Hybrid masked lovebird?

[Illistari]

Hi everyone 🙂

I'm fairly new to keeping lovebirds and have a cobalt masked and a green masked, sexes unknown. I have a question about my green masked, he/she is young but in adult feather and looks like a masked in every way except the collar is very orange rather than yellow. Is this a sign of hybridization between masked and fischers? The breeder had a few masked, fischers and peach faced, he has been a breeder many years and imports a lot of stock too, I didn't get much more information than that but there were definitely fischers in the aviaries.

Thank you kindly (I think a picture attached, hopefully!)

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome to the forum! Cute pic! Sorry I can't help with this one.

 

[Illistari]

Thank you for the welcome 😊

 

[Cardinal]

Hi everyone 🙂

I'm fairly new to keeping lovebirds and have a cobalt masked and a green masked, sexes unknown. I have a question about my green masked, he/she is young but in adult feather and looks like a masked in every way except the collar is very orange rather than yellow. Is this a sign of hybridization between masked and fischers? The breeder had a few masked, fischers and peach faced, he has been a breeder many years and imports a lot of stock too, I didn't get much more information than that but there were definitely fischers in the aviaries.

Thank you kindly (I think a picture attached, hopefully!)

The photographs you have shared shows a lot of orange suffusion so probably a hybrid. But can't judge from a single photographs.

It is a tragedy that the Wild type masked lovebird, one of the most beautiful of all wild parrots has been tampered with and hybridised. Please compare your birds with the ones in this video - one of the best aviary sets ups of this species that I have seen

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0z1fW86kWE&t=57s"]Agapornis personata 19 - YouTube[/ame]

The Wild type has a very thin streak of orange just between the black mask and the yellow breast. But it is very very small. So just the presence of orange color should not worry you. But if it is very prominent, then it is probably a hybrid.

 

[Illistari]

Hi everyone 🙂

I'm fairly new to keeping lovebirds and have a cobalt masked and a green masked, sexes unknown. I have a question about my green masked, he/she is young but in adult feather and looks like a masked in every way except the collar is very orange rather than yellow. Is this a sign of hybridization between masked and fischers? The breeder had a few masked, fischers and peach faced, he has been a breeder many years and imports a lot of stock too, I didn't get much more information than that but there were definitely fischers in the aviaries.

Thank you kindly (I think a picture attached, hopefully!)

The photographs you have shared shows a lot of orange suffusion so probably a hybrid. But can't judge from a single photographs.

It is a tragedy that the Wild type masked lovebird, one of the most beautiful of all wild parrots has been tampered with and hybridised. Please compare your birds with the ones in this video - one of the best aviary sets ups of this species that I have seen

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0z1fW86kWE&t=57s"]Agapornis personata 19 - YouTube[/ame]

The Wild type has a very thin streamak of orange just between the black mask and the yellow breast. But it is very very small. So just the presence of orange color should not worry you. But if it is very prominent, then it is probably a hybrid.

Thank you so much for replying, the birds in the video are gorgeous, masked are such striking birds 😍 Mine definitely has a lot more orange, the entire collar pretty much. It's difficult to get a close up with my cruddy phone camera and they don't allow me too close, still nervy, but it's very orange. It is a shame they've been hybridised so much, hard to get a masked here in my particular part of the country, and pure masked? I'm not sure those are common in the UK either, I hear most are hybridised some where along the line.

I had told the breeder I did not intend to breed, just wanted a buddy for mine, so that may be why he choose the more orangey one from his stock, he had few masked lovies available and I let him choose which bird. Then it was hoping they bonded and didn't disagree with each other, otherwise we may of had to rethink the pairing 🤔 they hit it off straight away and inseparable since, such a relief! It's not as simple with lovies as it is budgies when pairing 😵 I don't know their genders either and the green is 6 months and still small, the blue Keru is a year or just over, so full grown, I can't tell, might dna test but as long as they get on well may be no need to, other than to pick an appropriate name for the green 😅

Even if a hybrid he/she is a stunning bird in his own right, I think it's beautiful, if a shame genetically speaking, but no lovie babies here so we good!

 

[Cardinal]

Yes ! Keep your pets and love them but do not breed them
Attaching an article about a breeder named Darren Monstein from Australia who had chosen to keep only the Wild type of the Yellow collared lovebird (Masked) so as to preserve it.

 

[Illistari]

Yes ! Keep your pets and love them but do not breed them
Attaching an article about a breeder named Darren Monstein from Australia who had chosen to keep only the Wild type of the Yellow collared lovebird (Masked) so as to preserve it.

I'm glad people are doing this, with limited genes in captivity it's a good idea to preserve the species best we can. Yes no babies for mine, if they start they're getting plastic eggs! My tiels tried it, no eggs for well over a year now though so I did something right there, fingers crossed, touch wood!

Thank you 😁