First Successful Breeding of Blue-rumped Parrots at Lora Parque

The Blue-rumped Parrot (Psittinus cyanurus) inhabits its own mono-typic genus, with its closest relatives being the Philippine Guaiabero Parrot (Bolbopsittacus lunulatus) and the genus of Psittacella parrots which are unknown in European aviculture. In size, the Bluerumped Parrot measures just 18cm (7 in.) in overall length and seldom exceeds 85 grams in body weight, making this one of the smaller species of Asian psittacines. Dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is clearly apparent in adult birds and in newly fledged birds there is slight dimorphism while they are still in their immature plumage. The male bird has a grayishblue head with a red upper mandible, brownish-red lower mandible. The female bird, by comparison, has a brown head with greyish-brown mandibles. Young birds still in immature plumage have green heads and generally green body plumage; in most juvenile male birds, a slight blue wash can be seen in the green head feathers at this age giving an early indication of their gender. Range The natural range of this species covers mainland south eastern Asia from Thailand though Malaysia and also on Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia. It is most commonly reported that pairs or small groups of adult birds are seen in their favored habitat of lowland forest and woodlands, sometimes also being found in orchards and plantations. At the end of the breeding season young birds are generally more gregarious than the adults and can be seen flying in larger groups and often feeding communally on Oil Palm plantations which are in fruit soon after these birds have fledged. Three regional sub-species have been described (Forshaw, 1989) but visible differences appear to be marginal. The small size and quiet nature of these birds make them suitable for keeping indoors in countries which have a temperate climate. At Loro Parque the sub-tropical climate of the Canary Islands means that our birds remain outside throughout the year, one pair on exhibition and two pairs located in our off-exhibit breeding centers. Breeding Pairs at Loro Parque The pairs which are housed in the breeding areas are accommodated in suspended cages which measure approx. 3m x lm x lm, (10 x Y/i x 31/1 ft.) while the pair on exhibition have a large conventional aviary which allows the birds access to the f1oor. The Bluerumped Parrot is, however, very rarely found at a low height in the aviary. Rather it prefers to spend practically all of the time on the highest perches available. Diet The diet of these birds is as follows: Morning feed at 7 A.M.: Salad feed which contains diced items such as apple, pear, papaya, tomato, orange, kiwi fruit, prickly-pear, alfalfa, beetroot, lettuce, carrot, pepper and other seasonally available fruits and vegetables. A second smaller dish contains a commercial dietary pellet. During the breeding season a special supplement cake is baked at Lora Parque fresh each day and a few pieces of this are added to the food dish which contains the dietary pellet. Afternoon feed at 7 P.M.: The afternoon feed provides these birds with seeds such as millet, hemp, niger, sunflower (small amount), safflower etc. and some cooked beans such as Mung beans and black-eyed beans. Lentils and cereal grains are added along with pine nuts and peanuts. All drinking water provided is puri- fied by first being chlorinated then passed through a reverse osmosis machine which is equipped with an ultra-violet light sterilization unit. Bathing water is provided for the birds by daily showers which are built into the design of eve1y aviary in the park. Success After many Years Despite having been in the collection at Lora Parque for many years, successful breeding was not recorded until the current 1996 breeding season. Towards the end of May we noticed that copulation was taking place much more frequently between the two birds on exhibition and that the female was starting to spend much time working inside the nest to prepare a scrape in the wood shavings. The nest box provided measures 45cm x 21cm x 21cm (18 x 8 x 8 in.) with an 8cm (3 in.) diameter entrance hole. Wood shavings are used exclusively as a nesting medium inside the nest box. Once the female began to spend extended periods of time in the nest box, more regular nest inspections were carried out and it became clear that she was in the process of preparing a scrape area in the nesting medium. When the nest box was inspected on the 10th of June we found that one egg had been laid and a week later the clutch had increased to four eggs. Of these four eggs only one hatched which took place on 6 July.