain, eyes and spinal cord develop. • Days 2–3: Heart and blood vessels grow and the extra-embryonic membranes, surrounding or attached to the embryo, form. Blood vessels are now visible as these membranes encase the yolk. • Days 3–4: The body wall and viscera grow. • Days 4–5: The limbs develop. • So by the end of the first trimester—only a week or less—a recognisable embryo has grown from only a couple of cells. As you can imagine, this rapid period of growth can be easily disrupted by outside influences—temperature extremes, vibration or shaking of the egg—or internal influences such as lethal genes, parental malnutrition, or infection. This trimester is one of great vulnerability. Approximately 3–4% of fertile eggs will die during this time in normal, healthy chicks. MID-TERM During the second trimester there is growth, but little further differentiation of organs. The feathers begin to form, the bones begin to calcify, and the beak forms. This is a relatively stable time for the embryo, and normal losses are low, only 1–2%. LATE TERM The last trimester is a period of great activity for the nearly completely developed embryo. The feathers are all developed and, to all intents and purposes, the chick is readying itself to hatch. The
Shell – Outer Spongy Layer
yolk sac is drawn up into the embryo, the umbilicus is sealed, and the chick begins to actively drink the albumen (egg white). Finally, the chick positions itself and hatches (discussed later). Because of the increased activity, the chick is at a higher risk of something going wrong. Losses in normal eggs can be as high as 4%. EQUIPMENT It is a good idea to have your incubation equipment set up, tested, and ready to go before the first eggs are laid. Sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised how many people are running around looking for an incubator at the very last minute! Incubators can be either forced-air (fandriven) or convection-heated (cool air is drawn in at the bottom of the incubator, warmed, and finally exhausted past the eggs through the top of the incubator). Forced-air incubators give more uniform temperature control and air flow than convection-heated incubators, and are preferred by most aviculturists. Good incubators are rarely cheap. A ‘top of the range’ model for parrot eggs will easily cost several thousand dollars. Fortunately, chicken and waterfowl eggs are somewhat easier to incubate, but even then a reliable incubator will cost a few hundred dollars. Incubators generally have inbuilt thermostats to control the temperature in the machine, but the calibration of these thermostats cannot be taken for granted. It is advisable to have at least two thermometers in the incubator (one at each end) to monitor the temperature and compare it to the thermostat.
PET PARROT BEHAVIOUR WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY HILLARY HANKEY
Bringing Home the Baby HIGH EXPECTATIONS Very few things are more exciting to a parrot-lover than the impending arrival of a new bird. Whether it’s an adopted older bird in need of a new home or a freshly weaned baby bird, preparing the household to bring in a new feathered companion can bring about full nesting mode in just about any human. However, even the best laid plans and expectations can be dashed when our bird comes home and isn’t quite as friendly, loving, or snuggly as the pictures and videos of it at the breeder’s property or its previous home suggested. We may try to interact with it just as we saw others doing— cuddling it against our chest to ‘show it’ that it will really like the other pets after all, attempting to scratch its head, or cornering it in its cage in order to get it to step up as the breeder promised it was trained to do. Nothing will prolong the way to a trusting FIRST IMPRESSIONS The beginnings of a relationship with a new feathered friend are critically important for a variety of reasons. The saying ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’ is true. The experience and learning history between you and your new companion is very limited, so each interaction carries much greater weight than it will months and years down the line. One negative interaction against thousands of positive ones means much less than one negative interaction against two positives. Similarly, a huge transition such as moving into a new home affects stress hormones, and studies have shown that these stress hormones not only increase the ‘fight or flight’ response but also make memories of the stress-inducing time last longer and remain stronger. Therefore, anything that happens during this time holds even greater weight. A new human companion reaching into the cage to coerce the bird to participate will have a much more lasting effect on the bird’s relationship with that human and make its transition into the new home more difficult. Individuals birds handle stress and
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relationship more than spending precious early moments mirroring how we think our feathered friend should be behaving rather than responding to the behaviour we see in front of us. This can be particularly hard on a new parrot owner for a few reasons. Firstly, most of us are used to domestic animals, such as dogs and cats that have been bred over the course of thousands of years to do things very differently from their ancestors, including generalising behaviour to new situations and locations. So, while a dog still will most likely not respond to a stranger the same way it would its favourite human companion, it will probably adjust to a new space more quickly than the average bird. It is, therefore, wrong to expect a bird to pop out of its carrying cage and be ready for the next adventure like the furry family pet. Secondly, the nursery or bird store in which a parrot grew up is very different
from the bird’s new home, and there were probably a lot of firsts that the bird has had to undergo to get there—car rides, plane rides, new cage, new toys, fresh faces, kids, dogs, cats, even furniture. It’s perfectly natural, and even expected, for it to act a bit bewildered or overwhelmed by all of ‘the new’. Finally, new bird owners often take it personally when their baby bird comes home and doesn’t immediately act the way they expect it to, and these unmet expectations and hurt feelings can, in turn, manifest themselves in a host of ways. What we are about to explore is how we can damage these fragile early beginnings with good intentions; how this has impacted on the bird-breeding and rearing industry; and how we can establish socialisation protocols that will set the stage for a long-lasting friendship built on confidence and trust.
change differently, just like humans. There is quite a bit of variability across species, just as there is variability from bird to bird. This difference could be accounted for in the way baby birds are raised by their breeders, or simply the individual way a bird responds to its environment. Baby Macaws—as cute as baby parrots can Even sibling birds can go to be, handfeeding can be incredibly stressful different homes and respond and requires constant, experienced in different ways. Some babies oversight. Handled incorrectly, the impact on the physiological and psychological may step out of the crate wellbeing of youngsters can be permanent without missing a beat and be ready to take on the world, UNWEANED BABIES while others may take a few So common is this scenario that it has days, or even a week or two, to regain led to a few different trends in the their former confidence and pick up their companion parrot industry. The first is foundation skills of stepping up, playing the sale of unweaned baby parrots—a with their favourite toys and so forth. sales technique that purports to help Again, it is the expectation that a new the baby bird ‘bond’ with its new owner has of how a new baby bird ‘ought’ human parent. Not only is this practice to be behaving, and thus coercing the unnecessary, it has proven quite bird into behaving in such a way or feeling dangerous for the bird, as parent-rearing that there is something wrong with the or handfeeding, fledging, and weaning bird, that can lead to frustration, fear are critical periods of the bird’s learning, or avoidance-based behaviours, and a growing, and socialisation development, rapid degeneration of a relationship once and, as many breeders are aware, much bursting with potential. can go wrong during this time.
F
ew birds are as iconic on a global scale as the Blue and Gold Macaw. Such is their impact that these birds, also known as Blue and Yellow Macaws, feature in films, documentaries, books, TV shows, on product packaging, posters and more. They appear in free-flight bird shows around the world, highlighting the beauty of our feathered friends and their perilous plight. For many years leading up to legal importation, the Blue and Gold Macaw was exceedingly rare within Australian aviculture. With an injection of stock, and time, the number of Blue and Gold Macaws has increased through breeding to the point where this species is now plentiful in Australia. This article provides a brief overview on the keeping and breeding of the most common of the large macaw species within Australia.
Source birds from young stock if possible
Blue and Gold Macaw adult
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SUBSPECIES d and From time to time birds are described sold within Australia as Bolivian race Blue ecies and Gold Macaws. Though no subspecies of Blue and Gold has been identified, kier these birds are said to be larger, stockier rence birds, in some cases with a slight difference in colouration. Debate remains around whether this iss in oes fact a true subspecies, however, there does not appear to be any scientific literature as yet to support the existence of a Boliviann ty to subspecies. The other issue is the inability trace the original imported birds and theirir ca. ancestors to their origins in South America. HABITS The vocal level of a Blue and Gold ot Macaw and its destructive nature cannot be underestimated. It is imperative to is do your homework prior to selecting this species or suffer the consequences, suchh as complaints from the neighbours. A good way to gauge noise output is to sitt out of sight of an aviary housing a pair or an individual bird and listen either early morning or late afternoon. SOURCING With the rise in the number of breederss of Blue and Gold Macaws comes the opportunity to buy birds from a range of sources. Choosing who is best to buyy ng g from can be difficult, however, consulting an avian vet or breeders may help pointt you in the right direction. From there it is best to ask as many questions as possible and inspect the quality of the birds. It is also imperative to have birds checked by an avian vet where possible to ensure there are no issues with the birds you hope to acquire. An avian vet can conduct a number of tests and may offer a number of services. Many breeders sell their birds microchipped and with vet health checks.
P ODEK ERKEN
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JADE WELCH
BREEDING AUSTRALIAN PARROTS WORDS BY BARRY BLANCH Grad Cert App Sc. Ornithology PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE BLANCH
Red-collared Lorikeets
R
Red-collared Lori Lorikeets kee T. h. rubritorquis
ed-collared L Lori Lorikeets Trichoglossus Trichoglossu uss heamatodus he inhabit an area rubritorquis iinha in northern Australia. Aust A This large lorikeet is is of often mistaken Rainbow Lorikeet and ffor a R i b L was previously thought to be a subspecies as they have similar characteristics and a distinct colour pattern, except for the blue head. The distinct red-orange over the nape is unique to this lorikeet. It’s one of four in the heamatodus group that bear the similarities and typical characteristics of hopping-bobbing and swaying from side to side. Because of their commercial nature, they are sought-after as handreared pets and never disappoint. Although these very intelligent birds are not seed-eaters, they are easy to look after thanks to the number of commercial dry mix foods available. DESCRIPTION This bird is the one of the largest of the Australian lorikeets at 26–28cm long. Both sexes have a royal blue head, with light blue striations and a dark blue upper mantle/ hind neck, separated by a prominent orange-red collar. The mandible is a bright orange. Between the scapulars and mantle, orange feathers are scalloped with dark navy. The upper back, scapulars, rump, upper wing coverts and upper tail feather colouration are lime to grass-green. Along the underwing coverts the feathers are orange over lemon underwing primary and secondary feathers. Primary tail feathers are dark leaf-green with a grey outer vane edge, tips and occasional lemon markings along the edge. The chest and breast area is various
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The Red-collared Lorikeet is often mistaken for its cousin, the Rainbow T. h. moluccanus. The distinct red-orange colour over the nape is unique to this lorikeet
shades of orange, with the abdomen and underbelly area dark bottle-green. The thighs, flank, vent and undertail coverts are yellowish-lime, tinged with lime scalloping on the outer thighs. Females are very similar colour to males but have a slightly smaller head and body. Immatures tend to be slightly duller than adults, with a brownish beak. DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT Red-collared Lorikeets inhabit a large area of northern Australia, throughout the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The areas stretch from around the Broom–Derby region, across to the Queensland border in the Gulf of Carpentaria. These lorikeets venture 600km south from Darwin to Daly Waters and 400km south-east to Mataranka. Food source and availability depends on the seasons and to which area the birds migrate. The main food source is in open forest, where flowering Eucalyptus are plentiful. These lorikeets also feed on flowering Paperbark Trees, rich in pollen and nectar, in swampy areas. Flowering native and fruit trees encourage Redcollared Lorikeets into suburban areas of Darwin in large numbers in the afternoons. Thousands of birds congregate and roost in large trees, creating a noise nuisance in town areas. Northern Australia is also an ideal place to grow mango and other tropical fruit and an ideal place for Red-collars to get some nice, juicy mango nectar. Once the last of the fruit-picking season is over, they eat the discarded fruit off the ground, even when it’s fermented. This is a problem for a
few weeks every year because the toxicity of the fruit causes the birds to display drunken-like symptoms and paralysis, causing many birds to succumb. HOUSING AND BREEDING Keeping Red-collared Lorikeets in captivity is very rewarding once pairs become established—one DNA-sexed pair to each flight. Sexing saves the disappointment of so-called pairs (two females) producing four eggs in the nest box after 12–15 months or no eggs for years (two males). Housing pairs side by side can be a distraction to them breeding or, in some cases, cause birds to pluck because they would prefer the partner next door rather than their own. The ideal housing for lorikeets is a suspended aviary. Conventional aviaries tend to get soiled and smelly in damp weather from excrement build-up on the floors. Using 25mm square metal tubing, weld a frame 2.4m long x 90cm square per pair. Weldmesh is not necessary as lorikeets are not chewers. The roof area, except for 90cm at the front and 1m on the sides at the rear, should be sheeted. L-shaped nest boxes measuring 20cm square at the top x
The usual clutch size is two eggs
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