Wavy Parrot: Photo, Video, Housing And Reproduction

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Photo: Melopsittacus undulatus

The name of the wavy parrot Melopsittacus undulatus comes from Greek “Melos” — “singing”, “PSITTACOS” — “parrot” and Latin “Undulatus” — “wavy”. So completely his name sounds in Russian — Singing wavy parrot or abbreviated — budgie. Some ornithologists are offered the name Singer Wavy.

These are very slender beautiful parrots. Body length 17—19.8 cm, sometimes there are large individuals long up to 21 – 22 cm. Wing length 9.5 – 10.5 cm., tail — eight—10 cm; Weight 40—45 g. Thanks to the tail, it seems much larger.

The main coloring of the protective (patronizing) herbaceous green color. Front of the head and throat yellow. On the sides of the head is located on an elongated purple spot, under which there are three black spots on each side of the throat. The back of the head, the head and top of the back with a dark brown wave along the yellow background. The wavy on the head from the thin and tender passes to the back into a wider and more rough. In young birds, the wavy drawing is not as clear as in adults, and begins immediately from the wax. This color is preserved in them until a yellow mask appears. In young birds, the tail is much shorter than in adults. The tail is long, stepped.

Featers on the forehead of a male wavy parrot have an interesting property: they fluoresize under the influence of ultraviolet rays. The human eye is able to see this glow only in the dark, but the parrots distinguish it with bright sunlight. Under natural conditions, the presence of fluorescence plays an important role when choosing female partner for nesting. An experiment was conducted: two cells with males illuminated daylight, but one of them was shielded with glass from direct sunny ultraviolet. In 9 cases, out of 10, the female chose a male located in an unexplored cell.

The eyes of the wavy parrots are dark blue, a rainbow shell is a yellow or white shade. The eyes of parrots distinguish colors. In addition, they have a wide angle of view, which allows you to see two prospects at the same time.

The beak of wavy parrots is powerful and curved, like a bird of prey. On top it is covered with a strong horn layer. At the base, a wax is highly distinguished, on which the nasal holes are located. The beak of parrots, unlike other birds, is very mobile thanks to the upper jaw, which does not grow together with the skull, but is connected to it with a tendon ligament. The upper jaw is much longer than the lower. The palatine bones are well developed. Such a beak is a universal tool for tearing and grinding small branches, leaves, seeds and various fruits. Wavy parrots raise and transfer various objects, as well as food and drinking beak. In addition, they use it for climbing the branches of trees, the bars of the cell and the grid of the aviary, sometimes during the defense. With the help of their powerful beak, parrots are hollowed up for nests. The tongue of wavy parrots is short and thick, a little rounded. At the tip, it is covered with a horny layer. Most on the inside of the overshadow have narrow horn teeth, which, like a file, hones the front of the overshadow and clean the grains of husk, and are also used to tear off the fruits and their overgrown. The chicks have beaks — Dark, in adult birds — straw-yellow, with a greenish tint. There is a well -pronounced wax above the beak of birds around the nostrils. The floor of the birds is easily distinguished in the color of the wax: in the young male it is purple, the adult is bright blue, the female: young – blue (around the nostrils a lighter rim), in an adult — Blue or brown.

The parrot’s neck is very mobile, since their beak performs the main grasping function. The skeleton of the body, on the contrary, is inactive, since it mainly performs the supporting function.

The parrot wings serve only for flight and absolutely do not support the body while moving or sitting.The flight of a wavy parrot is a little arched and resembles a flight of swallows. When landing, the wings bend down, making it similar to landing a quail.

The paws are grayish-blue, very strong and tenacious, the claws are dark blue or black. On each paw, 4 long, bent and rather sharp fingers, 2 of which are directed forward, and 2 – back. Thanks to this design, parrots very deftly climb branches, walk on the ground, and can also capture various objects, including food, and carry them or hold them near the beak.

This parrot lives in Australia and on some adjacent islands. Australian Aborigines called a wavy parrot “Bedgerigas”, What means “Suitable for food”. The birthplace of wavy parrots is Australia. On this mainland, they wander in large flocks from place to place in search of food and water, temporarily settling on grassy plains, where they can eat seeds of herbs. Wavy parrots fly very quickly, which allows you to overcome huge distances in search of food.

Wavy parrot is the most numerous of all the parrots of Australia. It lives in most of the mainland (except for the northern regions covered with dense forests), along the eastern and southwestern coast, as well as on the island of Tasmania and some other islands. Wavy parrots nest mainly in the semi -desert parts of the mainland, where you can sometimes find millions of packs. So, in the northern part of Australia, the wavy parrot proceeds to nesting at any time of the year, as soon as the rains end, and in the south the birds multiply mainly in November and December. Currently, the number of wavy parrots contained in captivity is much more than in nature. This is due to the fact that a person has greatly changed the landscape of Australia, where these exotic birds live at large.

The feathered inhabitants of Australia have to adapt to changes in conditions and eat wheat – the main cereal culture of Australia, grown in large territories. However, for wavy parrots, wheat grains are too large.

Inhabit semi -deserted and steppe areas, preferring areas with rare trees. These parrots are swift in flight and elegant in movements, walk well on the ground and climb trees. They live in packs. Packs can be counted from 20 to several hundred individuals. There are references to a flock of 25,000 individuals.

In nature, wavy parrots multiply all year round. They nest in the hollows of trees. The female puts off 4-8 (but sometimes 12) white eggs, right to the bottom of the hollow without litter, and against the course of 18-20 days. The male at this time can feed her. Popugaychata chicks appear in unequal and blind, by about ten days they see, and at the age of one month they completely get ahead and leave the nest, but sometimes maintain contact with their parents for several days and a week. At home, they begin to nest immediately after installing a special house (but only after both birds are 1 year old!), which can be found in a pet store, and it is better to make it yourself, t.to. The minimum dimensions of the house are 17x25x17 (V/D/W) and only from wood. But before hanging the house, it is necessary to prepare for nesting.

The wavy parrots first described in 1805 the English natural scientist George Shaw in his work «Naturlists Miscellany» (1781 — 1813) [4]. Then his colleague artist g. Nodder made the first drawing of this bird. In 1831, visitors to the Museum of the Karl Linnei Society for the first time saw the scarecrow of this exot. When Australia began to be populated by the convicts, they began to tame the birds and keep them in cells.

Museum of the London Zoological Society Ornithologist John Guld in 1837 in the book «Handbook of Birds of Australia» For the first time, he described the life of wavy parrots in nature so well that later observations have not added anything significant to the present [5]. He owns the first description of the wavy parrot in the wild. The great ornithologist created a 36-volume work “Birds of Australia”, in which the parrots also mentioned this form. In 1840, wavy parrots were first brought to the London Zoo. There is an opinion that they were brought from Australia Gulda.

Wavy parrots were delivered from Australia by sea, while a large number of birds died, without tolerating a long (more than 2 months) swimming. As a result, the Australian government was forced to adopt a law on the ban on the export of any birds living in the country. Currently, the law is prohibited from exporting from Australia any representative of the fauna, with the exception of those born in captivity.

For the first time imported. GULD in 1840. Since that time, the wavy parrot has triumphantly walks throughout Europe. He appears in England, France, Belgium and Germany. In subsequent years, the mass removal of these birds from Australia began. Parrots of hundreds and thousands were caught in large networks. Cells with birds were transported to ships departing to Europe. When transporting, a huge number of birds due to poor feeding and crowding died.

Ten years after the appearance of the first parties of wavy parrots in the newspapers, reports appeared about their successful breeding in captivity. In 1854 in the newspaper «Bulletin de la SOC. IMP. D’Acclimatation de France» The article comes out «NOTE SUR LA Perruche ONDULEE», where Jules Delon first described the housing and breeding of a wavy parrot, which the French lover of birds of Sunny managed. It is possible that this was not the first actual success of breeding, since many then tried to get offspring from a wavy parrot in captivity, but no exact data was preserved. In 1859, Karl Bolle publishes an article in «Gabanis Jornal for Ornithologie» and reports the first dilution in Germany. This was the case of Countess von Shverin, who lived in 1855 in Berlin. At that time, wavy parrots lived in many cities of Europe, but were very expensive, so only wealthy people could buy them.

Large trading companies of Holland, Belgium and France fully satisfied the demand for wavy parrots. By 1860, most of the zoos of Europe already had their own populations of wavy parrots.

In 1881, Karl Russa gives a detailed description of the wild shape of the wavy parrot, separately describing the female and male. At the same time, Russ indicates the length of the parrot — 21 — 26 cm, but this size is obtained by not generally accepted measurements of a parrot (head — tail tip), and with measurement from the tip of the beak over the head and back to the end of the tail.

De Brasay reported that in 1894 about 600 thousand pairs of wavy parrots were imported in France. Massive, unprofitable capture led to a sharp reduction in the number of wavy parrots. Cruel trade on a wide scale forced the Australian government in 1894 to adopt a law on the complete ban on the export of all birds living in the country.

In 1913 with. BUT. White (s. A. White) watched wavy parrots in Australia. At the same time, White found wavy parrots hatching eggs, and reported on flocks of birds flying to the water.

BUT. N. Norden (a. N. Norden) In 1959 he investigated the goiter of freely living parrots. At the same time, it turned out that the main food of wavy parrots is grassy vegetation. However, later studies have proved that wavy parrots feed on insects. Norden claimed that on the mainland wavy parrots are the most common of all types of parrots.

Parrots were imported mainly from Western Europe to Russia and at first they did not bred. Nevertheless, they were widely known, and the number of their owners was steadily growing. The flowering of popularity came and the greatest interest was manifested in connection with the discovery of their ability to imitate human speech, which in the West was known much earlier. In the 30s, they began to breed exotes in the Moscow zoo [6], then in the zoom plant and at home. Now they have become the most massive among cell birds. And ornithologists calculated that in the world there are already more domesticated wavy parrots than wild.

History of breeding work, this section has not yet been writ10. According to the plan of one of the participants in Wikipedia, at this place a section dedicated to the history of the excretion of different mutations of parrots should be located at this place. You can help by writing this section.

Exported from Australia in the 19th century, at present it has become the most massive room bird, a genuine favorite of millions of people around the world and, of course, no extinction threatens him. But wavy parrots, who are bred in captivity from generation to generation for a long time, become more pampered compared to wavy parrots living in the wild, more beautiful, carpentic, with dazzling bright plumage (including natural green), which makes them noticeable and vulnerable in the wild. With the help of selection and selection, individuals of a variety of stains of plumage (blue, white, yellow) are bred). As a result, more than 200 varieties of wavy parrots were obtained. They are divided by external signs into groups and subgroups, characterized by plumage of a certain color, pattern and shape of the pen. The life expectancy of wavy parrots in captivity is with good care for 10-15 years, although some lived up to 22 years. In 1935, and then in 1960, breeders managed to withdraw wavy parrots with fixed legs, as well as with plumage 10 cm long (mutation “chrysanthemum”), however, they never managed to get viable offspring from them.

Wavy parrots create fairly strong couples, but not for life. In the event of the death of a partner, another bird can fall into severe stress and even die . The parrots become sexually mature at the age of 1.5 months, but for the health of the female the first egg should be no earlier than 18 months. The male should be allowed to breed from 12 months .

If the couple has already formed, you can start preparing them for breeding . The preparation takes 2-3 weeks, if you do not prepare the parrots for breeding, then you can not count on a good brood. Nest houses can be horizontal (30*18*20), vertical (20*17*30) and combined (25*17*17). Professional breeders use vertical houses (in order to save space in the aviary), the combined type of house is considered the best. In addition to the cell, you need a through pole, 7-10 cm long. At the bottom of the house, a small hole is made with a diameter of 4.5 cm 5 mm deep. The bottom is covered with injections of medium size not coniferous, but fruit or birch sawdust.You need to add 1 – 1.5 teaspoons of pharmacy chamomile to the sawdust.

If during courtship of birds it is necessary to observe, then during the period of nesting of birds it is better not to disturb: only give food and water, and in no case do not spy in the house.Otherwise, the female can creep or throw the eggs.

Newborn chicks up to 40-45 days are best kept with parents, at a later age can be kept both together with adults and separately. You can run into a common aviary only from 6 months of age.