The Abyssinian Lovebird - By Cyril Laubscher, Living With Filippa - The Blue-Fronted Amazon

Issue 120 - January 2008

The Complete Psittacine – A precautionary tale about faulty home heating. The cold seasons are upon us and it is a particularly proper time to take stock of our household heating needs, says EB Cravens. Living with Filippa - the Blue-fronted Amazon – From a noisy bird, who liked only one person, to a nice quiet member of the family – is this possible, ask Birgitta Magnusson and Peter Tossberg. Susan Friedman and the Magic Ripple Effect Part 1 – another in Dot Schwarz’s occasional series on people who make a difference – Improved methods in bird and animal care and training, based on the findings of behavioural science, are spreading cautiously but surely into the culture of parrot care. They are unstoppable now. A scientist, who in the last ten years has done as much as any individual or institution to change the way we perceive and treat our pet parrots, is Dr Susan Friedman. Parrots in Peril by Pam Fryer – My message may be seen as controversial or it may hit a nerve in the conscious mind, but I am writing as a voice for those who have no voice for written expression and who also have no control over their future on this planet. Insight from, and new beginnings for, the Meyer’s Parrot Project in the Okavango Delta by Steve Boyes – In January 2004, the Meyer’s Parrot Project was initiated by the Research Centre for African Parrot Conservation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to facilitate the learning and discovery in the wild about this previously unstudied, but topical and important, transcontinental African parrot species. Three years later in, January 2007, we set up our first independent research camp, thus allowing us to accommodate volunteers and dedicate every waking moment to parrot research. These are our primary observations from the 2007 Meyer’s Parrot primary breeding season. Parrots in Focus – The Abyssinian Lovebird…is an endemic Ethiopian species by Cyril Laubscher. Clay Lick Parrots – Special mineral clay deposits, called ‘geophagia’, in South America are vital to the survival of many species of psittacids, Bob Alison tells us. The Parrot University Presents: Does it talk? – the fascinating world behind the beak by Steve Hartman – “Does it talk?” is the first question people usually ask when they meet a parrot, and many bird owners admit that the potential to communicate with a pet in ‘our language’ is a primary reason that they became interested in birds in the first place. You might have heard that not all birds speak, or that certain species of parrot are better ‘talkers’ than others. Both of these are true but the world of parrot speech and language us actually much more complex than you might imagine. In this article we will learn how parrots speak to each other and how they are often capable of learning to communicate with human language. Microchipping – Chris Hall discusses the advantages and pitfalls. The Red African Grey – Eelco Meyjes introduced a world first.

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