Isis Redbelly

[Pajarita]

I've always wanted to see a red belly in person. I have never see one. She sounds great.

Here is Isis. Females don't have the red on the belly, the species is dimorphic (meaning the males look differently than the females) and I would assume that some people find them 'drab' in comparison to other, more colorful, species but I think she is BEAUTIFUL. You can't appreciate it on this picture but her plumage has the most wonderful dégradé starting with silver grey on her head going into olive scallops on a beige background on her back to dark olive tail to end on a pure turquoise belly. And she has the most gorgeous red eyes! And, do you know what I enjoy the most about her? Her vocalizations are easy to imitate so I can 'talk' to her in her language - they sound like:
- I'm HERE!
- I'm right HERE!
- WOOOOW (but kind of like on a guttural tone)
- It's weird!

[Navre]

She is beautiful. I've always liked the Senegals, and Meyers. These are the same family?

[liz]

When Bubba flew away and left Sweetie, a Cardinal would visit her every day for hours at a time. He must have thought she was a Cardinal of a different color. She learned to speak Cardinal.

[Pajarita]

She is beautiful. I've always liked the Senegals, and Meyers. These are the same family?

Well, they are of the same genus, not family. Family is above genus (there are also 'Superfamilies') and between Family and genus you find subfamilies and tribes. There are three 'parrot' families, each has subfamilies which, in turn, have tribes and the tribes have genera (this is the plural form for genus) and the genera have species. Complicated, isn't it? But the main classification order is Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I had to take classes and pass a written and an oral test plus present a thesis (it was on Quakers) to get my certificate and be able to work in a zoo and the professor of taxonomy gave us a mnemonic to remember it: Kinky People Come Over For Good Sex (the initials of each word correspond to the initials of the classifications -cool, isn't it?!)

The poicephalus are classified as follows:
Order: Psittaformes (meaning anything that looks like a parrot)
Superfamily: Psittacoidea
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Psittacinae
There are no tribes under this Subfamily
Genus: Poicephalus (which means it has a head of a different color)
And then you have the ten different species that belong under the genus: Red Bellied, Senegal, Meyer's, Yellow Fronted, Red Fronted, Cape, Brown Headed, Ruppell's, Uncape and Niam Niam (isn't that a wonderful name for a species of parrot?!)

[Navre]

I think we learned it as King Phillip Came Over From Greece Swimming Violently (Variety being the V)

Are they powder down birds like the African Greys?

[cml]

I've always wanted to see a red belly in person. I have never see one. She sounds great.

Here is Isis. Females don't have the red on the belly, the species is dimorphic (meaning the males look differently than the females) and I would assume that some people find them 'drab' in comparison to other, more colorful, species but I think she is BEAUTIFUL. You can't appreciate it on this picture but her plumage has the most wonderful dégradé starting with silver grey on her head going into olive scallops on a beige background on her back to dark olive tail to end on a pure turquoise belly. And she has the most gorgeous red eyes! And, do you know what I enjoy the most about her? Her vocalizations are easy to imitate so I can 'talk' to her in her language - they sound like:
- I'm HERE!
- I'm right HERE!
- WOOOOW (but kind of like on a guttural tone)
- It's weird!

She's beautiful Pajarita! WOOOW is favorite word of Stich's as well , probably because that's what I say when he does a trick or the like .

[Pajarita]

I think we learned it as King Phillip Came Over From Greece Swimming Violently (Variety being the V)

Are they powder down birds like the African Greys?

No, no powder. And you mnemonic is more 'decent' than mine but I bet they taught that one to us because people would remember it better (what with the kinky and the sex in it ). I am surprised they used the 'variety' in yours because that's a word that I've only heard used in reference to canary types that had not been approved by the WOS as actual breeds (like the American or the Russian Singers, for example, which are often referred to as song breeds when, in reality, the 'approved' ones are only three: Hartz, Malinois and Timbrado)

[Pajarita]

I've always wanted to see a red belly in person. I have never see one. She sounds great.

Here is Isis. Females don't have the red on the belly, the species is dimorphic (meaning the males look differently than the females) and I would assume that some people find them 'drab' in comparison to other, more colorful, species but I think she is BEAUTIFUL. You can't appreciate it on this picture but her plumage has the most wonderful dégradé starting with silver grey on her head going into olive scallops on a beige background on her back to dark olive tail to end on a pure turquoise belly. And she has the most gorgeous red eyes! And, do you know what I enjoy the most about her? Her vocalizations are easy to imitate so I can 'talk' to her in her language - they sound like:
- I'm HERE!
- I'm right HERE!
- WOOOOW (but kind of like on a guttural tone)
- It's weird!

She's beautiful Pajarita! WOOOW is favorite word of Stich's as well , probably because that's what I say when he does a trick or the like .

Thank you, CML. I think she is beautiful, too. But I don't think her WOOOOOW is learned, I think it's a normal vocalization that sounds like it. I do have several birds that use the human WOW! though... most notably, my male Senegal, Sweetpea, who likes to hang upside down from my neck and watch everything I do very closely (I put the water bowls and the plates on the floor of the birdroom and fill them all up leaning down from my waist -thus, his posture) and every now and then, he would be watching and go WOOOOOW! which ALWAYS cracks me up!

[Navre]

I think we learned it as King Phillip Came Over From Greece Swimming Violently (Variety being the V)

Are they powder down birds like the African Greys?

No, no powder. And you mnemonic is more 'decent' than mine but I bet they taught that one to us because people would remember it better (what with the kinky and the sex in it ). I am surprised they used the 'variety' in yours because that's a word that I've only heard used in reference to canary types that had not been approved by the WOS as actual breeds (like the American or the Russian Singers, for example, which are often referred to as song breeds when, in reality, the 'approved' ones are only three: Hartz, Malinois and Timbrado)

This was general biology, not avian. Variety is used often in botany, and an animal species like canis canis has a bunch, although I think there is a sub-species thrown in there, too.

[Pajarita]

Ah, yes, you are absolutely right, variety is used in botany.