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 9 • J U N -J U L 2017
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets Cinnamon Scarlet-chested Parrots
Superb Blue Fairy-wrens H E A LT H I S S U E S IN MACAWS
ORANGE-BREASTED WAXBILLS
regulars
554 FINCH FOCUS:
Orange-breasted Waxbills Defy the Odds By Russell Kingston
558 BREEDER PERSPECTIVE:
CONTENTS
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
Volume 30 Issue 9
VO L 3 0 I S S U E 9 • J U N -J U L 2017
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets Cinnamon Scarlet-chested Parrots
Superb Blue Fairy-wrens
COVER: PEARLY CONURES BY PETER ODEKERKEN
H E A LT H I S S U E S IN MACAWS ORANGE-BREASTED WAXBILLS
Pearly Conures By Andrew Rankmore
562 BREEDING AUSTRALIAN
PARROTS: Scaly-breasted Lorikeets By Barry Blanch
572 ABOUT BIRDS: Backyard Chickens—Part 1 By Kit Prendergast 586 FINCH FUNDAMENTALS:
In Defence of Drab-coloured Finches By Marcus Pollard
589 PET PARROT BEHAVIOUR: Five Steps for Better Behaviour By Hillary Hankey
592 AVIAN HEALTH WITH DR
BOB: Health Problems in Macaws By Dr Bob Doneley
595 HOOKBILL HOBBYIST: Simple Answers to the Rescue Conundrum By EB Cravens
598 THE WISE OWL: Citizen Scientists Changing the World By Dr Milton Lewis 600 CONSERVATION: • WPT: Protecting Cape Parrots in the Woodbush Forest By Carolyn Pradun • New Hope for Critically Endangered Orange-bellied Parrots • LPF: Hard Work and Preparation Behind a Successful Breeding Season By Marcia Weinzettl, Pau Puigcerver, Lubos Tomiska & Rafael Zamora-Padrón 604 WILD CORNER:
Daff y, the Pacific Black Duck By Dr Claude Lacasse
605 WHAT’S NEW
• The Chicken Health Handbook— Revised 2nd Ed • Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds
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578
features
549 NORFOLK ISLAND GREEN PARROT RECOVERY By Ben Pearce The Norfolk Island Green Parrot was one of the world’s most endangered parrots, but numbers are growing, thanks to a recovery program which includes a potential second home. 552 CINNAMON SCARLET-CHESTED PARROTS IN AUSTRALIA
By Murray Macpherson Murray got the surprise of his life when, after decades of breeding, his birds produced a Cinnamon Scarlet-chested Parrot. Having established the mutation, the possible combinations are exciting.
564 HANDRAISING SUPERB BLUE FAIRY-WRENS
By Adam FitzGerald Adam finds himself playing parent to a clutch of four wrens and marvels at what is involved in the chicks’ fast daily development.
568 NOW I KNOW WHY PARROTS ARE SO CLEVER By Dorothy Schwarz Being a ‘bird-brain’ might not be such an insult after all, with new research showing neurons are simply more tightly packed into birds’ brains. 576 SUSPECTED THYROID PROBLEMS
By Rosemary Low Odd colouration in a Blue-fronted Amazon and other birds could be due to a health disorder.
578 IN THE WILD WITH BRAZILIAN PARROTS—PART 2
By Peter Odekerken Peter explores where birds abound, visiting Iguazu Falls, the Parque das Aves and the home of the rare Blaze-winged Conure and various macaw and Amazon species.
584 GALÁPAGOS FOOTPRINTS
By Vickie Lillo Vickie shares birding and wildlife wonders on the islands that inspired Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking theories.
606 classifieds 547
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN PEARCE
The Green Parrot on Norfolk Island is a subspecies of the New Zealand Red-fronted Parakeet, also known as the Red-fronted Kakariki (meaning small parrot in Maori)
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itting in the Pacific Ocean about 1400km off the coast of Northern NSW lies Norfolk Island, home to the Red-fronted Parakeet. Referred to as the ‘Green Parrot’ on Norfolk Island, it is a subspecies of the nominate form from New Zealand. In aviculture I know them as the Redfronted Kakarikis, an excellent and popular aviary bird that breeds freely. (For the purpose of this article I will refer to them as the Green Parrot.) Now extinct on Lord Howe and Macquarie Islands, Norfolk Island is the only region in Australia where they can be found. I first saw Red-fronted Parakeets (Kakarikis) on Ulva Island, near Stuart Island, New Zealand. Time constraints on that
trip prevented me from spending the time needed to photograph and enjoy this lovely parrot. Although this trip was also short I had the opportunity to discover a bit about the subspecies’ presence on Norfolk Island. FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL Only a few years ago the Green Parrot was considered one of the world’s rarest parrots—critically endangered, with as few as 20 or 30 birds left. The primary reason for this decline is reported to be habitat destruction, especially the loss of trees containing breeding hollows. Feral cats are a major pest and there has been an immense effort to remove cats from the National Park and other parts of the island. Large numbers have been caught and I stumbled upon numerous wire cat traps in my forest excursions.
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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MURRAY MACPHERSON
AN EARLY PASSION My passion for the Scarlet-chested Parrot began in 1977. I was 14 years old and had just returned home from school one day when my mother told me she had caught a sick ‘baby rosella’ which had been hanging around the cage in which I kept a pet Galah at the time. I rushed to see whether this bird was an Eastern Rosella, a Crimson Rosella or perhaps a Rainbow Lorikeet, all of which occasionally visited our garden. Imagine my surprise to find it was a bird I had dreamed of keeping one day, a beautiful male Scarlet-chested Parrot Neophema splendida. It was obviously an aviary escapee, as the Sydney suburb of Eastwood is more than 1000km from this bird’s natural range in the arid inland of southern Australia. He was very weak from lack of food but soon recovered and took pride of place in my mixed finch aviary. From saving my pocket money and selling some finches I had bred, I was eventually able to afford a female Scarletchested, purchased from the Canary Island pet shop at West Ryde for $30—which was a lot of money for a school boy back then. It is 40 years later and Scarlet-chested Parrots are still my favourite species. Some of the birds I keep today are descended from that original pair. AN UNEXPECTED MUTATION Mutations had never really interested me. I was quite happy to focus on breeding quality Normal, wild-type birds and figured if everyone else was breeding mutations then the pure Normal birds would become harder to find. To my eyes, you couldn’t beat the colour of the Normal bird. Call me a hypocrite, but I had never been more excited about any birds I had bred until the season of 2010, when I looked in the nest box of a ‘Normal’ pair of Scarlets to see two different-coloured chicks alongside their Normal-coloured siblings. Where did they come from and why did they suddenly appear? I had bred the parent birds and the grandparents and had never seen anything like this before. Could this be something new? A Dilute or maybe a Cinnamon? I knew the Cinnamon mutation existed in Europe but, to my knowledge, it didn’t exist in Australia. Further breeding over the next couple of years proved it to be
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Cinnamon Scarlet-chested Parrot female
a sex-linked mutation, consistent with Cinnamon, in which males can be split and females are either visually Cinnamon or pure Normal. The newly hatched young had red eyes which darkened after a few days, which was also a trait of the Cinnamon gene. Consulting Dr Terry Martin’s masterpiece, A Guide to Colour Mutations & Genetics in Parrots, gave me more evidence. For example, since this mutation prevents the complete synthesis of melanin, or the conversion of brown into black, all melanin appears brown in colour, with no traces whatsoever of black or grey, unlike other mutations such as Fallow, Pastel and Lime which retain some grey
colour. (Note the Normal and Cinnamon wing colours in the images.) I must mention the term Cinnamon is often misused and creates confusion with many species. I have often seen or heard different species referred to as ‘recessive Cinnamon’, which is a contradiction in itself because all true Cinnamons are sex-linked in inheritance. Examples are the Rainbow Lorikeet (Dilute), the Princess Parrot (Faded/Isabel) and the Hooded Parrot (Bronze Fallow). The term Cinnamon should not be used for these recessive mutations and must be reserved for the true sex-linked mutations of these species in order to avoid confusion.
The wing colours of a Normal (left) and Cinnamon (right) Scarlet-chested Parrot
FINCH FOCUS WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUSSELL KINGSTON OAM
Orange-breasted Waxbills Defy the Odds
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he Orange-breasted Waxbill has retained its popularity with Australian finch breeders despite its commonality and long association with aviculture in this country. Both the Orange-breasted Waxbill Sporaeginthus subflavus and Goldbreasted Waxbill Sporaeginthus clarkei were imported into Australia prior to the Federal Government’s ban on live bird importation in 1956. The obvious question is how Orange-breasted Waxbills have survived for over 60 years without the injection of fresh genetic stock. I am unable to find credible evidence that either race has been brought into the country since that time. Therefore, I see only two possible scenarios: a. The two initial races have since produced intergrades resulting in ‘hybrid vigour’. (Mixing two races or species results in the injection of new genetics thereby having, to some extent, the effect of fresh bloodlines.) Individual birds throughout Australia exhibit traits of both S. subflavus and S. clarkei. This is particularly evident in the colouration of the underparts of males, which varies from yellow, with a variable splash of orange on the centre of the breast, through to birds showing a full orange front. b. While no accurate records were kept of early imports, evidence suggests that substantial numbers of these birds were imported. This broad genetic base would preserve genetic integrity for a greater length of time. Serious show exhibitors have frequently endeavored to produce ‘improved’ birds, with males having full, deep orange fronts and females showing variation in the depth and intensity of orange-yellow around the vent and undertail coverts. Female colouration also varies on the front from yellow-buff through to light buff. The resulting birds are not indicative of either race.
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Orange-breasted Waxbills Order: Family: Genus: Species:
Passeriformes Estrildidae Sporaeginthus S. subflava (Amandava subflava, Vieillot, 1819)
Orange-breasted Waxbills—mature pair
TAXONOMY Amandava formerly applied to three species including Amandava amandava (Red Strawberry Finch), Amandava formosa (Green Avadavat) and Amandava subflavus (Orange-breasted Waxbill). The genus Amandava has since been transposed with the synonym Sporaeginthus for two former species. Formosa and subflavus have been lumped under the genus Sporaeginthus,
whereas amandava has been retained under the genus Amandava. Both A. amandava and S. formosa originate in Asia, whereas S. subflavus has its geographic origins in sub-Saharan Africa. The term waxbill is broadly used to describe small African Estrildidae species that display sealing wax-like red colouration on the mandible, such as the Orangecheeked Waxbill and Common Waxbill.
BREEDER PERSPECTIVE WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW RANKMORE
D MONROGER
Pearly Conures
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n Australia the Pearly Conure Pyrrhura lepida is kept in moderate to low numbers. But even these modest figures are reducing every year due to lack of enthusiasm and interest in the species—a fate affecting many of the Pyrrhura genus as people move on to the latest trends. In the past, the Pearly Conure was highly priced, but their relative ease of breeding and apparent similarity to the over-supplied Green-cheeked Conure has caused prices to fall markedly below what I feel is reasonable for the species’ current status in aviculture. Sadly, I believe the species is at a high risk of disappearing from our aviaries over the next 10-plus years unless there is a resurgence in interest in this and other species of the genus. DESCRIPTION The Pearly Conure is typical of others in the Pyrrhura genus in shape and appearance. They are best distinguished by their colour detail which breaks up their otherwise green composition. Pearly Conures have whitish ear coverts that blend into a scalloped throat and breast that transition into a blue then green colour.
The Pearly Conure features an attractive scalloped feather pattern typical of the Pyrrhura genus
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BREEDING AUSTRALIAN PARROTS WORDS BY BARRY BLANCH Grad Cert App Sc. Ornithology PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE BLANCH
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets
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Scaly-breasted Lorikeets
caly-breasted Lorikeets Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus are named after the scalloped yellow frontal feathering among their green plumage which has the appearance of scales. These small-to-medium sized lorikeets are often referred to as Scalys or Greenies. Scalybreasted Lorikeets are a very commonly kept bird in Australian aviculture. Colour mutations have further encouraged this due to the array of colours available in Olive, Cinnamon, Mustard and Lutino. Blue Scalys have been photographed on backyard bird feeders in suburban areas, so some may have been captured—who knows? DESCRIPTION The plumage of both sexes is an overall green. The head, including the crown and cheeks, lower back, rump, upper tail and wings are emerald grass-green. Males exhibit a more brightly coloured iridescent blue-green on the crown. Feathers on the mantle, throat, breast and upper abdomen are yellow, edged with the bright green that gives a scaly appearance. Both the inner thighs and undertail coverts are a mixture of lime and pastel yellow, while the secondary underwing covert feathers have a pastel pink, orange-red band. Splashes of bright red-orange can be seen on the shoulder bend and occasionally the edge of the median wing covert. Primary wing feathers are edged with varying amounts of dark blue-black. The undertail is a mixture of dirty yellow to light brown bordered by green. A red iris and coral-red beak are a stark contrast to the green feathering. Juveniles are duller in colouration.
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Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Scalys are known to be very active, playful and can be noisy at times. IN THE WILD Habitat and Range Scaly-breasted populations stretch from the eastern coastal areas north of Cooktown in North Queensland south to the coastal Illawarra area of Wollongong in NSW (south of Sydney), as well as some regions of Victoria and south-east South Australia. There are reports that the Scaly-breasteds close to Melbourne are an introduced colony. They mostly frequent areas east of the Great Dividing Range, although some can be found in areas slightly west of the range, depending on food supply and water availability. This lorikeet inhabits seasonal flowering native trees and shrubs including Pandanus, Melaleucas, Cabbage Tree Palms, Grevillea and Swamp Mahogany Eucalyptus robusta
growing in coastal, subcoastal swamps and river woodlands. They are arboreal and feed on nectar, pollen, blossoms, berries and other fruits, as well as insects and larvae. The nectar of Melaleuca trees, particularly the broad-leafed species Melaleuca quinquenervia, is a favourite. It is not unusual to see Scaly-breasted Lorikeets in urban parks and gardens, especially when Cocos Palms are flowering. Scalys love the flower pinnacles that grow Sc up to 2m long and have hundreds of small yellowish-white flowers laden with nectar. yel Orchards and vineyards suffer damage Or to fruit and growers regard the lorikeets as pests, often going to extremes using sca scare guns and nets in an attempt to save the their crops. Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are usu usually seen in small flocks of 10–20 birds, exc except when feeding on grain crops. They pa particularly like sorghum, particularly wh when the grain is in the soft, milky stage of development, when flocks of Scalys will sw swell to about 100 birds. These sightings and the numbers of birds indicate that the sta status of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets is very sec secure as a species. S Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are considered ma mainly nomadic, however, there are res resident populations. They will play second fid fiddle to Rainbow Lorikeets and Musk Lo Lorikeets when they move into their range. So Some bird feeders/observers report seeing var varying numbers of both Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets co-habiting but the they quickly move on when domineering Mu Musk Lorikeets arrive in the area. W When Scalys feed in among the foliage of trees they are very difficult to see, although their loud chattering can be easily heard. They are swift flyers and can be seen darting from tree to tree to a food source. IN CAPTIVITY Housing Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are very common in aviculture. They have become even more popular in the past 30 years as a result of demand for mutation colours—Lutino, Grey-green, Cinnamon and Mustard. Good breeding results are more common when these birds are housed one pair per flight in suspended flights. We have found that flights only need to be 2.4m long x 0.8m square, with a covered roof shelter and side area enabling privacy.
ABOUT BIRDS... WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIT PRENDERGAST BA BSc (Hons)
Backyard Chickens Part 1
Chickens, like this impressive rooster, are intelligent creatures. Their personalities are brought out when they are allowed to express their natural behaviours in backyards
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hickens are the most abundant bird on Earth. Yet despite this, few people encounter live chickens. This is a shame because keeping backyard chickens provides an opportunity to get to know these interesting, amicable birds, to have your own cruelty-free eggs and represents an eco-friendly means of recycling vegetable matter, producing compost, and fertilising and removing garden pests. Importantly, it also spares your chickens from undergoing the terrible conditions many of their counterparts in the poultry industry face. SENTIENCE AND INTELLIGENCE It is widely believed that chickens are stupid but scientists are increasingly proving this false. Scientific studies have revealed that despite a long history of domestication, chickens retain many of their natural behaviours. It is only recently that scientists have begun documenting the amazing cognitive abilities of chickens, largely because most scientific studies were previously funded on studying chickens as a resource and how they could serve the food industry more profitably rather than as a species of ethological interest.
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Studies have revealed chickens demonstrate complex problem-solving and cognitive abilities, including self-control, and flexible decision-making. Leading chicken ethologist Dr Giorgio Vallortigara, from the University of Trent, proved even five-day-old chicks demonstrated basic arithmetic, physics and geometry! Chickens have a good memory. They can anticipate future events and rewards, have a long-term memory of individuals and events and can retain and apply past learning experiences. They are also quick learners and have an understanding of causal relationships from a very early age. Chickens display many behaviours deemed indicative of higher cognitive abilities, such as social learning, innovation, tool-use, long-term relationship building, cunning and deceit. (For example, subordinate males will have illicit matings with hens while the dominant male, which aims to monopolise matings, is distracted.) Female chickens are highly discerning and form opinions about males based not only on the male’s physical characteristics but his behaviour. Chickens have been proven to demonstrate self-control—a cognitive feat many humans could improve upon! They even outshine humans in some cognitive
Mother hens are very maternal, and are protective, nurturing mothers to their chicks. Even from a young age, chicks display very intelligent behaviours
domains, for example using the height and position of the sun to navigate. (Most humans rely on GPS apps!) A gregarious, social species by nature, chickens have evolved high social intelligence as well, being capable of maintaining hierarchies, self-assessment within their social groups, co-ordination in group activities like foraging, nesting and defence, and recognising up to 100 individuals in a group based on physical features, as well as recognising each individual’s social status. Chickens are also known to form friendships. They are highly communicative animals, able to vocally express their emotions and intentions with a repertoire of 30 or more calls. Chickens also use visual, olfactory and tactile signals, to convey various intentions and messages to conspecifics. Hens teach their chicks all the necessary life skills, such as which foods are high quality and palatable, even modifying their teaching in accordance with their youngsters’ learning progress. Hens are highly attuned to their chicks and respond with empathy when their chicks are distressed. The fact that hens respond physiologically and emotionally via empathy to their chicks underscores how special chickens are. The capacity for empathy suggests not only do
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