Budgerigar

Lovebirds were first observed in wild flocks in Australia in the late 1700s, where the number of individuals in these flocks reached thousands.  The English name of the lovebird "Bajigar" is derived from the native word Budgerigar, which means "good food" in the language of the Australian aborigines, and perhaps the reason for this designation was that the presence of this bird in an area is the reason for the abundance of food in the region.  It has been in that area, because this bird reproduces intensively in suitable food conditions and produces large flocks.  This bird was identified for the first time in 1805 by George Shaw, director of zoology at the British Natural Museum, and in 1832, the naturalist of the Linnaeus Museum named Johann Wagler published a description of the love bird.  In 1840, a biologist named John Gould chose the current scientific name of this bird.[6]

He took this bird out of Australia and took it to England.  The wave of demand for this bird caused many ships to transport these birds to Europe, especially England, Holland and Belgium.  Ships carried lovebirds in batches of several tens of thousands.  During the journey of several weeks, only a few of them reached Europe safely.  Soon this bird was domesticated and transported to the whole world through England.  The love bird entered France for the first time in 1846, and eight years later, in 1854, the French naturalist "John Delon" published an article on the reproduction, feeding and maintenance of the love bird.  In 1859, the German writer "Karl Bohle" published a detailed article about the love bird in the German Ornithology magazine.  From the writings of "Boule" it appears that the love bird was common as a pet in all the big cities of Germany at that time and according to him, the love bird was propagated for the first time in 1855 in the city of Berlin, Germany by "Greffin Schurin".  Since 1860, lovebirds have existed in all German zoos and have been successfully propagated and bred.  Within 50 years, huge commercial units were created that reproduced thousands of pieces of this small bird for ornamental bird lovers.  At the end of the 19th century, the import of lovebirds reached unimaginable figures.  According to the writings of "Debrasai" only in 1894, the import of live birds to the ports of France amounted to one million two hundred thousand pieces, which does not include the direct import to England and Germany, and since they entered Iran, they have been of great interest to bird lovers.  they took

Features

The domestic lovebird is larger than its wild counterparts.  The body length of the wild type in nature is about 18 cm and their weight is 30 to 40 grams. [7] The life span of the domestic lovebird is between 5 and 10 years, although in some cases up to 17 years and more have been reported.  Their lifespan depends a lot on the way they are kept, the type of nutrition, physical exercises and the breed of the bird. [8] The English type has a shorter lifespan than the normal type and lives on average between 4 and 6 years.  Exact statistics on the lifespan of the wild type are not available in the wild.
The natural color of this animal is grass green, the back of the chest and belly is green, and the back of the head is blue.  Above the shoulder and on the wings, it is yellow with wavy black lines.  Two big dark blue feathers come out of the bird's tail.  The tail feathers are green and have a yellow stripe.  The face of the love bird is bright yellow until the throat.  The tip of this bird is curved like other parrots and its lower half is smaller than the upper half.[1]

Gender determination

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Determining the sex of young lovebirds is not easily possible, but this bird becomes bisexual after 4 to 6 months of age.  There is an area of ​​skin above the bird's pharynx and around the nostrils.  The color of this area is dark blue or purple in male lovebirds, but in females, it is light blue and relatively white, brown or brownish.  The color of this area in chicks and juveniles, in both sexes, is pink and bright.  Determining the gender of this bird or paying attention to behavioral characteristics can also be done.  The male bird is usually more playful, noisy and social, and the female is usually calmer and territorial. [9] It is also possible to determine the gender of this bird through blood tests, feathers and eggshell tests. [10]

reproduction

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Reproduction of this bird is possible from the age of 4 months.  In nature, love birds start laying eggs at the beginning of the rainy season.  This bird itself can live for months with little water, but the reason it has a strong desire to lay eggs in the rainy season is because it needs water to raise its chicks.  This bird does not build a nest, but uses holes on trees;  And they use the bark of the tree itself to fill the bottom of the nest.  Even if there are many trees in the area, all pairs of a group (groups are usually 10 to 50) will lay their eggs on the same tree.

The female bird lays 4 to 6 eggs and sleeps on them for 18 to 21 days.  After hatching, chicks are fed and cared for by their parents for a month.[10]

While the female bird is sleeping on the eggs, the male bird stays around the nest and acts as a guard and feeds the female from the opening of the nest.  The male lovebird sometimes helps the female and goes to the nest when the weather is cold and warms the nest.

During egg laying, in some cases, the female sheds her feathers, and this is probably to create a warm environment for the eggs and chicks.

After the chicks are born, the female feeds them with the soft food of her stomach, and after a few days, the older ones are fed from the partially digested food of the esophageal tube, and the smaller ones are still fed through the stomach.  In order to separate the feeding of children, first the older children are fed through the esophageal tube and then the smaller chicks are fed through the stomach.  After the chicks are born, the female ventures out of the nest less than before and leaves only when necessary to dispose of waste, feed or clean herself.

The female is always fed by the male, and this feeding includes ready digested seeds, because if the female is supposed to digest the food, it will take more time and the environmental conditions for providing food are also unknown, so time should be saved and the babies should be fed every  The sooner he raised.
For two to three weeks, the female lovebird takes care of the babies under her wings and feathers until they molt.  After about four weeks, the young lovebirds can leave the nest and fly.  They are able to live independently, but the father takes care of them for a week or two and feeds them occasionally.  During this period, the female lovebird also prepares the preparations for the second series of eggs if the conditions are suitable.  In the first three months, lovebirds still have their primary feathers and are not much different in appearance from adult lovebirds.  Only their color is duller than adult lovebirds.  The skin color of the nose is light and it is difficult to determine their gender.  The most important sign of young lovebirds is the color of their eyes, which is only black (without any white ring around them).  After 3 months, the love bird's feathers fall and from this time on, the love bird becomes completely mature like other love birds and is ready to reproduce.