Ornithology: Share and discuss scientific articles on parrots!

wrench13

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Re: Ornithology

String test, social complexity equals higher problem solving skills
Spectacled Parrots Win ( White Fronted Amazon? ) Not considered to make good pets. ( Correct me if you have one, just going by googling);
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23397182/?i=3&from=/18766389/related#fft

Interesting paper, but worth the $39 for the sites full text (which I found for free on another site) ?

BTW Spectacled Parrotlets are quite different than the (red) Spectacled Parrot

330px-Forpus_conspicillatus_-Colombia_-pair-8-3c.jpg


330px-Amazona_pretrei_-Brazil-8.jpg
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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Re: Ornithology

String test, social complexity equals higher problem solving skills
Spectacled Parrots Win ( White Fronted Amazon? ) Not considered to make good pets. ( Correct me if you have one, just going by googling);
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23397182/?i=3&from=/18766389/related#fft

Interesting paper, but worth the $39 for the sites full text (which I found for free on another site) ?

BTW Spectacled Parrotlets are quite different than the (red) Spectacled Parrot

330px-Forpus_conspicillatus_-Colombia_-pair-8-3c.jpg


330px-Amazona_pretrei_-Brazil-8.jpg
Great catch!!!!! Spectacled Parrolet wins!!! My eyes must have been tired. I never pay the fee. I miss.y access to pupmed
 
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Cardinal

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Laurasea

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Re: Ornithology

Supportive care for sick seed eaters in places without vet care

Birds that are on a seed only diet are often low in vitamin D and vitamin A. Both of those vitamins help support the immune system. And I'm going to give you some ideas to help with that.

I mentioned before that a bird with stool problem can be supporting ( not curing) with offer fresh live culture yogurt. This provide the bird with probiotics that go balance the flora of the gut. I offer mine that healthy this at least once a month. But for your sick bird I would offer every day for a week, then twice a week until well.

There is no way for me to know what is making your bird sick. But the good thing about life, is it wants to fight to stay alive. So doing good supportive care, if you can't get vet care , is important.

Vitamin D your bird can get by being outside, if it is warm were you are. And if you think your bird is healthy enough, and won't be stressed to much by spending a short time outside in a secure cage. You must stay right with your bird, light shade is best, don't stick your bird in full sunshine. 15 miniuts a day is good to start.

Also you can sprout seeds, most birds love them! It changes the seed and activities some good nutrition. You can sprout pumpkin seeds, lentils, quinoa, millit, sunflower, safflower oat groats and many others. We have a forum talking about this. Hopefully a good member can add a link or weigh in here...

To get some good vitamin A , you can make bird bread. You want to add some cooked and puree pumpkin, add some diced red, yellow or orange bell peppers, hot red chilli peppers, those all have good amount of vitamin A. You can also add some of the millit , and fresh corn to the bread to be more tempting. Use a muffin, cornbread, or bread recipe. We have bread recipe under the diet thread too. Many birds are willing to nibble this, even seed eaters.

I don't know what kind of seeds your bird eats? But we can try mixing in some healthy seeds to the mix. Raw pumpkin or squash seeds, or human grade dried with no added salt pumpkin seeds. Quinoa, pistachio, flax, there are others but I can t this m of them. Also if you cut up a fresh cucumber and fish out those seeds to offer, any seeds from fresh bell pepper, or hot pepper many birds love these, and cut up the fresh peppers and offer those to. Any fresh squash like zucchini, yellow squash have seeds that might temp your bird. Mine love to eat zucchini cubed to.

You can offer scrambled eggs cooked so they are a little dry and crumble, or a boiled egg you duce up. Eggs have some good nutrition.

Also birds that are sick do better if kept a little warmer. If you can keep your home warmer, keep your bird out of drafts, and not under an air vent. Also you can cover one corner of the cage with a sheet, and then place a lamp with a high watage bulb bear that corner. Lamp can add some heat. But make sure bright light isn't disturbing your bird.

Lastly you might find help a d support from farms or people product birds like chickens for human food. They often have access to antibiotics or vets that treat the farm birds. I don't know if your bird needs antibiotics, there is no way for me to know this...your bird could have a virus or fungal or yeast infection. In that case antibiotics would make your bird worse.......
But a more common type of infection in birds is a bacteria called Chlamydia psittaci. This bacteria, ( a VERY BIG If, ) can be treated by antibiotics called doxycycline. There is doxycycline that is available without a veterinarian prescription, and us made to add to the birds water. It is often used on poultry farms. Or you might be able to order it online. You hav to follow the directions that come with it very carefully andv keep the water very clean. It's best to add to filtered purified water, as it can react to impurities.

Lastly it's a good idea especially with a sick bird to do an extra big clean of the cage, food and water dishes. I use newspaper on the bottom of the cage, change every day. Also clean the tray. You can use a tablespoon of white vinegar in a bowl of cold water ( do not use hot water or the vinegar will off gass fumes that are bad for your bird) while down every cage bar a d every inch of the cage. Wipe off perches. You can go back a d use a damp water only cloth to remove the vinegar residue. You don't want to have a vinegar smell when you are done. Try to do everyday or every other day while your bird is sick so it won't reinfect its self. You should still clean good and water dishes and change the paper every day all the time.

And if you think your drinking water isn't good quality, then use filtered or bottles water for your bird. Sometimes even good water can have traces of lead, or copper from old pipes, or increase coliform ( bacteria) count in it.

Ok these are all the things I can think of to help your bird. I want you to know we all care about your bird. Sometimes a topic or thread doesn't get a lot of responses just because some people aren't sure they have any advice that might help, or haven't encountered that problems before. Many people read a thread but may not say anything.
Please keep posting, updating us and asking questions.

Pictures might offer insights...

All of the above helps provide supporting care, and helps your bird try to fight this off. Real avain vet care is the best. Good luck!!!!
 
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Laurasea

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Re: Ornithology

Cold and drafty? Want a safe way to offer warmth?

I use the Sweeter Heater. A radiant heat panal. It used to sold by Avitech for parrots, but must not have been a big enough market lol. Because now they sell it for chickens!! I have used for 18 years.

The smallest size is still probably to big. I hang it on a low corner on the back of the cage, with a perch on the indide in front of heater. . If your cage is very small be careful as this does put out a lot of heat and they need to be able to move away from it. Probably don't want to to cover the top of the cage either. Young can find thermostats that have a temp probe, that turn it on and off at set temps, I used to have one anyway....
http://go.skimresources.com/?id=162...tz=240&xuuid=04ad97ccd31c575a1530d68364c5f3d7
 

LaManuka

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Re: Ornithology

Speaking of ornithology, or perhaps more accurately taxonomy...

I notice that my little Crown Princess is called a “lorikeet”, whereas most other short tailed nectar feeding parrots of her kind are called “lories”. Rainbow lorikeets have a long tail so the term “lorikeet” matches up. Now I may be as thick as a whale sandwich (granted!) but my wee girlie seems to have possibly been mis-classified (if that is even a word!)

I’m sure this is not the only anomaly out there.

We are taking Lilly and Fang for their annual wellness checks tomorrow, I’ll try to remember to ask their doctor!
 
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Cardinal

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Re: Ornithology

Speaking of ornithology, or perhaps more accurately taxonomy...

I notice that my little Crown Princess is called a “lorikeet”, whereas most other short tailed nectar feeding parrots of her kind are called “lories”. Rainbow lorikeets have a long tail so the term “lorikeet” matches up. Now I may be as thick as a whale sandwich (granted!) but my wee girlie seems to have possibly been mis-classified (if that is even a word!)

I’m sure this is not the only anomaly out there.

We are taking Lilly and Fang for their annual wellness checks tomorrow, I’ll try to remember to ask their doctor!


Please share the scientific name. I don't know which bird you are referring to.
There is a lot of confusion based on geographical zone.
Ultimately all Parakeets(ie. slender bodied parrots with long tapering tails ) are parrots. Many Aussies call Red-rumped Parakeet as Red Rumped Parrot and technically it is not wrong but we don't know whether the bird has a long tail or not.

It is time to have standardised global English names.
 

Noahs_Birds

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Re: Ornithology

With our Aussie Rosella's, there is a fair bit of confusion
The Rosella Family is broken up into 2 species: Blue Cheeked and White/ Yellow cheeked
All of the Rosella's are descendants of each other, subspecies have mixed throughout the centuries and create their own new species, and are all over the continent
The Northern Rosella's are the most expensive in Aus, and the Easterns or Pale Heads are the cheapest
There are heaps of sub species like: Western Rosella's - Blue and Red Backed, Pale Headed Rosella's- Normal and Blue Cheeked, Eastern Rosella's - Normal and Golden Mantle, Crimson Rosella's - Normal and Bunya Mountain
There are heaps of different Subspecies here that have not mentioned, but I am not prepared to write them all down
Thanks
Noah Till
 

LaManuka

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Re: Ornithology

Speaking of ornithology, or perhaps more accurately taxonomy...

I notice that my little Crown Princess is called a “lorikeet”, whereas most other short tailed nectar feeding parrots of her kind are called “lories”. Rainbow lorikeets have a long tail so the term “lorikeet” matches up. Now I may be as thick as a whale sandwich (granted!) but my wee girlie seems to have possibly been mis-classified (if that is even a word!)

I’m sure this is not the only anomaly out there.

We are taking Lilly and Fang for their annual wellness checks tomorrow, I’ll try to remember to ask their doctor!


Please share the scientific name. I don't know which bird you are referring to.
There is a lot of confusion based on geographical zone.
Ultimately all Parakeets(ie. slender bodied parrots with long tapering tails ) are parrots. Many Aussies call Red-rumped Parakeet as Red Rumped Parrot and technically it is not wrong but we don't know whether the bird has a long tail or not.

It is time to have standardised global English names.

Oh now this is where things get interesting!

20-some-odd years ago we had a male purple-crowned lorikeet called Sludge, he is the one pictured as my avatar. Back in those days their scientific name was "porphyrocephala glossopsitta". Fast forward to 2019 and I now find the new and improved (?) scientific name is "parvipsitta porphyrocephala"! Previously it seems the purple crowns, the little lorikeets and the musk lorikeets were all lumped together in the genus of "glossopsitta", but since then the purple crowns and little lorikeets have been split off into their own genus of "parvipsitta". Exactly why this happened I have no idea, I can only imagine it’s something to do with size since the musk lorikeet is quite a bit bigger than the other two species.

I am still none the wiser as to the original "lory" v "lorikeet" question which seems to hinge on tail length as much as anything else, because wouldn't you know I forgot to ask Dr Jones while I was at the clinic today :rolleyes:

I might send him an email tonight to see if he has any info. :green1:
 
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Rozalka

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Re: Ornithology

Speaking of ornithology, or perhaps more accurately taxonomy...

I notice that my little Crown Princess is called a “lorikeet”, whereas most other short tailed nectar feeding parrots of her kind are called “lories”. Rainbow lorikeets have a long tail so the term “lorikeet” matches up. Now I may be as thick as a whale sandwich (granted!) but my wee girlie seems to have possibly been mis-classified (if that is even a word!)

I’m sure this is not the only anomaly out there.

We are taking Lilly and Fang for their annual wellness checks tomorrow, I’ll try to remember to ask their doctor!


Please share the scientific name. I don't know which bird you are referring to.
There is a lot of confusion based on geographical zone.
Ultimately all Parakeets(ie. slender bodied parrots with long tapering tails ) are parrots. Many Aussies call Red-rumped Parakeet as Red Rumped Parrot and technically it is not wrong but we don't know whether the bird has a long tail or not.

It is time to have standardised global English names.
I agree the English names are different in some different places. In my opinion each species has own "official" English name. I'm not 100% sure, I use IOC World Bird List as these "official". Generaly difference between words "parrot" and "parakeet" is like "lory" and "lorikeet" which had described LaManuka but there are some exceptions, for example red rumped parrot (in US like you mentioned - red rumped parakeet but not in IOC, so that's not wrong), lineated parakeet (which have a short tail, sorry if I wrote the name wrong), Vini lorikeets (short tale), Eos lories (long tail)... Generally here I use common names, this would be so silly not using words "conure" or "caique":D
 

Betrisher

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Re: Ornithology

This isn't strictly 'ornithology', nor even 'taxonomy', but I couldn't think where else to put it. I'm currently reading Pliny the Elder's 'De Naturalis Historia', an encyclopaedia of the Natural History of the Roman world c.77 BC. I'm reading about eagles at the moment (it's fun!), but thought I'd post Pliny's opinion about parrots here.

Clearly, he had no first-hand experience of parrots, but was repeating information which had travelled to him by one means or another. I believe the species he's discussing is the noble Alexandrine (_Psittacula eupatria_), but maybe it's the IRN (_P.krameri_). This snippet comes at the end of a paragraph discussing 'those birds which may speak with a human voice'.

"Better than all birds repeating human voices, indeed parrots also converse. India sent us this bird - it calls them ‘psittaci’. The entire body is green with quite a distinct red ring around the neck. The parrot greets generals and proclaims whatever words it has learned, being especially playful after wine. Its head is hard, the same as its bill,
which, when it learns to speak, is tapped with a rod of iron; it does not feel badly, having been struck. When the parrot alights, it stops itself with its bill, and leans on it rather lightly; thus it copes with weakness in its feet."

PS. Not all Roman writing makes complete sense to us today. I dunno where Pliny got his idea about the 'rod of iron' and hope that wasn't common practice. :22_yikes:

PPS. Poor old Pliny was a very stout gentleman who suffered from asthma. When he saw ash belching from the erupting Mount Vesuvius, he hurried to sail across the Bay of Naples to do what he could to help. He died of asthma on the shore. :(
 
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Laurasea

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Re: Ornithology

Interesting! You can add to Good Reads thread!!
 

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