The Pyrrhura conure’s need for a fresh diet
by Rosemary Low
Pyrrhura conures are a delight! They are so inquisitive, active and fearless. They can be recommended for breeders who do not want to keep birds in enclosed buildings, but enjoy seeing them in outdoor flights. They are noisy only when alarmed, perhaps by the presence of a cat or hawk. As companion birds, they are suitable only where they can fly daily in a room - because they love to fly and need to use up some of that boundless energy they possess.
These birds may be small, with an average length of 24cm (9.5in), but don’t underestimate them - they are highly intelligent. They need a lot of stimulation to keep them contented, in the form of new items to gnaw, explore and play with. It is a lot of work to provide this. My advice is to keep a few birds, well, rather than lots of pairs which receive a boring, standardised diet, without lots of fresh and wild foods.
Buy Now!
Update on the Ara Project, Costa Rica
by Fernanda Hong, Executive Director, ARA Project
The ARA Project is progressing quickly now we have successfully relocated from Alajuela to Islita - more than five hours’ drive away. The relocated 65 Scarlet Macaws and 50 Great Greens/Buffon’s Macaws are doing great in their new accommodation and with the local foods.
Our breeding centre had been at Alajuela, Costa Rica for over 30 years and it was a monumental task to move, and took over a year of preparation and construction. New environmental and construction permits had to be processed before building could start and the logistics of moving a breeding centre with so many birds had to be resolved.
Buy Now!
Personality Profile - Caiques
by Sally Blanchard
My Black-headed Caique, Spikey Le Bec lived with me for close to 25 years. About 20 years into our friendship, he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and five years later he died of a heart attack leaving a huge hole in my heart. I have loved all of the parrot-family birds who have been in my life over the last 40 years but he was truly the quintessential companion. Spike was incredibly well socialised as far as new adventures and meeting new people went.
Spike used to travel with me to most of my seminars and was quite a show-off. The audience loved his tricks and his outgoing personality. One of several tricks was when I would wind him up by holding him around his back and when I let him go, he would hop around the table. When he first started touring the country with me in the late 1980s, most people had never seen a caique and several breeders at the time told me that Spike was single-handedly responsible for their growing popularity.
Buy Now!
Cheeky kea to join Paradise Park’s free flying show
by Alison Hales
The macaws, caiques, cockatoos and conures which already display their skills at Paradise Park’s daily flying show in Cornwall are to be joined by one of our captive-bred keas in a few weeks. The unique and famously intelligent Kea Parrot (Nestor notabilis), native to New Zealand, where they are a protected species and listed as “vulnerable” in the wild, have bred many times at the Park.
The kea’s notorious urge to explore, and their well-known destructive nature in the wild, make them pests for residents of South Island, but an attraction for tourists. Visitors should beware though these “clowns of the mountains” love backpacks, packed lunches, boots and any rubber parts on cars they can get their beaks on!
Buy Now!
