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The Peach.-Faced Lovebird

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The Peach.-Faced Lovebird The Rare Lovebirds... trol flock of Normal Greens when working with the mutations and com­ A Future Focus binations. One of the most commonly asked questions I receive is, "If I mate a Blue bird with a Yellow bird what will I get?" I used to be able to answer that question, however, without knowing the The Peach.-faced Lovebird background of the Blue bird or the Yellow bird, your guess is as good as Agapornis roseicollis and its Mutations mine! So, now let us begin to look at the by Rick Smith evolution of the mutations and combi­ Lakeview Terrace, California nations in the Peach-faced Lovebird. In order to understand this, one must he Peach-faced Lovebird, from brood while I was in Africa, and I had know that there are three methods or T Angola and Southwest Africa is, them boarded with a friend. I was dis­ patterns of inheritance. They are reces­ along with the Budgerigar and the appointed not to have been there to wit­ sive, sex-linked and dominant factor. In Cockatiel, the most common psittacine ness this, however the couple rewarded the simple recessive, a Green Normal species in aviculture. In the wild there me with many more clutches of babies mated with a Blue will produce babies are two distinct races, one having over the years. that are all of a Normal Green col­ brighter coloration and found in an While the Peach-faced Lovebird has oration, however are split or are capa­ isolated limited range. Ironically, the produced many color mutations, some ble when paired with either another Peach-faced was not one of the first say even more than the Budgrigar, the split or a Blue bird of producing a species imported, however with its normal Green is still a beautiful bird. In Blue offspring. willingness to go forth and propagate, this article I have decided to concentrate Let me try to simplify the RECESSIVE its popularity caught on quickly. It has on the mutations and various combi­ in the charts below. produced a myriad of mutations and nations that have evolved. However, fIrst Normal Green mated to or "x" Blue = combinations, and done so in a relatively let me explain the difference between Normal Green split to Blue babies. short period of time. a mutation and a combination. Two of We chart this: My very first bird was a male Peach­ the first mutations produced were the Table One faced, and he lived for 16 years and sired Blue and the American Yellow Normal Green x Blue = Normal many offspring. At 14 (my age when I (Cherryhead). A combination of these Green/Blue got him) they did not often hand- feed two can eventually produce an American Note the first color is the visible baby lovebirds for pets. However, at the White (Silver). A combination is thus color and the "/" mark indicates Palos Verdes Bird Faun, where I acquired defined as a pairing of two or more SPLIT, followed by the color for him, there was a tame baby on a "pure" mutations. In the early days which the bird is split. playpen and I knew that's what I want­ when the new mutations were being Now let's mate two Normal ed. (Actually, I originally wanted a established, the genetics were fairly Green/Blue together and see what hap­ Mynah Bird, but when my mother saw easy to comprehend. However, as more pens. the bottom of a Mynah's cage, she and more combinations were tried, the Table Two said, "no way!") Unfortunately the baby genetic backgrounds of many birds Normal Green/Blue x Normal on the playpen was sold, but the became so diverse it was virtually Green/Blue = employee at the bird farm assured me impossible to predict what some pair­ 25% Normal Green they were easy to tame if acquired ings would produce. In my opinion 50% Normal Green/Blue young, and this proved correct. So this is unfortunate and it is primarily due 25% Blue home I went with a baby bird fresh out to the fact that normal Greens were not In other words if four babies are of the aviary, with some black still on used as a control when breeding. There produced, on the average one will be his beak and his wings clipped. I was is a warning "flag" to this as well. Some a visible Blue and the other three will so excited that I immediately took him of the original mutations such as the be visible Greens, two ofwhich may be to the bathtub with a wooden dowel and American Yellow (or Golden Cherryhead split to Blue. within 15 minutes he was sitting calm­ as it was first called) are not common Now let's try some additional cros­ lyon my fmger. Thus began a love affair now as newer varieties have been ses. that has cost me thousands of dollars to developed. Table Three this day. While I have kept and bred Second, the size of the bird is start­ Normal Green/Blue x Blue = many species of birds, the Agapornids ing to decline, something that would not 50% Normal Green/Blue remain one of my favorites, and I have happen ifthe birds were periodically out­ 50% Blue never been without them in the col­ crossed to Normal Greens. For exam­ In this cross note all the visible green lection. "Tiki," as I named him remained ple, a pairing over successive generations birds will be split to Blue, or out of four quite friendly for his entire life, even of Lutino to Lutino will definitely result babies produced, ON THE AVERAGE when breeding (a trait I attribute more in smaller and probably weaker birds. two will be green colored split to Blue, to the males than females). He and So, as I have stated in other articles, I and two Blue colored. his first mate actually had their first feel it is imperative to maintain a con- Now let's cross two Blue birds. afa WATCHBIRD 23 Table Four Table Six In order to understand some com­ Blue x Blue = Normal Green (MALE) x Lutino binations and how they are inherited, 100% Blue (FEMALE) = we must realize that more than one All babies produced in this pairing will Normal Green Females method of inheritance may be involved. I be visibly Blue colored. Normal Green/Lutino Males The beautiful Creamino (sometimes In the beginning, with the first reces­ Note all the birds in this pairing are mistakenly called Albino) is produced sive mutations these genetic tables visibly green and no Lutinos are pro­ by mating offspring from a Blue x were an accurate means of predicting duced. Lutino. Thus both sex-linkage and what offspring would be produced recessive tables must be considered. and what pairings would produce the My point in introducing the genetics best results. We did not want "POSSI­ Table Seven ofthe Peach-faced Lovebird is not to con­ fuse you, but to give you a point of ref­ I BLE SPLITS," or the green colored birds Normal Green/Lutino (MALE) x which mayor may not be able to pro­ Lutino (FEMALE) = erence in how the mutations evolved and duce Blues as seen in Table two. Normal Green Females what methods of inheritance were con­ IMPORTANT NOTE: Before we go Normal Green/Lutino Males tributed in the many combinations. any further it is important for the Lutino Females As I introduce some ofthe many color novice to understand that many of the Lutino Males varieties of the Peach-faced Lovebird, visible colored birds we have today Note that in this pairing all four pos­ I will utilize the names given and are not pure mutations. They are COM­ sibilities can be produced including accepted by the African Love Bird BINATIONS and may be split for many Lutino Males. Society. I will try wherever possible to different colors. Thus the confusion If two Lutinos, a male and a female, give commonly used names as well, when a white bird may appear in a nest are crossed, all the babies will be however I advocate sticking with the of a Blue x Blue. If this happened we Lutino, and both sexes will be pro­ ALBS's nomenclature. To our foreign would then know, that the parent birds duced. readers, I apologize in advance, as I while being of a visible Blue color, The third method of inheritance in know that you have your own names were also split to white. There is, to some lovebirds is called a FACTOR. A factor for the mutations and combinations, and degree, no limit to the number of com­ is a dominant mutation and can be they may not coincide with ours. binations that can be produced, and it carried by either sex. The American becomes increasingly difficult to under­ Yellow Pieds are an example of a muta­ stand a bird's genetic background and tion produced by a single factor. When predict the colors of its offspring. birds cany a factor there is no such thing MUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS The next method of inheritance we as a split. They are either Pied or IN PEACH-FACED LOVEBIRDS will examine is what is called SEX­ Normal Green. If a Pied is mated with LINKED. The example we will use a Normal Green, both Pieds and Normal Green Pied Peach-faced here involved the Lutino. In a sex­ Greens can be produced. The first mutation and still one of the linked mutation we can have Lutinos of We also can examine the dark factors, most beautiful to occur was the Green either sex, however ONLY THE MALES both single and double.
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