Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  The term “conure” includes a number of small to medium-sized parrots (i.e. genera Aratinga, Pyrrhura, Cyanoliseus and Nandayus) found from Mexico to southern South America.  While not necessarily closely related, aviculturists lump them together for convenience sake.  North America’s Carolina parakeet, closely related to Aratinga, would likely have been considered a [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Parrots use a wide range of postures when communicating with one another and with their owners.  Understanding the meaning of your parrot’s body language will simplify interactions with your pet, and is also important in assessing its health.  Today we’ll look at puffed feathers – a behavior which can have several [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Bird breeding is rarely as simple as putting a male and female together and hoping for the best.  Even Budgerigars and others that been captive bred for thousands of generations remain influenced by ancestral behaviors.  Understanding this will greatly improve our success at keeping and breeding birds in captivity.
Social Behavior in [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Among the130+ species of the family Estrildidae we find popular cage birds and highly endangered species.  Some, such as the gorgeously colored Gouldian Finch, are both – at once rare in the wild yet abundant in the pet trade.
Waxbills and their relatives are often the first finches aviculturists obtain after having [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  I’m often questioned on the pros and cons of keeping Budgerigars (parakeets) and other parrots singly as opposed to in pairs or groups.  Most folks are aware that parrots housed alone tend to form strong bonds to their owners, more so than birds that have others of their own kind to [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Parrots that pair up well, mate, hatch eggs and feed their chicks are every bird-breeders dream.  However, some such birds present us with a frustrating situation – just as the chicks begin to grow feathers, one or both of the otherwise doting parents begin to pluck at their chicks’ feathers.  Bleeding [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Recently, a bird owner confided to me that, although pets were prohibited in her tiny Manhattan apartment, she was able to keep an English budgerigar because it was very quiet and also a good deal less active than the American budgies which she had kept.  Thinking back, I realized that English [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Today we’ll take a look at some of the finer points (as opposed to the basics) involved in feeding canaries, doves, budgerigars, toucans and related birds. Please see Part I and Part II of this article for information on African Gray and Amazon Parrots, Mynas and Macaws.
Finches
The perception of finches as [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Wild birds spend the vast majority of most days occupied with gathering food.  In captivity, where all their nutritional needs are usually met in a matter of minutes, boredom and a general decline in vitality are constant concerns.  While well-recognized in parrots, these same considerations apply to canaries and other finches, [...]

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  One day, while working in Bronx Zoo’s eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) exhibit, a visitor asked me what sort of food additives I used to keep the bird’s colors so brilliant and silky.  Another, upon viewing a pair of eclectus preening, inquired how I had managed to get the two different species [...]