Parrot family birds

ger approaches. If that happens, the sentinel gives loud calls, and the whole flock rises and heads for the nearest woods.

True Macaws are in the genera "Ara," and are differen­tiated from the "Blue" kinds by having a complete bony ring in the skull around the eyes, and in all of them, the lores and cheek areas are devoid of feathers.

SCARLET or the RED and BLUE MACAW (Ara macao). Habitat: Mexico to Brazil. Introduced in Hawaii. 36 inches. Mostly scarlet with blue, red and yellow on the wings. Four middle tail feathers are scarlet, the outer ones blue. Lower back and rump cobalt blue. Upper mandible white with black tip and edges. Lower mandible and feet black. Iris yellowish-white and naked skin cheeks, light yellow. Sexes alike.

GREEN WINGED OR BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW (Ara ararauna). Habitat: Panama to Paraguay. Head, back, wings and tail, blue. Abdomen, orange-yellow. Sexes alike but cock is larger. 36 inches.

SOUTHERN MILITARY MACAW (Ara militaris) Habi­tat: Mexico to Peru and Bolivia. This species is 27 inches long, and is mainly green with scarlet forehead. Lower back and upper tail-coverts bright blue. The four middle feathers of the tail are brownish-red tipped with blue.

There are three species of "Blue" Macaws here described:

HYACINTHINE MACAWS (Anodorhynchus hyacinthus). Habitat: Central Brazil. This is the largest blue Macaw. Length is from 34" to 36", about 20" being the tail. It is uni­formly cobalt blue in body. Under surface of tail, wings and entire bill black. Naked skin around eyes, and around base of lower mandible bright yellow. This Macaw is different from others, in that it doesn't have a large bare skin area around the face. It is one of the scarcer Macaws and inhabits dense tropical forests.

Instead of building a nest in a tree, it is said to scoop out a burrow in the bank of a river, laying two eggs. Two broods

Macaws

69

are raised in a season. In the wild, these birds feed mainly on hard Palm Nuts. They are not a pet for the home, as they are noisy, but would be suitable in a home with surrounding acreage.

LEAR'S MACAW (Anodorhynchus leari). Habitat: Brazil. This second all-blue Macaw is similar to the above, but small­er with head and breast duller blue.

GLAUCUS MACAW (Anodorhynchus glaucus). Habitat: Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This blue species is still smaller, but grayer in coloring.

There are smaller Macaws more suitable for keeping in a small house or apartment. What are known as SEVERE MACAWS are about the size of a Parrot 12-15 inches. They are mostly green with blue on the head, and under wing-coverts, scarlet. They are nice talkers. Another one is:

HAHN'S MACAW (Ara n. nobilis). Habitat: Northern South America. One of the smallest Macaws, 12 inches. Body, green; forehead, blue; under wing-coverts and shoulder (man­tle), scarlet.

Blue and yellow or Green-winged Macaw. (Ara ara-rauna). These brightly colored birds are easy to make friends with if you offer to scratch their head. Macaw owned by the late Wm. Short, Detroit, Mich.

— • ■

AUSTRALIAN SHELL PARRAKEETS

(Budgerigars)

Scientific name (Melo-psittacus undulatus). Habi­tat: Australia. Size of a Canary. This species is in­cluded in this book not so much for its talking incli­nations which are slight, but for the truly astounding color range which skillful breeders and the specie's peculiar genetic makeup have combined to produce to delight the fancier's eye. The present color varia­tions number no less than 66, with new mutations de­veloping constantly. Black and red shades have not been included as yet, al­though mutations in these colors have been reported in such distant places as New Zealand and South Africa. Shell Parrakeets have quaint mannerisms which are attractive also, making them desirable ex­otic-looking pets.




A pair of talking budgies raised by

Prudence L. McCrory, Hamilton,

Canada

to England, where they soon became popular cage birds there and in Europe.

It is estimated that today Shell Parrakeets exist in greater numbers in Australia than in Gould's day. For many years, it has not paid trappers to catch them for the pet mar­ket, as millions of superior birds in all colors have been bred in captivity, where they are almost as numerous in avicul-turists' hands as they are in the wild. Shell Parrakeets are found generally throughout Central Australia, and in the southern parts are migratory, appearing in huge flocks in Spring when grass seeds are plentiful, and migrating north­wards when their breeding season is over. Breeding color var­ieties has been carried on mainly in England, where these birds exceed the Canary in general popularity. The name giv­en to Shell Parrakeets by the natives of Australia was "Bud­gerigar," to which they are commonly referred to today. "Aus­tralian Undulating Grass Parrakeet," is another proper name for them. The man in the street is inclined to call them Love Birds, which is a misnomer. These birds with square tails are of an entirely different species (see chapter on Love Birds). Shell Parrakeets are happiest when kept in pairs or even in ' colonies (when not breeding). Fanciers, who breed for color, separate the sexes entirely during the non-breeding season. Contrary to popular opinion, if one of a pair dies, the one left will not pine away; another mate will be acceptable, as cocks especially are notoriously unfaithful.

TALKING

Shell Parrakeets like other smaller talking birds, have small voices hard to understand, and do not compare with the more proficient talkers dealt with in this talking bird manual. They may be taught to talk by following the sug­gestions given in the chapter on taming and talking.

The cock Shell Parrakeet makes a better talker than the hen. During the months you are training him (from 2 to 8 months old), it is advisable to keep him away from others of his kind unless you have a good tutor. He should already be hand-tamed. No bird can be taught to talk if it is wild and nervous.

72 Parrot Family Birds

Shell Parrakeets, and others such as Lories and Lorikeets, may be taught many tricks. Tiny bird playgrounds consist­ing of swings, trapeze, etc., may be ordered from your Pet Store for these birds. You and your bird will both enjoy one.

If you keep two or more Shell Parrakeets in small cages, they would benefit by some wing exercise if you should let them fly around the room for 20 minutes once or twice a day. You will find that these birds all fly together in circling around the room, coming to rest at the highest perching spot. You may follow them around with a small stick, much as the pigeon fancier exercises his birds. When tired, they will fly right back to their cage. During the breeding season, this method of exercising should not be attempted. Of course, windows and doors must be closed before letting them out.

A mixture of the following seeds which you can make up yourself by purchasing separately, or buy mixed in package form, makes up their staple diet.

Yellow Millet — Hulled Oats — Canary Seed —'Mixture is two parts Millet to one part Canary and one oats.

A mixture of other bird seeds may be given for variety. If available, your Shell Parrakeets will appreciate a sprig of Spray Millet. If you are out in the country, and will cut it for them, fresh seeding heads of grasses and grains will be much relished, besides which, seeds in the fresh stage supply vitamins and minerals which are lacking or are diminished in dry seed. In the wild, grass seeds form the diet of these Grass Parrakeets.

Fresh greens and a piece of apple or pear should be sup­plied daily also. Cod Liver Oil, given in cold weather, may be added to their diet by letting several drops soak into their seed overnight, or a teaspoonful of oil to a pint of seed. (Mix well.) The powdered feeding supplements mentioned in the diet of every other bird in the booklet may be given to Shell

Australian Shell Parrakeels 73

Parrakeets by placing a pinch on a piece of whole wheat bread dipped in milk, or given alone in a side dish. It will never harm them if given alone, and the birds won't take too much of it.

Other daily requirements are: Fresh water in a clean all-glass fountain, bird gravel in a side dish, and for their calcium needs, either fasten a cuttlefish bone near a perch or place a small dish of ground oyster shell in their cage. This is im­portant, especially when breeding or moulting.

BATHING

Shell Parrakeets, like most Psittacines, don't bathe in a pan as other birds do. They prefer to roll in wet grass if you have a patch of it in an outdoor enclosure. If you keep them in a small cage, place enough wet cabbage, lettuce or other vegetable leaves near their perch for them to wet themselves with as well as to eat. Spraying them with water from an atomizer, especially if you exhibit them in bird shows, will start them preening. Parrot-like birds also enjoy being out in a gentle summer rain. The bird newspaper Cage Birds Weekly of London, England gives an excellent suggestion for encouraging Budgies to bathe when kept in an outdoor avi­ary. This is by piercing two small holes in a tin can, one inch from the edges. This is filled with water and placed on the wire netting forming the roof of the flight. Directly under­neath, attached to the flight cage roof in the center of this can hang lettuce or cabbage leaves or long tufts of grass, al­lowing the water to drip slowly on the greens. Immediately below where the greens will touch it place a perch. They will greatly enjoy rolling in the wet greens, especially in summer.

Breeding pairs of Shell Parrakeets should be one year old. The hens begin laying in March in the States, and no more than three clutches a season should be permitted each pair. If you have more nests than that, the parents will be debilitated for another breeding season, and the young won't have the stamina and size of earlier hatches. Cocks and hens

74 Parrot Family Birds

should be separately placed in flight pens after the third brood. You can tell that a pair is in breeding condition when the cock's cere is bright blue, and he is very active and at­tentive towards the hen, that is, more than usual. A hen in high breeding condition will have the cere dark brown and corrugated.

About five eggs form the average clutch, although some pairs produce from eight to ten. If one pair has more eggs than can be properly covered by the hen's body, they may be transferred among other setting hens. Eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation lasts 17-18 days, the young hatching in relays. They are fed with regurgitated food from the parent's crop. Young birds only a few weeks old are very difficult to sex. The quickest way to pick out the cocks is to look at the cere (a horny patch above the bill in which the nostrils are placed). In the young cocks, the cere is more rounded and stands out more than in the young hens whose cere is flatter. When young, both sexes will have very pale ceres, but the cock's cere is a little deeper blue, particularly near the nostrils. The immature hen's cere may be light tan or pale blue. When the young are up to six weeks old, they have fine black stripes across the forehead which disappear afterwards. This is the time to select the young cocks to train as talkers.

In Australia, Shell Parrakeets live in large flocks, feed­ing on grass seeds and nesting in tall Eucalyptus trees.

If you don't have much room and wish to breed Shell Parrakeets in the house or apartment, you can make or buy your own breeding cage. If you build your own, the dimen­sions should be 24 inches long x 24 inches high x 18 inches wide. Except for the perches, it is not necessary to use any other wood whatsoever in its construction. To make a real neat, manufactured looking breeding pen, half or three quarter inch mesh galvanized wire netting should be used for the sides and roof. Aluminum moulding strips are used

Australian Australian Shell Parrakeels 75

for framing the sides, top and base, % inch and 1 inch as
illustrated:

Front View Top View of a

Moulding Length Strip

Aluminum -moulding used for cage fram­ing is better than wood,

easy to d r i 11

holes in or to Inter*

cut with a small utility saw. It is obtainable in bigger hard­ware or linoleum stores, where a good selection of many types and sizes are available. Small brass or aluminum bolts, nuts and lock washers should be used in fastening framing and base. Small brass or aluminum corner angles may be used in connecting the side moulding strips to the base and roof. The small lock washers may only be available in iron, in which case dip them in a little spar varnish to prevent rust.

The sections of wire netting will fit into the inside grooves. Wire netting may be cut to proper size for top and sides with a metal shears. To install the wire netting in the roof, slide it along the inside horizontal grooves of the mould­ing leaving one end open. When in place bolt the remaining moulding section in place, fitting the edge of the mesh into its groove beforehand.

Base and Cleaning Pan

For the bottom, you can make a one-inch-deep pan out of sheet metal, which can be either of galvanized, or copper or aluminum. Galvanized is the cheapest. The sides of the sheet metal should be bent over one inch all around, the corners to be cut and neatly soldered together. A small glass knob or plastic handle, such as is used for cupboard doors, may be fastened to the front side of the pan in the center to enable you to pull it out of the cage for cleaning.

To form the base, four angle sections of aluminum are required, cut to proper size and bolted together with small

metal angles on the inside at each corner. For the front end, out of which the metal pan will slide, fasten a 24-inch-long angle section just above the one inch high pan. The wire netting forming the front wall may be slid down the inside grooves of the corner frames and will be stopped by resting on the section you just put in. Thus nothing will interfere with the easy sliding, in and out of the tray.

A cage of this type can be made any size you want, al­ways stays shiny bright, and may be easily sterilized against disease and kill any mites hiding in it by plunging in or spraying with hot water.

I also recommend this type of construction for building a display aviary case for use at a bird show. For this purpose, the 1/16 inch thick plastic glazing may be used. Ordinary window glazing may also be used in the place of wire net­ting. Whichever of these clear materials you use may be slid down the inside grooves of the aluminum framing to form the sides and top. A metal pan may be made for the bottom, or it may be a solid wooden base. A fluorescent light tube and fixture can be attached to the front upper part of the display case near the roof for best lighting ef­fects. This display case may also be made demountable for easy carrying.

The above specifications cover the construction of the smallest breeding cage for one pair only of Shell Parrakeets. If you have ground to spare in the rear of your home, it is much better to build a section of breeding enclosures such as is described in the front part of this booklet under "Breed­ing in Captivity." For Shell Parrakeets, the dimensions need be only 12 feet long x 5 ft. wide x 6 ft. high. No more than 3 pairs of Shell Parrakeets should" be kept in each section to eliminate the fighting of the hens over nest boxes, or the killing of one another's young. Each enclosure should con­tain only birds of one color variety to control your breeding expectations. By keeping only three pairs in a pen you also obtain more young, than by using a colony system of indis­criminate breeding.

77

NEST BOXES

Drawing directly below is of the type of nest box suitable for Shell Parrakeets, Love Birds, Lorikeets, Lories, Hanging Parrakeets, Pigmy Parrots, Cockatiels, Caiques, Conures, Par-rotlets and the larger Parrakeets.

Different styles of nest boxes may be made. The coconut husk used to be popular among fanciers but has been discarded because of the ease in which mites bred among the fibres. The approxi­mate size of a nest box should be 9 in. high x 5 inches wide and deep. Plywood makes a satis­factory material for nest boxes. The roof should be slanted down from back to front, forming an overhang to prevent other hens or cocks roosting on it. The entrance hole should be IV2 inches in diameter, barely large enough for the hen to crawl through. Large nesting holes have been known to deter breeding as hens like to feel secure when setting. The bottom of the nest box should have a removable IY2 inch-thick block of wood, made concave by scooping out a hollow % inch deep at the center, and 4% inches across. The con­cave block is necessary to prevent the eggs from rolling to a corner of the nest and becoming chilled. Some insect powder may be applied under the block for mites. The rear wall of the nest box should be screwed to the wood block. Both parts will be detachable from the rest of the box, making cleaning and inspection easier. This nest box construction applies to larger Parrakeets also (see illustration).

Shell Parrakeets don't build nests, so you may add some peat moss or damp turf in the bottom. Install an alighting perch on the outside near the entrance hole. This can be a dowel Y2 inch in diameter and six inches long. To enable the parent birds to clamber in and out easily, a good sug-

g
78 Parrot Family Birds
estion is to fasten a small strip of 1/2 inch mesh netting in­side the box from the bottom to the entrance hole. To pre­vent fighting among the hens for nesting sites, all nest boxes in an enclosure should be the same in construction and all placed at the same height. By hanging the boxes where the entrance hole faces the light, the hens will be able to see better in feeding the young. Also supply a couple more nest boxes than there are pairs in the enclosure to prevent fight­ing. These nest box arrangements are used by successful breeders who have found out by observation how to produce more and healthier young from Shell Parrakeets.

The following is a list of the color variations now avail­able in Shell Parrakeets. Not every breeder will have all the colors.

Green White-Wing Violet

Greywing Green Yellow-Faced Blue

Greywing Light Green Yellow-Faced Clearwing

Yellow-Wing Green Fallow Green

Skyblue Fallow Laurel

Greywing Light Skyblue Fallow Olive

White-Wing Skyblue Fallow Skyblue

Greywing Blue Fallow Cobalt

Laurel Fallow Mauve

Greywing Laurel Grey

Greywing Light Laurel White

Yellow-Wing Laurel Lutino

Cobalt Albino

White-Wing Cobalt Light Yellow

Greywing Cobalt Dark Yellow

Greywing Light Cobalt Olive Yellow

Olive Opaline Green

Greywing Olive Opaline Laurel

Greywing Light Olive Opaline Olive

Yellow-Wing Olive Opaline Skyblue

Mauve Opaline Cobalt

Greywing Mauve Opaline Mauve

Greywing Light Mauve Opaline Violet

White-Wing Mauve Opaline Grey

Violet Opaline Clearwing Green

Greywing Violet Opaline Clearwing Laurel

Opaline Clearwing Olive Cinnamon-Wing Laurel

Opaline Clearwing Skyblue Cinnamon-Wing Skyblue

Opaline Clearwing Cobalt Cinnamon-Wing Cobalt

Opaline Clearwing Mauve Cinnamon-Wing Mauve

Opaline Clearwing Violet Cinnamon-Wing Violet

Cinnamon-Wing Green Cinnamon-Wing Grey

Cinnamon-Wing Olive Cinnamon-Wing Yellow

Most of the above colorings are self-explanatory, how­ever, others will need clarifying to the layman.

Lulino:

Clear yellow, with the flight and tail feathers white and red eyes. This is a form of albinism related to white red-eyed albinos.

Lack of the usual barring on the back of the head, nape and mantle. The mantle is the same color as the body. Flight feathers have a wide yellow or white band. The central shaft of the long tail feathers is dark with a light border which is edged with dark again. Opalines have brilliant, intense coloring like an opal.

The incomplete formation of black color pigments, giv­ing green birds a yellowish cast and blue birds a whitish cast. All Fallows have red eyes.

Among the most beautiful and varied species of Psitta-cine Birds must be mentioned the larger Parrakeets, which are a big family. They exist in most tropical places in the world. Though many are highly colored, few if any will talk. The English bird fanciers have really done wonders in prop­agating these lovely birds, particularly since for several years now they weren't permitted to import fresh wild stock

80 Parrot Family Birds

due to the Psittacosis scare. Species which are nerring ex­tinction in their native Australia because of the encroach­ment of civilization in their habitats, have been successfully bred in England. It is possible to acclimatize many of these larger Parrakeets where they will thrive in temperate cli­mates in outdoor aviaries the year round.

Advice in shipping: When shipping the larger Parra­keets, it is better to pack each individual in a separate crate or carton. If a few are sent in one crate to save shipping space and costs, put individual birds in separate cartons or make compartments in the one crate. This advice is given because the larger Parrakeets are given to having fatal fights if kept close together on a trip. This applies even to pairs mated a long time.