The Australian continent, due to its isolation, has unique representatives of flora and fauna. Many are found nowhere else in the world. Australian parrots are known far beyond the borders of the country. The variety of types and colors of plumage is simply amazing. Animal lovers have long kept unusual birds as pets.
Diversity of species
There are more than 300 varieties of parrots in the world, and in total there are 10,964 species in the bird kingdom (2017 data). About 700 live in Australia, some of them live only here. Australia's parrots are represented by a large group:
- royal;
- lorikeets;
- noble;
- singing;
- wavy;
- barnards;
- earthy;
- Corella;
- redwing;
- night;
- cockatoo;
- red cap;
- azure;
- luxury;
- rosella;
- herbal;
- flattails.
Many species are divided into subspecies, for examplecockatoo. There are palm, pink, small and large yellow-crested. One of the most unusual is black. A distinctive feature of all cockatoos is the presence of a large and bright crest in birds. In a state of rest, it is adjacent to the head, and in a state of excitement it can stand on end. A powerful beak is able to bite a human finger. Size from 30cm to 60cm, very popular for home keeping.
Many species are little known not only because of the isolation and remoteness of the continent. The Australian government strictly controls the export of any living creature. The ban was also imposed on the import, including insects and plant seeds.
Unique birds
Budgerigars live everywhere in Australia. Ornithologist John Gould brought the first birds to Europe in 1840. He also did a colossal job of describing the birds of the continent. The Birds of Australia book consisted of 36 volumes with drawings. A small funny bird quickly gained popularity, everyone wanted to have such an unusual creature in their home. In 1945, the first bird care manual was published. The catastrophic volume of the export of budgerigars from the country forced the Australian government to impose a ban on their export.
Already in 1850, the first offspring in captivity were obtained. The spread of parrots in the new homeland continued at an accelerated pace. In Holland, France, Belgium, England, farms were created for breeding exotic pets. They gained even greater popularity after revealing their ability to imitate sounds, imitating human speech. Parrots were brought to Russia at the end of the nineteenth century.
Breeders have been working on breeding new varieties of Australian parrots. The birds were selected according to the color of their feathers. Yellow specimens were first obtained in Belgium and Germany in the 1870s. Blue parrots were bred by specialists in Belgium in 1878, and in 1920 white parrots appeared in England and France. The breeders did not stop there and continued to breed birds with a variety of plumage. To date, over 200 species of budgerigars have been bred in captivity. According to ornithologists, today the number of domestic individuals exceeds the number of wild relatives. Budgerigars are the most popular ornamental birds in the world.
Pet
Many Australian parrots are suitable for home keeping. In addition to wavy and cockatoo, widespread:
- multicolor lorikeet, subspecies moluccanus - attracted by a bright combination of scarlet chest with blue plumage;
- azure, color mutations allow you to get the original color from multi-colored to brown;
- rosella, there are two subspecies: motley and ordinary (they differ among themselves in some details of plumage color), perfectly mate with each other, are easily tamed;
- luxurious, unusual color variations, in Australia there are three species: Alexandra (in England it is known as the Princess of Wales parrot), mountain, barraband;
- herbals are distinguished by a variety of spectacular colors, they breed well in captivity, when kept in spacious enclosures;
- nobleor electus are distinguished by a significant difference in plumage color between the sexes, initially females and males were mistakenly attributed to different species.
Years of experience have shown that breeding and keeping parrots at home do not create any problems. The bird perfectly adapts to the conditions, easily makes contact with humans and successfully breeds.
Just the facts
Parrots in Australia can be found almost everywhere. The popularity of birds is very high. There are special schools in the country for training parrots, they are taught to talk. Budgerigars have a number of amazing features:
- give names to their offspring, designating them with a certain sound, to which "children" respond;
- chicks hatch blind and naked, and after 4 weeks already leave the parental nest;
- marriage courtship is accompanied by "kissing", thus the female imitates feeding chicks;
- birds sleep 10-12 hours a day;
- world record vocabulary is 1,728 words;
- sounds of parrots travel 1.5 km;
- parrots only make sounds with their mouths, they don't have vocal cords;
- female chooses a partner by glowing feathers in her forehead, she sees them in daylight, the human eye - only in the dark;
- birds are divided into right-handers and left-handers;
- uncontrolled breeding can lead to unexpected results: birds with very unusual colors or with non-stop feather growth (usually more than a yearsuch individuals do not live);
- Budgerigars are believed to have lived in Australia for 5 million years.
