That Bird Blog – Bird Care and History for Pet Birds

Almost all pet birds known collectively as “soft bills” (those which are not parrots) consume live insects as part of their natural diets. Insects are especially important during the breeding season – in fact, the sudden availability of insects, either in captivity or the wild, is an important trigger in bringing many species into breeding condition. Insects also form the bulk of the diet of most nestling soft bills. I have long fed insects to a variety of birds commonly found in the pet trade, including canaries, many finches and waxbills, mynas, Peking robins, red-crested cardinals, red bishops and various weavers.

It is standard practice at many zoos to use light traps to collect wild insects for the bird collection. The explosion of interest in keeping reptile pets has resulted in the marketing of a number of products that are of great value to bird keepers as well. I have used Zoo Med’s Bug Napper to trap moths, gnats, beetles and other tasty treats for my birds (be sure you can identify dangerous insects, and those, such as fireflies, which may be toxic). I do not know of any cases of secondary pesticide poisoning, even after decades of trapping at the Bronx Zoo, but urge caution in areas being sprayed to control West Nile Virus.

A number of reptile-oriented companies produce whole, (pre-killed) canned insects and invertebrates, offering bird keepers a very convenient method of adding valuable variety and nutrients to their pets’ diets. I strongly recommend experimentation with the following:

Exo Terra Mealworms, Grasshoppers, Silkworms, Snails

Zoo Med Can O’ Grasshoppers, Caterpillars, Snails

Repto Treat Delica Bloodworms

Of course, live mealworms and crickets, the old stand-bys, are very useful. I’ll address the best ways of keeping and using them in the future. You should also investigate other commercially-bred insects, also generally used for reptiles, such as silkworms, tobacco hornworms, roaches, waxworms, locusts and house flies.

An article examining the nutritional value of commonly used feeder insects is posted at:

http://www.nagonline.net/Technical%20Papers/NAGFS00397Insects-JONIFEB24,2002MODIFIED.pdf

Interesting….but I think bird keepers have known this to be true for quite some time. Most of us learned early on that parrots focus on our eyes when watching us, and that the best way to sneak up on a bird that is reluctant to return to its cage is to observe it by quick, side-wise glances. This is a good point to keep in mind when watching newly acquired finches and other shy pets.

In fact, a key to being able to get a good look at the birds I worked with in large zoo exhibits was to avoid a direct stare. Birds feeding calmly not far from me would immediately fly off if I shifted my glance, even if the rest of my body remained immobile. I had first learned this lesson in the wonderful book Hand Taming Wild Birds at the Feeder, by Alfred G. Martin (Bond Wheelwright Co., 1963), and was subsequently able to induce a variety of birds to feed from my hand.

I have a bit of evidence that birds “know” the meaning of other human facial features as well. I once helped to raise a barn owl, Tyto alba, that had been found on a Bronx street (yes, a surprising number of birds do live there!). The bird imprinted on people (came to view us as its “parents”), which suited it well for us in educational programs. As hand-raised birds will do, this male owl sought a human “mate” when it matured. In typical barn owl fashion, it would bring any nearby keeper a mouse – perching on our shoulders and trying to stuff its lovely nuptial gift into our mouths! Never once did the owl try an ear or eye – it seemed to be able to make, in its brain, the quite large transition from bird beak to human mouth.

Few birds actually live up to the reputations we assign them – owls, for example, have been shown to be less “wise” than most other species when it comes to learning from their mistakes. The ringdove, however, does indeed seem to possess the calm, peaceful demeanor that we have come to associate with doves (although those I kept as a boy begun their admittedly “soft” cooing at 4 AM, rendering my otherwise patient mother far from “calm”!). Kept in a mixed species aviary, even breeding pairs of ringdoves are quite tolerant of smaller birds.

When I began work at the Bronx Zoo, a primary focus of the Ornithology Department was the conservation of the pink pigeon, Nesoenas mayeri. Limited in distribution to the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, this spectacularly colored bird is highly endangered. It is here that the ringdove’s “accepting nature” came into play. Pigeons and doves feed their young with “crop milk”, a food partially formed from the lining of the mother bird’s crop. Commercial substitutes exist, but none approach the real thing.

In order to obtain as many eggs as possible from the small captive population, we pulled eggs from incubating female pink pigeons and placed them beneath brooding ringdoves (egg removal, within a specific time period, stimulates the female to lay another clutch). The female ringdoves were wonderful foster parents. They produced amazing quantities of crop milk to feed their unusual nestlings, which grew to almost twice the size of their foster moms before fledging. I shall not soon forget the sight of a female ringdove literally perched on the back of a huge nestling pink pigeon while feeding it! Birds raised by foster parents of other species often have problems in breeding with their own species when they mature – fortunately, the fostered pigeons went on to reproduce normally.

The ringdove makes a fine pet and is available in a wide variety of colors, including apricot, white and pied. It has an unusual captive history, and may actually be a mere variant of the wild African collared dove, S.roseogrisea, which was domesticated 2-3,000 years ago. Its actual status is unclear, however, as captives have likely hybridized with related species, such as the Eurasian collared dove and the red-eyed dove. Feral populations of ringdoves live in the USA (Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco), Italy, Taiwan and England, usually to the delight of local residents.

An interesting perspective on the origins of the ringdove is provided at: http://www.internationaldovesociety.com/Articles/ringneck%20history.htm

An oft-repeated story suggests that parrots, most likely one of the Amazons, may have figured prominently in the history of the New World as well. Legend has it that, after over 2 months of sailing through featureless seas, the crew of Columbus’ ship Pinta was ready to mutiny. The ship’s captain, Mr. Pinzon, advised Columbus to continue westward, as he had observed “forest birds” flying in that direction. Upon landing on San Salvador, Columbus observed the green birds seen by Mr. Pinzon in the huts of the people living there.

Some time later, tame parrots roosting near villages on several Caribbean islands were also said to have warned the residents of the approach of the Spanish conquistadors. The journals of generals Hojida and Nicuso show that in at least one case (Yuibaco, 1509) the villagers, relying upon their pets’ warning calls, were able to escape into the forest.

An account of Columbus’ observations of parrots in the West Indies, drawn from his journals, is posted at:
http://wildbirdsbroadcasting.blogspot.com/2007/11/columbus-voyages-discover-birds.html