Educational Game!

[greencinacheeks]

Green-cheeked Conures were first recorded by Massena and Souncé in 1854.

[Ashling]

"Like a young child with a messy ice-cream cone, lorikeets get the nectar and pollen all over their heads!"
ahaha definately! Especially if she gets guava juice, she ends up with it ALL OVER HER HEAD!

[Ashling]

Though Budgerigars are often called Parakeets, especially in American English (hehe you guys), this term refers to any of a number of small Parrots with long flat tails. In Aus, we call them budgies!
The Budgerigar has been bred in captivity since the 1850s, and are one of the only truelly domesticated parrots. They are the most common pet parrot in the world!
Although young budgies can be difficult to be sexed, young females can often be identified by a subtle chalky whiteness that starts around the cere nostril holes.

[greencinacheeks]

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Genus: Pyrrhura

[greencinacheeks]

GCC
The average clutch is 4–6 eggs. Average incubation is 24 days, varying from 22 to 25 days.

[Ashling]

Huntress, lorikeets can even consume 40 blossoms per minute! I should get a vid of Ash going at it!
There are a few methods of eating the pollen, the least destructive is for a lorikeet to place the open bill over a blossom and project the tongue into the receptacles to get at the nectar then comb their bill across the stamens (rough plate in mouth) to collect pollen. They do this to your nose too!

Unlike many native birds, the Rainbow Lorikeet competes successfully against Indian Mynas and Starlings for nesting hollows
They will chase much larger birds from what it considers to be 'its' food.

Oh and I learnt something! The wing loadings and aspect ratios of their wings mean that they have difficulty landing and taking off from the ground but that they have an advantage for long-range flight at high speed. Wow... that's why she's so hesitant to take off and land. She flies around alot less than the cockatiels.

[Icednova625]

Goffin's Cockatoo-Cacatua goffiniana, also known as Tanimbar Cockatoo, is a species of cockatoo endemic to forests of the Banda Sea islands in Indonesia. Due to ongoing habitat loss on Tanimbar, limited range and illegal hunting, the Goffin's Cockatoo is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The species is listed on Appendix I of CITES. In the 1970s, Japanese loggers ravaged the islands. Many of the dazed, disoriented, birds were captured for the pet trade. As such, there are now more Goffin Cockatoos in captivity than in the wild.

[kali]

Originally Posted by Icednova625

As such, there are now more Goffin Cockatoos in captivity than in the wild.

WOW thats scary. i didn't know they were native to indonesia, no wonder i never see them flying around :)

[HareTrinity]

Originally Posted by kali

Baby Sun Conures have a very different appearance than adults, and actually look like a different species of Conure, one called a Jenday Conure. Many breeders get these two birds confused, and so people are surprised when their bird molts and turns a beautiful orange and yellow.

Aww, that's awesome! Must be especially cool for family pets, as if their pet went Super Saiyan overnight!

Uh... General bird fact (also quite odd, but it's all I can think of right now):

In birds only 1 gonad is meant to develop (into an ovary or testicle), and should this one cease working then the other one will develop into a testicle, EVEN if the bird was originally female.

This strange attribute helps explain old myths concerning cockerels laying eggs and the like, as gender changes and hermaphrodites are far more common in birds than you'd expect! Not sure if this applies to all birds or just some though.

[Muchi]

Rose-breasted cockatoo - aka, the galah.



Galahs are found all throughout Australia. They benefitted greatly from settlement here, and the abundance of stock watering points caused the galahs' numbers to flourish. Flocks of these playful birds are a common sight in most cities in Australia, most notably Perth (where I live!) and Melbourne.


The area highlighted by red shows the range of galahs, where they are all-year residents.

Even if Luen is my only fid, he has plenty of cousins to chat to :}

BONUS FACT: Galahs vary in colour depending where they come from. Eastern variant galahs are a much brighter raspberry hue, whereas the ones here in the west are a pale dusty rose colour.



Shown above is a brilliant 'raspberry' coloured eastern variant. Whereas below is the paler western cousin.