Addendum: answered within 5 minutes by Blitherypoop: it's a black-masked lovebird (Agapornis personata).
Second addendum: photo credit Chris Gin (taken at the Auckland Zoo).
19 February 2011
Another rainbow-colored bird
Addendum: answered within 5 minutes by Blitherypoop: it's a black-masked lovebird (Agapornis personata).
Second addendum: photo credit Chris Gin (taken at the Auckland Zoo).
black-masked lovebird
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if such birds know what they look like - do they look at a sparrow and think I'm so much better than that.
ReplyDeletecheck out the sun conure, such a beautiful rainbow coloured bird.
ReplyDeletehttp://animal-world.com/encyclo/birds/conures/images/SunConure3TBCn_AcB187.jpg
A little spooky though. We had one called Muk Muk who developed the absolutely fascinating habit of running his beak up and down my forearm whilst sitting in my lap, when he was thinking i wasn't paying attention... I'm guessing he was doing it to attempt to numb the skin, because at the very end of his rubbing, he would bite me at the end of a stroke and then cock his head to observe my reaction... Not seeing any, he would repeat the process until i was bleeding slightly, then casually lapped up the blood as it slowly seeped.
Sneaky little fellow. I was always too intrigued to stop him.
Well...they probably do 'know what they look like' to an extent. Brightly colored birds generally have simple calls. The colors are a vital way of identifying others of the same species. In species with a bright male and drab female it's the plumage that attracts her. We can assume she thinks he looks better than a drab male would, just like a female of a plainer bird would prefer a male with a more complex song to one with a simpler squawk or chirp.
ReplyDeleteI know this is rather silly, but birds are pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteJim, are you serious? I have been bitten by birds from a Hyacinth macaw and various Amazons, down to lovebirds and budgies, and I have been stroked the way you described (on my legs and feet), but never the whole package at once. That's really adding insult to injury.
ReplyDeleteMost lorikeets are very colorful. Conures can be beautiful, but they are amazingly loud.
CloudSamson, that's not silly at all. Birds are awesome, and the more you learn about them, the more awesome they seem. But I guess that could be said about almost anything.
yes, absolutely serious, no word of a lie and no exaggeration! It happened several times, before he unfortunately flew away out an open door =(
ReplyDeleteHe was very intelligent, and fiercely loyal, not to mention absolutely beautiful. I haven't had a bird for many years, but if i do buy another it will certainly be a sun conure.
Oh, and he wasn't particularly loud, either. The noise he made most often was a tiny, repeated "chip chip chip". By tiny i don't mean soft, it was loud enough, but each "chip" was so short that it couldn't really be irritating.
ReplyDeleteThe loudest bird i've come across was a female yellow indian ringneck. Piercing.
mind you i've never had a pet cockatoo =D
The original photographer refers to it as a masked lovebird.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_gin/2284588734/
Thank you, anon. I've added the photo credit to the post.
ReplyDelete