Commercial Members American Bird Company, Kaytee Products, Inc., Chilton, WI Falls Church, VA Kellogg, Inc., Milwaukee, WI Animal Crackers, Greendale, WI Lowcountry Parrot Jungle, Ravenel, SC Avian & Animal Hospital, Largo, FL Magnolia Bird Farm, Anaheim, CA Avicultural Breeding & Research Center, Michael's Bird Paradise, Inc., Loxahatchee, FL Riviera Beach, FL Bio-Pak Associates, Farmingdale, NJ Nekton U.S.A., Inc., Clearwater, FL Biomune, Inc., Lenexa, KS Parrot Jungle, Inc., Miami, FL Bird &Board, Orange, CA Parrotville Aviaries, St. Clair, MI Birdcraft, Inc., Coconut Grove, FL Pet Farm, Inc., Miami, FL Birds Breeding Farm, Belgium Petland - White Flint Plaza, Birds of Paradise, Houston, TX Kensington, MD Burke's Birds, San Bernardino, CA Pets 'n Such, Erlanger, KY Country Critters, Ltd., Medford, NY Reliable Protein Products, Crofton Animal Hospital, Studio City, CA Gambrills, MD Rolf C. Hagen, Inc., St. Laurent, East Coast Aviaries, Inc., Ouebec,Canada Conway, SC Scarlet Oak Aviaries, Glenwillow, OH Blacll-cheelled Fins, Furs, 'n Feathers, Tammy's Landing, Kernville, CA Boca Raton, FL The Birdman Aviary, Bordheadsville, PA Hagen Avicultural Research The Bird Marketplace, Portland, OR Lovebirds Institute, Rockwood, The Seed Factory, Modesto, CA Ontario, Canada Wilson's Parrots, Alexandria, VA John Ball Zoological Park, the parrot pearl Grand Rapids, MI of the dark continent (Agapornis personata nigrigenis) by Peter H. Them NORSHORE PETS Copenhagen, Denmark A collection ofthe finest supplies Description available for your birds. 2~~~t>J'. This small lovebird, measuring about 14 em, almost exactly com­ pares to the Nyasa lovebird in the same way as the masked compares to the Fischer's lovebird. The forehead is brown and cheeks are brownish black. Throat and upper breast become more orange-red in the breeding season. Young birds still being fed by their parents also have a more distinctive orange-red upper breast. The four outer tail feathers have a patch of red. The rest of the plumage is green, darker above and olive green on the neck. Note, upper DISCOUNT PRICES tail coverts are green, and not pale ABBA Products. Kellogg. Lyric. Scarlett. Silver Song. LaFeber. blue as in the masked lovebirds. The Nekton. Rich Health. Prevue/ Hendryx. Hoei. Fritz. Super Pet. Lustar. Duro-lite. Mardel. General Cage. Viobin (REX WheatGerm Oil) bill is red and the naked skin around CATALOG $2.00, refundable with first order the eyes is white. Legs are grey. Books. Nets. Feeders. Stands. Cages. Seeds. Nest boxes. Vitamins Pick up or shipped U'p'S. Range P.O. Box 271 • 6206 South Route 23. Marengo. illinois 60152 A.p. nigrigenis has an extremely restricted range. There is evidence ~. 815 / 568-6732 ~~~~rj~n4 that the total area is only about 10 square km in south-western Zambia afa WATeRBIRD 13 along the Zambesi River Valley from Kafue National Park, where he has persons using sling shots or pellet Livingstone to Sesheke and the Kafue observed them. guns. National Park. Sedentary Bird Captive Breeding Habitat Mopane occurs in "pockets" We keep and breed our black­ The habitat favoured by the black­ (sometimes large ones) surrounded by cheeked lovebirds in a colony in an cheeked lovebird is a common kind Miombo woodland, in which wild aviary. Formerly we put a single pair of wilderness found in many areas of populations of lovebirds do not to a cage. All nest boxes (same kind as southern Africa: the Mopane (Colo­ occur. Miombo is a densely vegetated used for the masked lovebird) are phospernum mopane) woodlands bush habitat that is more widely dis­ placed at the same level, and between that are distributed in low-lying river tributed than the Mopane habitat. each box there are placed vertical valleys and in hot, uninhabited, arid Miombo woodland limits the move­ pieces of board, so that when the national park areas. Work clearly ments of lovebirds because the habi­ birds are looking out of their nest needs to be done on the ecological tat does not provide a suitable food holes they cannot see their neighbors. requirements of the bird in an attempt supply. Thus these lovebirds live all This has reduced the incidence of to explain its patchy distribution as year in their respective home areas of fighting. Incubation lasts 21 to 22 well as fluctuations in its numbers. Mopane woodland, never migrating days, and the young fledge the nest The lovebird ranges in Zambia are vir­ to interbreed with other lovebird when they are five to six weeks old. tually uninhabited because these forms, even though they are capable The first clutch of eggs is removed to woodland areas are infested with of doing so if they were to meet. Con­ the incubator and the chicks later tsetse flies, which are carriers of sequently, geographical isolation hand-reared; the second clutch African sleeping sickness. People and serves to keep the wild forms free remains with the parents. cattle are susceptible to the sickness, from hybridization. Hybrids available but game animals and birds are not, to lovebird fanciers are most likely Nutrition so the presence of tsetse ensures that produced among domesticated breed­ Generally we give the same kind of the Mopane woodlands remain ing stock confined together in food to all our birds, and I would sparsely inhabited. Another discour­ aviaries. advise anyone not to have more birds agement against development of than they have time to keep and feed Mopane woodlands is the poor soil Social Birds in the best way. Whatever parrots live quality for agriculture. Mopane soils As most other parrots, black­ on in the wild, they most certainly do are highly alkaline with a heavy clay cheeked lovebirds mate for life. They not live on any single item that we content. These woodlands are usually spend many hours a day with their give them in captivity. Canary, millet, so poorly drained that they become mates, flying and eating together, hemp, sunflower, niger, wheat, oats waterlogged or flooded during the vocalizing constantly to one another -all domestic grains - are abnormal annual rainy season. The absence of and preening one another. They are foods. How any parrots, on such a agricultural development also means very social birds. low protein diet that seed proVides, that lovebirds living there enjoy free­ can rear reasonable youngsters is a dom from the harmful side-effects of Trade wonder. Most rear far better young­ pesticides, a problem that plagues Today trade in wild-caught A.p. sters if they are also given green food birds living in the developed farming nigrigenis must be very seldom; as and better still if they are provided areas. far as I know there is trade only in the with some animal protein. Besides few domestic bred black-cheeked different kinds of seeds - dry and Status lovebirds. For the past 50 years, large­ germinated - our birds get a variety Dr. Dylan R. Aspinwall, of Lusaka, scale exports of wild-caught lovebirds of greens, fruits, and flowers, espe­ advised me in 1984 that they do not from Zambia have not occurred. Dr. cially flowers of the dandelion. From know whether A.p. nigrigenis is rare D. Gordon Lancaster, of the Northern our table all our birds get scraps. or common within its range. It Rhodesian Department of Game and appears that early this century it was Tsetse Control (ace. to R.E. Moreau: Future common and then became rare, per­ Evolution in Agapornis, IBIS 1948, p. Black-cheeks are rare in aviculture. haps because of collection for the 124), stated that within the area If they are not to disappear there, it cage bird trade or possibly from natu­ where they occur the birds have been will be necessary to cooperate in ral causes, or a combination of both extremely numerous. To his personal breeding, both at the national and factors. Its range lies in a rather knowledge 16,000 black-cheeked international levels. Ifbreeders do not remote area with few roads and this lovebirds in 1929 were captured in cooperate, the captive stock will may, in part, account for the fact that small parts of this area within a four­ surely die out. there are few reports of it in the wild. week period. Yet the wild popula­ However, it is reported from time to tions of these birds remain small even References time in Zambian Ornithological today. Moreau, R.E., 1948, "Evolution in Agapornis;' Society's Newsletter. These reports Ibis, p.20S-39,and 449-60. come mainly. from the Southern parts Dilger, w.e., 1960, "The Comparative Etiology Threats of the African Genus Agapornis;' Z. Tierp­ of Kafue National Park in the general Possible threats to the birds sychologi 17, p. 647-68S. area around Nanzhiola. In)une, 1984, include: agricultural encroachments Low, Rosemary, 1986, "Parrots: Their Care and Dr. W.F. Bruce-Muller of Choma at the boundaries of habitat areas, sea­ Breeding;' 2nd edition. Zambia, advised me that he believe~ sonal food scarcity, shortage of suit­ Smith, G.A., 1979, "Lovebirds and Related that A.p. nigrigenis are uncommon in Parrots;' and personal communication. able nesting sites, disease, predation Them, Peter, 1988, "Papegojer;' Clausens the area, the southern edge of the by other birds, and illegal hunting by Forlag. 14 April/May 1989 LET YOUR BIRDS BE THE BEST THEY CAN BE. Diets for All Parrots Large or Small; Amazons, Lories, Conures, Coclztatiels, Paralzeets, Canaries .\ fin'hes. Lalle's Buffet Diets~M The Ultimate In Avian Nutrition. Developed by a Leading Ph.D. Avian Nutritionist with 30 Years Experience. You Loye Me! You Loye Me Not! Do You Know Why I Look So Good? Do You Know Why I Look So Awful? Benefits Of A Good Diet Don't Break Your Birds for Your Bird And You.