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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 7 • F E B - M A R 2017

Finches Musk Lorikeets Dilute Blue Indian Ringneck MEYER’S PARROT INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS PET PARROT MYTH BUSTERS LOVEBIRDS


regulars 418 BREEDING AUSTRALIAN

PARROTS: The Musk Lorikeet By Barry Blanch

426 FINCH FOCUS:

Selecting Companion Species By Russell Kingston

CONTENTS Volume 30 Issue 7

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 7 • F E B - M A R 2017

Finches Musk Lorikeets Dilute Blue Indian Ringneck MEYER’S PARROT INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS PET PARROT MYTH BUSTERS LOVEBIRDS

COVER: ELEGANT PARROT BY BEN PEARCE

432 HOOKBILL HOBBYIST: Foraging at the Food Bowl By EB Cravens

434 PET PARROT BEHAVIOUR: Companion Parrot Myth Busters Part 3—Sustainable Solutions for the Modern Parrot By Hillary Hankey

438 ABOUT BIRDS:

Insectivorous Birds—Part 1 By Kit Prendergast

448 FINCH FUNDAMENTALS: One Last Aviary By Marcus Pollard

452 THE WISE OWL:

Who Rules—Parents or Chicks? By Dr Milton Lewis

454 AVIAN HEALTH WITH DR BOB: Grooming My Bird By Dr Bob Doneley

458 CONSERVATION:

• LPF: Safeguarding the World’s Most Endangered Parakeet By Dr David Waugh • WPT: Blue-throated Macaw Update By Carolyn Pradun

462 YOUNG BIRDKEEPER:

Theo’s Bird Keeping Addiction Theo Kemp—2016 winner of the Syd Smith Memorial Young Bird Keeper Competition.

467 WHAT’S NEW:

• Finch Breeders Handbook Volume 1— the Australians—Revised Edition (2001) By The Queensland Finch Society • Lovebirds Compendium— Genus Agapornis By Dirk Van Den Abeele

473 END IN SIGHT FOR

VICTORIAN BIRD SALE ISSUE Victorian bird sale followup and summary of meeting with Minister Pulford

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features

413 WILD PARROT BEHAVIOUR AND ITS BENEFITS IN CAPTIVITY

By Peter Odekerken We all see parrots in the wild, but how many of us take notice of their behaviours and the difference they could make to our birds in captivity?

416 DILUTE BLUE INDIAN RINGNECK

By Paul & Michelle Court The couple shares their experiences breeding the Dilute Indian Ringneck.

422 MEYER’S PARROT By Jason Wright Jason fell in love with the Meyer’s on his honeymoon and still believes it to be one of the ‘sweetest, prettiest and quietest parrots’. 424 BEHIND THE WIRE—A ZOOKEEPER’S EXPERIENCES

By Drew Smith Drew reminisces on a few of his experiences at Adelaide Zoo and just how smart and mischievous birds can be.

442 THE ELEGANT PARROT

By Ben Pearce Ben shares his experiences studying, photographing and breeding the Elegant Parrot.

446 THE OPALINE PALE FALLOW GREEN PEACH-FACED LOVEBIRD By Dirk Van Den Abeele This beautiful mutation is challenging to establish. 464 FLAMINGO RITUAL AT WELTVOGELPARK WALSRODE

By Dr Antje Mewes, Andreas Frei, Jan Dams & Gerardus Scheres Weltvogelpark Walsrode, in north Germany, has a unique way of protecting its flamingos and their young.

466 SAMANTHA, THE WARRIOR BUDGERIGAR By Shawn Reynolds Beware of the Budgerigar—this bird is more raptor than parrot.

468 classifieds 411


WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER ODEKERKEN

AND ITS BENEFITS IN CAPTIVITY

Northern Short-billed Corella feeding on lerps at El Questro Station in WA

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very Australian, unless totally reclusive, has observed parrots in the wild. But how many of us are aware that what we see in wild parrot behaviour may be useful for managing and providing husbandry to our species in captivity? I am often amazed at how many aviculturists confine themselves to their captive parrots and seldom bother to study parrots in the wild. Rare image of a wild Princess Parrot female feeding on lerps and scale during breeding season

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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS PHO BY PAUL & MICHELLE COURT

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Dilute Blue Indian Ringneck

he Dilute Indian Ringneck is a very common mutation around the world. However, it remains rare in Australian aviaries, with little hands-on knowledge about its affects in different colour phases and other mutations. In the Dilute mutation, the dilution occurs only in the primary colour of the bird, with the secondary colour remaining undiluted. For example, in a Green series the green dilutes and the yellow stays undiluted. To give an apt description cosmetically, it is a suffusion of the two colours. Some of their characteristics include: diluted primary colour, recessive inheritance, black eyes, bone-coloured toe nails, black feather shaft in the tail, and lighter than normal down for that colour series. STARTING OUT Before the late Jack Smith passed away, Michelle and I were offered the chance to acquire his entire collection of Dilute Indian Ringnecks, which consisted of a couple of colours and some splits. Not knowing a lot

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Dilute Green Indian Ringneck

about this mutation except what we had researched from a book or on the internet, we decided to go back to basics and prove the mutation for ourselves. We decided not to use any of the split birds and work only from the colours. Firstly, if we were to produce our own splits, we could then pair up (from different pairs of course) and reproduce the mutation from splits we had produced, therefore proving that this mutation was just that, a genuine mutation. Secondly, this allowed us to increase the genetic pool we had to work from to get this mutation to a stage where the numbers were safe and could not be lost to the greater bird breeding community in Australia. For the first couple of years we changed the birds the Dilutes were paired with each year so that each season we not only produced birds that were somewhat outcrossed to each other but would also be outcrossed to the birds produced the year after. The first season we did not have a good season with Indian Ringnecks at all and

only bred a couple of splits. DNA sexing indicated that we had a Blue split male and a Blue split female which we could use from different pairs. ANTICIPATION Two years later (in 2015) the breeding season arrived and we were very excited that this would be the season we would produce our first Dilute. Watching the pair like a hawk, it seemed like the longest breeding season in history, waiting for the female to go to nest. Finally, the day came and she laid her first egg, finishing with a total of four in the clutch. Because these were first-time breeding birds, I did not even check the eggs for fertility as I was worried I would disturb them. A few long, agonising weeks later, we heard a few little peeps from the nest box. We waited until the female was off the nest feeding, and we checked the box—three healthy chicks. Then the long wait began for them to get their pin feathers. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the oldest got its pins—a Normal Blue, then the second, a Blue.


BREEDING AUSTRALIAN PARROTS WORDS BY BARRY BLANCH Grad Cert App Sc. Ornithology PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE BLANCH

The Musk Lorikeet

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Bonded pair of Musk Lorikeets

medium-sized lorikeet, the Musk Glossopsitta concinna is commonly named for the noticeably musky odour it emits. Its other descriptive common name is the Green Keet. Its scientific name means ‘elegant’ and it is the largest of the three lorikeets classified in the Glossopsitta genus. This lorikeet only lays two eggs at a time, marking it apart in both size and behaviour from the other two species in this genus, the Purple-crowned Lorikeet and the Little Lorikeet. Musks have the brush-tipped tongues typical of all nectar and pollen-eating lorikeets but will eat fruits, some larvae and insects. Musks are endemic to southeastern Australia, including Tasmania, and are considered pests by orchardists because they forage on the flowers and fruit. Small flocks also visit outlying urban parks and gardens to feed on flowering native trees

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and shrubs. They are nomadic birds and very domineering, active and noisy towards other lorikeets, especially during feeding. DESCRIPTION Adult Musk Lorikeets measure 22–23cm in length and have a coral upper beak over a black mandible. These lorikeets are difficult to visually sex and, although there is some variation in colouring, they are not regarded as sexually dimorphic. Musk Lorikeets have a long brushed tongue to enable the pollen and nectar to be drawn out from flowers and blossoms. They have a bare periorbital ring around their orange iris. Overall Musks are a bright grass green. The shoulder patch is green and the yellow side breast feathers cover the shoulder most of the time as the shoulder slips in behind the yellow flanks. An elongated scarlet patch extends from over the forehead and lores, through the eye, and over the ear coverts, surrounded and contrasting vibrantly with the bright

green cheek. The crown is a pale blue, blending into the bright green nape band that separates into a bronze band, extending around the hind neck and down onto the upper mantle. Females are very similar except they can have less blue on the crown and sometimes a lighter coloured red patch over the forehead and ear coverts. The primary wing feathers are olive, edged with grey and bronze coloured feathers. Lateral tail feathers have reddish-orange margins at the base of the inner webs and the tail is tapered. Musk Lorikeets are relatively quiet birds, chattering noisily but pleasantly when feeding, although their call can be a high-pitched metallic, shrill screech when alarmed or in contact with other birds. There are some mutations of the Musk, with Olive the main colour available, and variations are well sought-after by the more dedicated breeders who specialise in keeping lorikeets.


PET PARROT BEHAVIOUR WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY HILLARY HANKEY

Companion Parrot Myth Busters

Part 3—Sustainable Solutions for the Modern Parrot

In the first two parts of the Companion Parrot Myth Busters series, we looked at some of the broader concepts of owning parrots and incomplete or incorrect information which often circulates as we attempt to aid one another through the various stages of owning birds. The final part of this series will explore a few specific methods to use as effective tools for managing and changing our companion parrots’ behaviours. WHERE TO BEGIN What is the correct way to handle a bird bite or the sounds of screaming reverberating in our ears? Should a good firm ‘No!’ be the most important command every bird learns, just as with other pets? If a bird is engaging in sexual or ‘homemaking’ behaviour, like brooding a nest in a box or closet, and it isn’t bothering anyone, wouldn’t it be best to leave well enough alone? Navigating the various methods and suggestions provided when a pet owner asks the simple question ‘What do I do when my bird bites?’ can make your head spin. The goal of this article is not to analyse every circumstance under which a bird will engage in these type of aberrant behaviours. It is to establish a set of protocols to follow when we see behaviour we don’t like and different ones when we see behaviour of which we want to see more.

Young birds don’t know what to do with their beaks. Given toys to keep exploratory beaks busy, we can replace nibbling, beaking and biting with more desirable behaviour

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BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS A biting parrot can hav have particular emotional value. Sometimes Some we take the biting personally, and it hurts our feelings. Sometimes it’s funny when the bird bites

another person. Other times it can be downright scary because it occurs at hardto-predict times. Either way, the emotional quotient in the interactions becomes one of distrust, and it is easy to supply a narrative to the reasoning for the behaviour based on the human world rather that the bird’s experiences. Our human preoccupation with coming up with the ‘whys’ of behaviour leads us to distant and false explanations for our birds’ actions, a notion that can have us sweeping their responses into broad categories of labels and “isms.” Commonly, our explanations appear to make sense—biting occurs to defend territory, as an exertion of dominance, an expression of hormones, jealousy, or anger that human companions have left for what the bird considers an unfair amount of time. If the bird bites our hand every time we raise it in order to put it away when he/she is on top of the cage or play gym, runs out from a dark closet, bathroom corner or cardboard box, and draws blood or lunges and flares neck and tail feathers when we return from an extended holiday and so on—these can all sound like logical narratives. However, the solution these narratives lead us towards is rarely based on two-way communication and, in fact, usually creates more problems than it solves. To counteract perceived territorialism or to ‘out-dominate’ our companion, we are told to step a bird up, no matter what. This means ignoring signals that our bird is going to bite—the flared tail and neck feathers, lowered head, open beak and other body language cues—and continuing to try and press our hand against the bird’s abdomen. While this may work some of the


WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN PEARCE

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had often happened across Elegant Parrots on my photography travels through the bush but had never dedicated enough time to capture pictures of them. A delightful encounter with a pair drinking at a cattle trough changed that. My wife and I spent the early part of the 2016 breeding season on Wondinong Station, chasing Bourke’s Parrots. This is an area outside the range of Elegants, I would have assumed. Wondinong is about 600km north of Perth and east of Mount Magnet, on the Southern end of Lake Austin. Primarily Mulga scrub, Wondinong seems the wrong habitat in which to find Elegant Parrots but perhaps this sighting can be attributed to their continued expansion into new areas. Historical records have documented the dramatic spread of Elegant Parrots in Western Australia, even colonising the Swan Coastal Plain. By the end of September the young Bourke’s Parrots were on the wing so we returned south looking for opportunities to photograph Elegant Parrots breeding and foraging. Our chance encounter that evening as they drank had ignited an appetite to explore this extraordinary little parrot, so loved in aviculture. PHOTO-READY Finding breeding pairs was easy, and something I had done many times over the years. There is no recognised subspecies of Elegant Parrot, but they do vary in colour a little, so our years of observations helped in selecting the best area in which to photograph them. We chose a region east of Perth, in the Wheatbelt, where the birds are lighter in colour. The Elegants close to home in the Perth hills can be a bit dark and bland, lacking the lovely light pastel colours. Colour and feather condition are very important when selecting a subject to photograph. Choosing the right nest to photograph is something into which I put a lot of thought. The hollow must be photogenic and in a position to capture good light for at least some of the day, but preferable in the early morning. Height is my biggest enemy, and Elegant Parrots love to breed in the dead timber at the tops of trees.

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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DIRK VAN DEN ABEELE

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Left and right—Opaline Pale Fallow Green Peach-faced Lovebird

he Opaline Pale Fallow Green Peach-faced Lovebird Agapornis roseicollis is a beautiful, but somewhat difficult to achieve, colour morph. A major problem is simply keeping the birds alive. Granted, they are not as weak as Bronze Fallow specimens, but a lot of patience and perseverance is required to breed a number of viable birds. However, some breeders do succeed. About seven years ago Gert Skringer presented Opaline and Pale Fallow combinations at the BVA Masters—the annual show of the Belgian Lovebird Society. In this article we will describe step by step how to produce this combination. STEPS TO SUCCESS Opaline is an SL recessive mutation (implying that females can never be split for Opaline).

However, Pale Fallow is autosomal recessive and both males and females can be split for it. Given the SL inheritance of Opaline, it is advised, if possible, to start with an Opaline male. (As usual in genetics, males are mentioned first in any pairing.) 1) Opaline Green x Pale Fallow Green 50% Green/Opaline/Pale Fallow (males) 50% Opaline Green/Pale Fallow (females) All offspring are split Pale Fallow, the males are also split Opaline. Where there are no Opaline Green males or Pale Fallow females available use the combination: 2) Pale Fallow green x Opaline Green 50% Green/Opaline/Pale Fallow (males) 50% Green/Pale Fallow (females) Again, both sexes are split Pale Fallow but the males are also split Opaline and no Opaline females are bred.

Provided you have started with at least two unrelated pairs, as mentioned in 1) above, the best pairing would be Green/Opaline/ Pale Fallow x Opaline Green/Pale Fallow (unrelated of course!) producing: Males: 6.25% Opaline Green 12.5% Opaline Green/Pale Fallow 6.25% Opaline Pale Fallow Green 6.25% Green/Opaline 12.5% Green/Opaline/Pale Fallow 6.25 % Pale Fallow Green/Opaline Females: 6.25% Green 12. 5% Green/Pale Fallow 6.25% Pale Fallow Green 6.25% Opaline Green 12.5% Opaline Green/Pale Fallow 6.25% Opaline Pale Fallow Green Both males and females in the desired combination are produced.

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