Is it better to keep closer related species of parrots?

[ptuga72]

Well, the crest is an interesting idea, but that only applies to a small number of species. I'm still dubious that a 'tiel would prefer the company of a cockatoo to a GCC, even if they do have that in common, but if there's any evidence that communication route is very significant, that would be interesting. I still think different species which inhabit the same region are as, or even more, likely to perceive one another as enemies than as friends if they could work out that relationship at all.

My personal (and completely non-scientific) opinion is that birds of similar size and complementing personalities/aggression level do best together. Of course this is coming from a woman with a green cheek who thinks he and the aggressive eclectus should be playmates

[Cozzy]

Well, the crest is an interesting idea, but that only applies to a small number of species. I'm still dubious that a 'tiel would prefer the company of a cockatoo to a GCC, even if they do have that in common, but if there's any evidence that communication route is very significant, that would be interesting. I still think different species which inhabit the same region are as, or even more, likely to perceive one another as enemies than as friends if they could work out that relationship at all.

My personal (and completely non-scientific) opinion is that birds of similar size and complementing personalities/aggression level do best together. Of course this is coming from a woman with a green cheek who thinks he and the aggressive eclectus should be playmates

My s think the Cape should be their playmate.....
I just can't let them out of the cage togeather....

[entrancedbymyGCC]

My personal (and completely non-scientific) opinion is that birds of similar size and complementing personalities/aggression level do best together.

Actually that's a perfectly reasonable hypothesis. What's unscientific? Of course, it won't be a theory until you've done a lot of testing...

[pchela]

I asked my breeder this same question and his answer surprised me. I always assumed it would be better to keep similar birds, like all Poicephalus but his opinion was that they would see them as rivals and competitors whereas a new world bird might not be perceived as such. Like, they wouldn't instinctually recognize the new world parrots as threats? In my experience, none of the pois I've had have gotten along with each other. Pippin terrorizes everybody, except, interestingly, the Red Belly. He tries to regurgitate for him. I've wondered if this is a visual thing? Red Bellies and Senegals are very similar in appearance. The Meyers did not like any other birds, neither does the Red Belly. When the Caique was here, he was generally ignored by Pippin, but the Jardine's, who is also an African bird, is relentlessly bullied. I have no idea how much of this is based on an instinctive drive to fend off the competition for food/mates/nesting sites, and how much is just based on each birds personality.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Here's the thing... if someone hadn't told observed, tracked, classified and in some cases DNA-profiled these birds, WE wouldn't be able to tell which ones were from similar regions and which were more closely related except for those that are nearly identical. How would a bird know that? Same species, in most cases, they've met one before. So I can readily imagine they'd recognize another bird as being the same as their clutch-mates. I have a hard time imagining that a hand-raised Senegal would automatically recognize a Meyers or a Cape as being "like me".

And, if you hypothesize that somehow they are hard-wired genetically to recognize other birds that frequent their territory, the breeder's supposition that they'd see rivals seems to me equally plausible as the hypothesis that they'd see friends. You'd have to test these hypotheses in a systematic way to get an answer. Just comparing notes isn't good enough because the number of cases is just too small. As Penn Teller, of all people, said, "The plural of anecdote is not proof".

[Michael]

I asked my breeder this same question and his answer surprised me. I always assumed it would be better to keep similar birds, like all Poicephalus but his opinion was that they would see them as rivals and competitors whereas a new world bird might not be perceived as such. Like, they wouldn't instinctually recognize the new world parrots as threats? In my experience, none of the pois I've had have gotten along with each other. Pippin terrorizes everybody, except, interestingly, the Red Belly. He tries to regurgitate for him. I've wondered if this is a visual thing? Red Bellies and Senegals are very similar in appearance. The Meyers did not like any other birds, neither does the Red Belly. When the Caique was here, he was generally ignored by Pippin, but the Jardine's, who is also an African bird, is relentlessly bullied. I have no idea how much of this is based on an instinctive drive to fend off the competition for food/mates/nesting sites, and how much is just based on each birds personality.

Me thinks it's just a Poi thing, regardless of species.

[pchela]

I asked my breeder this same question and his answer surprised me. I always assumed it would be better to keep similar birds, like all Poicephalus but his opinion was that they would see them as rivals and competitors whereas a new world bird might not be perceived as such. Like, they wouldn't instinctually recognize the new world parrots as threats? In my experience, none of the pois I've had have gotten along with each other. Pippin terrorizes everybody, except, interestingly, the Red Belly. He tries to regurgitate for him. I've wondered if this is a visual thing? Red Bellies and Senegals are very similar in appearance. The Meyers did not like any other birds, neither does the Red Belly. When the Caique was here, he was generally ignored by Pippin, but the Jardine's, who is also an African bird, is relentlessly bullied. I have no idea how much of this is based on an instinctive drive to fend off the competition for food/mates/nesting sites, and how much is just based on each birds personality.

Me thinks it's just a Poi thing, regardless of species.

Actually, after spending time with several different types of Poi, I'd say it's a Senegal thing.

[Shani]

I found an interesting article that is somewhat related to this http://www.birds.org.au/cgi-bin/content.pl?webjournal.htm - it's the website of the Avicultural Society of Australia if you're wondering

Scroll down about 1/4 of the way to find an article called "Knowledge of wild parrots can improve breeding results Part I. By Rosemary Low" or ctrl+F (doesn't have a direct link). It's to do with breeding pairs, but provides quite an interesting insight as to how even housing parrots of the same species together/near each can cause major issues during the breeding season, depending on how aggressive the particular species is towards others, and how socially gregarious they are. It could easily be adapted to getting a fairly good estimate as to how birds of the same species (and quite possibly similar species) may interact with each other in captivity too, I thought.

[Becco Lunatico]

I recently began working with my budgie. He gets out of the cage for awhile now and hangs out on the top of the big cage with my Nanday Conure. In the beginning the Nanday lunged at him a few times but the budgie dodged him keenly. It only took two days before the Nanday showed full tolerance. There has been no preening as of yet but I suspect more interaction at some point. I am lucky to be a stay at home in a quiet environment. I treat them both at intervals and they are quit comfy feeding together.

Gotta luv it!