Peach heads
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Peach heads ( Agapornis fischeri ) |
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| Reichenow , 1887 |
The Pfirsichköpfchen ( Agapornis fischeri ), also Fischer inseparable, is a kind of the genus of the inseparable , and is called in English Fishers Lovebird. Its name goes back to the German Africa explorer Gustav Fischer . Together with the other species of this genus, as well as the gray parrot , the long wing parrots , the Rose-ringed Parakeet and Madagascar endemic Vasa Parrots this type is a typical parrot species of Afrotropical .
Appearance
Peach heads reach a body length of up to 14 centimeters. Males weigh 49 grams. The females get a little heavier with an average of 53 grams. Externally, the species has no clear characteristics that would allow sex to be determined. The basic color of the body plumage is green. The forehead, cheeks and throat, on the other hand, are colored orange-red. The front chest and the beginning of the neck, however, are yellow. The outer tail feathers have blue tips. The rump and the upper tail-coverts are also colored blue. The beak is bright red. The eyes are surrounded by a white eye ring. The flight is very quick. It is accompanied by loud calls that the parrots utter in rapid succession.
Distribution area and habitat
Peach heads inhabit a relatively small region in Tanzania . They live in the south and southeast of Lake Victoria and on the islands in Lake Victoria. The black-headed area begins 50 kilometers further north . Natural growing seasons prevent the two species from hybridizing. Peach heads were also naturalized in the Dar es Salaam and Tanga regions, as well as near Mombasa , Nairobi , Naivasha and Isiola .
The habitat of the peach heads are the inland plateaus of this region. These savannah areas at an altitude between 1100 and 1700 meters above sea level are characterized by long dry periods. The beginning of breeding of the peach heads depends on the rainfall.
Way of life
Peach heads eat seeds, fruits, buds, berries, fresh shoots and green plants. Most of the food is taken in on the ground. During the ripening period of corn and grain fields, they often cover a large part of their nutritional needs on arable land.
Peach heads are one of the parrot species in which courtship behavior is recognizable. The male and the female paddle around excitedly on the ground. The male flies up several times, flies around the female in a semicircle and lands near the female. Clicking courtship sounds can be heard from the male. Hasty head scratching is also a courtship act.
The female signals that she is ready to mate by spreading her wings and raising her slightly upwards. The head is put back. The nest is goblet-shaped and consists of twigs, bark and other plant parts that the female enters with her beak. This distinguishes this species, for example, from the rose-headed parrots and mountain parrots , which clamp the nesting material they bring in in the plumage.
The clutch usually consists of four to six eggs. The eggs are only incubated by the female. The breeding season is between 21 and 23 days. The young birds are initially flesh-colored and covered with orange-colored dunes. You first open your eyes after 10 to 12 days. They stay in the nest for about 38 days. For another 14 days they are dependent on feeding by the parent birds.
Peach heads and human
The first imports to Europe took place in 1926. The first breeding took place in Australia in 1930. Since then, peach heads have often been kept as ornamental birds. Peach heads were exported in very large numbers from their area of origin. The average exported animals between 1982 and 1990 was 56,481 animals annually. The population of peach heads in their area of distribution is only estimated at a population between 300,000 and a little over a million. Between 1982 and 1992, a total of between 644,500 and 711,000 peach heads were imported into countries with a CITES membership. This figure does not include illegal exports or exports to countries that do not have CITES control.
It can therefore be assumed that these mass exports had a lasting negative impact on the inventory figures. These exports took place although the species is reasonably easy to breed in human care. The parrot expert Werner Lantermann suspects the reason for these high export figures that the European breeders concentrated on the cultivation of color mutations, for which attractive prices could be obtained at times. Since these color mutations were weak and stunted, there was also a high demand for wild-colored peach heads. Since 1992 the trade in wild-caught peach heads has been banned. Lantermann points out that since the ban on imports, more attention has been paid to species conservation through breeding.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds . Ed .: Christopher Helm. London 2003, ISBN 978-0-7136-6647-2 , pp. 127-128 (English).
- ↑ Low, p. 173 and p. 175
- ↑ Lantermann, p. 458
- ↑ Lantermann, p. 461
- ^ Low, p. 175
- ^ Lantermann, p. 460
- ↑ Lantermann, p. 461 f
- ↑ Lantermann, p. 462
literature
- Rosemary Low: Das Parrotienbuch , Ulmer Verlag , Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8001-7191-0
- Werner Lantermann : Parrot Studies , Parey Buchverlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8263-3174-5
- Dirk Van den Abeele: Agapornids. Volume 1: species, husbandry, nutrition, breeding. Arndt-Verlag , Bretten 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813383-1-7 .
- Dirk Van den Abeele: Agapornids. Volume 2: Mutations, color variations, exhibitions. Arndt-Verlag, Bretten 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813383-3-1 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Agapornis fischeri in the Internet Bird Collection
- Agapornis fischeri inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . 2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
- https://www.zootierliste.de/?klasse=2&ordnung=218&familie=22909&art=2130511