Pacific ( Celestial) Parrotlet

[Wolf]

I was going to put this in Parrot Tales, as an update on my bird, but since it also relates to this species I thought that I might put it here instead.
Some time back I made a long trek to New Jersey to bring home a little Celestial Parrotlet with the understanding that I would in due course provide a mate for it. This birds name was Paquita and I was told that it was a girl, and she was a plucker.
The first thing was to get the bird settled in, after quarantine, and on a good diet during which I was looking her over and noticed that her marking were much more consistent with the markings of a male. I wasn't fully convinced that she was a he, however, because the blue rump was plucked. Every now and again she would have a couple of blue feathers on her rump which almost had me convinced that she was a he. The think was that the color was right, but the shade seemed to be a bit too light. Now I have a parrotlet that I mostly call Keeta because if it is a female I want to keep the original name of the bird, but if it is a male I want to call him Skeeter.
On the 27th of April I took this bird for a 4 hour round trip to the vet and had a DNA test as well as a comprehensive blood panel and bile acids test done. I got the lab work back, but no DNA results, so I called the vet and learn that the lab went out of business. On the 12th of May I repeat the long drive to the vet to re do the DNA test. This morning the vet calls to let me know the results of the test. The bird is a girl. Yay !! Now I know.
Now for the reason that I put this here in the Species section. About a week ago, I was reading about my Parrotlet, and ran across this little gem:

Pacific Parrotlets
The most widely kept pet parrotlet is the Pacific or Celestial (Forpus coelestis). Approximately five and one-half inches in length and averaging 28 grams, these bright olive green birds have pink beaks and legs. They are found in the wild on the Pacific Ocean side of the Andes, western Equador and northwestern Peru. Males have deep cobalt wings, backs, rumps and a streak behind the eye. Females are various shades of olive and emerald green with no blue and an emerald green eye streak. Both males and females have pink beaks and legs.

There is one subspecies (Forpus coelestis lucida) where the females have blue rumps and eye streaks and, sometimes, wings - although it is not as dark blue as the males. Males of this subspecies have silver gray backs and wings as well as an eye streak that completely encircles the back of the head. This subspecies is found in Columbia. Both males and females have bright, lime-green faces with pink beaks and legs

This matches my parrotlet and I thought that I should share this with other Celestial Parrotlet owners.

[Pajarita]

Yaaaaayyy, now we can go and see if we can get her a husband! As to the blue feathers growing where most descriptions say it should not be if it's a female, I also had my doubts this meant that Paquita was actually Paquito but my reason was that I have observed that when pluckers allow their feathers to grow back, they would often come out in a different color. Not just any color, mind you, but a color that is present in the species but in a different part of the body - like my CAG has some of her leg feathers coming out in red instead of grey and my male Senegal has some of his back feathers coming out in yellow instead of green so I figured that this could very well be the reason for her blue feathers where there should have been only green.

[Wolf]

I looked at a lot of pictures and read various descriptions from many different sources but the descriptions didn't match up and neither did the pictures. Even taking into account that she plucked, she still had blue in places that she wasn't supposed to have it and she wasn't plucking in these places. It just didn't match up. Then I found the description for this sub species although I didn't see any pictures, the description appears to be a near perfect match for what I am seeing with her.
Anyway, I now know for sure that she is a female and can get on with finding her a mate as was promised.
Just as something that I found to be interesting, I have been holding Paquita next to the budgies cage and she just ignores them. When she gets closer than 2 feet from any of the other birds in this manner she tries to attack them, or at the very least she threatens to attack them.
I often have her on one of my hands when Kiki, my Senegal flies over and lands on my shoulder and they are both good with the other one being on me as long as they are on opposite sides of my body. I find this very interesting and somewhat surprising given that they are both very aggressive when any other bird come near while they are on me.

[Pajarita]

Well, just in case, don't let your guard down. Sennies are funny birds and very opinionated on which person or bird represents competition and which one doesn't. Zoey used to attack my husband but has never, ever bothered anybody else (children, grandchildren, etc). She has no problem with Sweetpea (male Senegal) been on me unless she is also on me, then she quickly walks/climbs over to scare him off. She also has not issue with the caged little ones like finches, canaries, cardinals, handicapped budgies, etc but would fly out to 'take on' Isis (ARB) and Codee (GCC) and even poor Pablo (Peachfront). Now, I understand Isis and Codee because they both ride my shoulder, give me kisses, etc so I know it's jealousy but Pablo never does so why does she resent him?

[Wolf]

As I am sure that you can attest to their moods can change in less than a heartbeat and to us for no discernable reason, not all that often but it does happen. Because of this I never, ever let my guard down and never will, it just isn't worth the cost.

[Pajarita]

I found a picture of a plet that was identified as Lucida.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27580094@ ... 12949@N00/

[Wolf]

It also says that it is a male.

[Pajarita]

Yes, the one in the picture is identified as a male but I don't remember Paquita having the grey 'wash', does she?

[Wolf]

Yes she has a large amount of grey that actually covers most of her body and I am not including the grey down feathers. The upper side of her wings are mostly a grey color, well a greyish green would probably be more accurate.

[Pajarita]

Then maybe she is a Lucinda or a mix (breeders are not particular about breeding a specific subspecies to the same subspecies).