Dear Parrots magazine,
My Red-bellies, quite different!
I have never bred these birds but did have some youngsters years ago, but my experience with this poicephalus species was quite different from those described by Linda Au in the October 2012’s issue of Parrots.
I found Red-bellies to be very much like Meyer’s in personality, a little timid and not very extrovert at all! Personally, I would never let them mix with conures or any other species, other than poicephalus.
I have also never heard of anyone finding it difficult to stop them breeding! In fact, here in the UK, it’s generally known as being the opposite, which is why the price for a pair of these birds is so high!
The youngsters I had looked almost like adult females to begin with, and as they matured the red appeared on the young males, and although other people have said the same, the colouring of chicks does seem to vary.
Muriel Barnes by email