Patagonian Conure - anybody live with one?

[galeriagila]

Hi,
I posted a "hello" in Introductions and a video on Parrot Tales.
Meanwhile, I thought it might be constructive to start a Patagonian topic here.
Anybody?

[Pajarita]

I don't have or ever had one. I have seen a few some years ago back when I belonged to a bird club in Manhattan, NYC. For some reason, they seem to have been more popular back then than they seem to be now -I don't know why. I have also seen them in the wild in Uruguay and Argentina. They are beautiful birds, with wonderful coloration which might not be as visible as other parrots but very striking if you look at them closely.

[galeriagila]

All so interesting!

In all honesty, I think they are kinda unpopular because, in my experience with many conures... they are louder, more active, more destructive, nippier... I mean, I love my parrot, obviously, but that's what I think. I met the lady who bred Patagonians and produced the Rickeybird, and she wisely and ethically advised me ahead of time that she thought these things to be true and wanted me to be prepared. And over the years, I agree.

[Pajarita]

Yes, all conures are loud but some are louder than others - the Patagonian been one of them. There are others that are as loud, like the sun conure, the jenday and the quaker. But while the sunnies and the jendays have the beautiful bright colors and the Quaker has an uncanny ability to talk, the Patagonians have neither so that could be the reason why they are no longer as popular. I think we are seeing the same thing with parrotlets which are slowly been replaced with beebees...

[galeriagila]

That totally figures, yep!

[Pajarita]

Gail, I will try to give you a few facts every day as I read the book again. The info is on the tricahue but I think it's pretty safe to say that it applies to all the Patagonians because they are a sui generis species and they believe that the tricahue ended up in Chile from a single migration of a single flock from Argentina across the Andes so they are direct descendants of them.

Humans came to Chile 12,000 to 10,000 years ago but the Patagonian conures had already been there 40,000 years by the time they arrived.

They are called Loro Barranquero in Spanish and Burrowing Parrot in English from their habit of nesting in holes they dig out in cliffs (barranca in Spanish). The first historical reference of this species was made by Florian Baucke (Bauke or Pauke) a Silesian Jesuit who traveled to the Rio de la Plata region in mid 1700 and documented flora and fauna of the region but it was Juan Ignacio Molina, another Jesuit priest, naturalist and ornithologist, who named them Psittacus cyanoliseos, meaning faded blue parrot (from kyanos = blue and lysis = loose - they think that he might have confused the whitish spot on their chest to be pale blue instead) but the name was later changed by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and renown ornithologist, to Cyanoliseus patagonus in 1854. The nominate (nominate been the first species ever described and before they figured out there were subspecies) is Cyanoliseus patagonus patagonus (nominate species always repeat the second name to indicate they were the first one) and the subspecies are named for either the person who first described them (like 'bloxami for Andrew Bloxam) or the place where they are most common (Patagonus from Patagonia, Conlara from the River Conlara in Argentina, and Andinus from the Andes).

I am not going to go into their physical description because you already know what they look like, right?

It was also Abbe Molina who first described their habits back in the 1800's and described large flocks that were very destructive to cultivated fruits and grain fields and how they always posted a watch up on the trees when they went to ground to feed and how different birds took turns for this watch so they could all eat. He also mentions that the farmers would throw a hat up in the air to startle them and, when they all took flight, they would shoot them. I don't know if you can read Spanish but I am quoting his words:

"...produciendo gran daño a la fruta, y especialmente al grano. Vuelan en brigadas numerosas, y cuando descienden al suelo para comer, uno de ellos va a posarse sobre un árbol vecino para hacer la guardia, y avisar a los compañeros con gritos repetidos (…) se cambia de vez en cuando esta guardia, para que todos puedan comer”. Esta precaución de los loros hacía muy difícil cazarlos, aunque los cazadores se valían de una estratagema cual era lanzar un sombrero al aire, detrás del cual se lanzaba la bandada con increíble furia, y entonces con un escopetazo mataban una buena cantidad."

I got my hands on something written by Felix de Azara, a Spanish military and naturalist that lived in the Rio de la Plata region from 1781 to 1801 and who wrote a bit about these parrots so I will have more on this tomorrow.

In the meantime, something from the book I have:

They always choose, if at all possible, cliffs that face South for their 'loreras' (nests), this is because the temperature during the summer and the fluctuation of the same is much lower than if the cliff faces any other direction which would guarantee successful incubation of their eggs.

There are sightings of cliffs with over 1,000 nest openings on them but it doesn't mean that there are over 1,000 nests because although they can make nests with only one opening, they have found some that have up to five different entries. The openings are always oval in shape with the height(about 8 inches) been half of the width (about 16 inches)

The parents make a depression on the soil after they dig the nests into the face of the cliff and carefully clean it of all pebbles, rocks, etc until there is only a very thin and soft substrata of soil where they deposit between 2 and 5 eggs.

They don't sleep in the nests, they have more than one place where they sleep and regularly switch from one to another to confuse predators. Their favorite places are valleys (where they are protected from the harsh winds) with lots of 'quiscos' (http://cactiguide.com/graphics/e_acida_e_600.jpg). These are tubular cacti that grow as tall as a tree and what they do is pull out the thorns on the very top of the 'branches' so they can safely perch there and sleep while leaving the 'body' of the cactus full of them in order to prevent the predators from climbing up to get them (sooo smart, right?) but they have adapted to human expansion and now also use electric wires for sleeping. There is one town called Monte Patria where over 1,300 individuals were observed perching on wires after an earthquake had tumbled down the cliff where they had their 'loreras' (nests).

[galeriagila]

All so amazing!!!!!!

Yes, I've watched all the videos of wild Rickeybirds (and relatives) I can find. I hear those very calls every morning in my home. Amazing how very similar they are in posture, vocalizations, movements.
Can you imagine what those early European explorers thought when first witnessing those huge flocks of shrieking Rickeybirds and other parrots??
Faded blue... those "necklaces" do look blue at times, as does the steel-y grey on their chests and around there.
That Spanish is so elegant!
Yes, the interest in burrowing is ever-present. He loves to duck headfirst down my shirts at the front collar and make his way downwards via talons and beak until his head pops out the bottom, facing forward. He'll travel around like this happily.
More burrow-stories... he seeks out anything like a paper bag, open drawer, empty box... and tries to take possession. I avoid any such things because it is hellaceous to get him OUT. He has 'manufactured' a little burrow for himself in a top cage perch... he has gathered in the cage cover to make a nice little house. I gave up years ago and let him keep them. And anyway, he chews some of his coolest textile art there!
Evolution is so astounding... they're so perfectly suited to their natural environment. And I'm sure they learn and probably teach/pass on things to each other.
I'll share a poem I wrote, for my bird. Pardon any boo-boos!

Papagallo, enjaulado, papagallo, tan primordio.
La Naturaleza en su alma, el Dia de Juicio, en su ojo.
"El Progresso" ha destruido, tanto, tanto, de su mundo.
?Y me atrevo a enjaularlo?
Debia tirarme del techo, volaria por el momento.
??Porque robe su vuelo
Si no por mi mismo egoismo??

For non-Spanish speakers, it's a rather melodramatic poem (Spanish just takes me there!) about how caging birds is such an ironic way of loving them, and how Progess has destroyed so much of their world, and finally, about paying somehow for having robbed them of their heritage.

Thanks, Pajarita. I mentally gobble up everything you tell me about these parrots!

xo:)

[Pajarita]

Yes, their loud screams are mentioned in every single account of these birds. As a matter of fact, Felix de Azara named them Maracanã Patagon and the Maracanã name was because that's how their vocalization sounds, apparently (does it?). By the way, these birds had several names (Arara de Patagon, Psitacara de la Patagonie, Catita Talcahuana) before they finally settled on the one we are using today because every single ornithologist or naturalist that came to the Rio de la Plata region that saw them called them something different Even Charles Darwin saw them on his trip on the Beagle and the only thing of note that he mentions about them is their loud screams.

As to the Spanish settlers that first saw them, I am sorry to say that even if they were awed by them, it did not translate into really caring for them because every single early account I have read about them mentions how tasty the babies were (they did not eat the adults because their meat was bitter) and how there was there was always a local guy whose profession was to get the babies from the nest to sell them for food (priests were very fond of them after Lent because, apparently, their meat is very rich and fatty). He was called 'el lorero' (the parrot man) and he would tie a rope around his waist and lower himself down the side of the cliff with a long stick with either a hook at the end or a jumble of wool that he would introduce into the tunnel so as to either hook the babies or get their feet tangled up in the threads and thus pull them out of the nest. But the account goes on to say that their numbers did not appear to suffer much from the practice because the birds would lay up to four clutches a year when the babies were stolen but, of course, this is not really true because they are almost extinct in Chile and the number greatly diminished in Argentina. There was another 'job' that involved these parrots, that of children acting as scarecrows. The farmer's children or children that were hired for that purpose would stand in the middle of the field of corn, wheat or whatever and, whenever they saw the flock flying overhead, would start waving their arms and screaming to keep them away.

The saddest thing I read about them is an account that is identical (and I do mean, IDENTICAL) to an account made on the Carolina Parakeet, the only indigenous parrot species to the US (now extinct), which tells of how the farmers killed them in large numbers. The farmers would shoot the flock flying overhead and, whenever a bird fell down to the ground, the others would fly overhead and even go to ground next to the wounded or dead flockmate allowing the farmers to shoot and kill large numbers at one single setting.

Tomorrow, I will tell you what they eat in the wild and I'll try to find pictures of the plants but, one more thing that I think it's very relevant and VERY interesting about this species: they are NOT from humid climates - quite the contrary, both the Argentinian and the Chilean species ALL live in very arid regions so their respiratory system does not suffer by the dry air in our homes. Oh, and one more thing, one book says that they originated in Argentina and flew over the Andes to Chile but the other one says the opposite, that they originated in Argentina and flew over the Andes into Chile.

[galeriagila]

Every one of your posts about rickeybirds is like a great bedtime story, or maybe campfire tale. Love them all!

They are sooooo loud, and also have amazing stamina when it come to sustaining their tirades, I watch the RB in awe sometimes as he shakes the rafters for a half hour, not even seeming to need to breathe! Then when he has satisfied himself that he has made his point, he often feel amorous, or at least like a content cuddle. His versions of quiet expressions are hilarious... he mimics my soft "whatcha doin'" at about a zillion decibels and repeated 10-20 times.

Aren't those stories awful???? They were equated with other natural resources to plunder... berries, nuts, Patagonians...

Ahhhh, the beautiful little Carolina Parakeets... they must have been wonderful to see and hear. I collect antique ornithological prints, and I have a couple of them that are just gorgeous.

About arid/cold aspect... the lady who bred my bird lived in a high-altitude area of Arizona. She left them outdoors all year. Said they acclimated to the seasons and dryness just fine. The RB doesn't seem to mind cold, and I don't worry much about drafts and chills. I like things cold and dry in my home environment, and he seems fine. I will tell you one horror story... the worst thing I ever did to my poor darling. It was in New Mexico, during a Spring, when the temperature can go from 90 in the day to 35 at night. One evening I forgot to shut the RB's windows... and it went down into the 30s that night. The next morning, I found him just fine... a little cranky, and his pink feet were a little pale, but I cuddled him warm and we went on from there! GAHHH!

Oh, and about their call... yeah, I can make out a "maracana"... or at least an aaaaahhh-rrrrra-kkkkka-nyaaaah (rolled rs!), but I can't get an "M" sound to start it off...

Looking forward to our next episode in "The Annals of Rickeybirds"!!!!

[Pajarita]

The book I read said that 'Maracana' came from their vocalizations but I know that, in Brazil, the red-shoulder parrots (Hanh's and Noble mini-macaws) are called 'maracanas' (the word means 'green bird' in Tupi-Guarani) so I am thinking that, maybe, this guy could have thought that it was a Patagonian subspecies of them -thus, Maracanã Patagon.

Now, about their wild diet, this is taken from recent studies as well as the accounts going back to the 1700 and 1800's. Usually, the flock separates into smaller groups for foraging and they travel large distances (don't forget they inhabit an arid region so food is not so easy to come by, same as water). They are mainly granivores and, as such, ground foragers (they say they are not great climbers but that they walk very well on the ground). These are the plants that they have been observed eating, there is mention of them eating pods that are dried up real hard and up to a year old, too. The first five are the ones they eat the most, the others are occasional, mostly when the 'staples' are scarce:

Cordia decandra (buds, flowers and seeds) http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plant ... nt_id=4062

Balsamocarpon (the pods with peas -this plant is a legume, like peanuts) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balsamocarpon

Krameria cistoidea (I am assuming they eat the fruit and the seeds of this one, I couldn't find anything as to exactly what they eat from it but I found this about the fruit: "The fruit is a dry, hairy drupe, burred with dull red hooks; seeds 1 or 2" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krameria_cistoidea

Empetrum Rubrum (pods) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empetrum_rubrum

Silybum marianum (seeds - this is the famous milk thistle a lot of us use for birds with liver problems!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silybum_marianum

Lycium chilense (pods) http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/SUCC ... m_chilense

Discaria Americana as well as discaria andina (I couldn't find a picture of the Americana -which grows in Argentina, only of the andina -which grows in Chile- but I would assume it looks pretty similar) http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/ ... SH0327.htm

Acacia craven (seeds) this bush is called aromo in my country and is VERY common everywhere
http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/ ... EH0001.htm

Geoffroea decorticans (seeds) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroea_decorticans

Prosopis chilensis (seeds) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopis_chilensis

Schinus molle (seeds) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schinus_molle

Encelia canescens (flowers) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... 8477044923).jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/C ... 8477044923).jpg

They have also been observed eating grapes, figs, walnuts and pomegranates (of which they eat the buds, flowers and fruit) as well as grabbing goat poop with their hands to pick the seeds out of it.