Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

Love Birds

Those who have visited aviaries are doubtless familiar with the pretty little Love Birds (Agapornis), which are so called from the affection the sexes seem to show for each other, as they sit closely side by side with heads and oftener bills in contact, each apparently the object of the other's loving solicitude, though, if the truth must be told, there appears to be among them an occasional Xanthippe, whose unfeathered prototype history tells us made life miserable for Socrates.

Such an unamiable”Love Bird,”Mr. W. T. Greene, the great authority on the Parrots, has told us about. The Love Birds, of which nine species are now recognized, are natives of the Ethiopian region, though a single one has been introduced into Reunion and other islands.

They are among the most diminutive members of the entire group, none exceeding six and a half inches in length and several falling half an inch or more below this. In addition to their small size they are distinguished by a thick, deep bill, which is without a ridge or keel along the middle of the symphysis of the lower mandible, and by an extremely short tail, which is ornamented by a substantial band of black. One of the best-known species is the handsome little Rosy-faced Love Bird

(A. roseicollis) of Southwest Africa, in which the general color is pale green, though the forehead and eyebrows are red, the face and neck rosy, the rump and upper tail-coverts azure-blue, and the tail scarlet, tipped with green, in addition to the subterminal black band; the female is similar to the male. Of their habits as observed in Damara and Great Namaqua Land, Mr. Andersson writes as follows: “It is always observed in small flocks, and seldom far from water, to which it resorts at least once in a day. This species is very swift of flight, and the little flocks in which it is observed seem to flash upon the sight as they change their feeding grounds or pass to or from their watering places; their flight, however, is only for a comparatively short distance at a time.

They utter rapid and shrill notes when on the wing, or when suddenly disturbed or alarmed. Their food consists of berries or large berry-like seeds. This bird does not make any nest of its own, but takes possession of nests belonging to other birds, though I cannot say whether it forcibly ejects the rightful owners of these nests, or merely occupies such as they have abandoned; but I have seen the Parrots and the Grosbeaks incubating in about equal numbers under the shelter of the same family roof.”The eggs are pure white.

 

 

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