The Australian continent, due to its isolation, has unique representatives of flora and fauna. Many are not found anywhere else in the world. Australia parrots are known far beyond the borders of the country. The variety of species and colors of plumage is simply amazing. Animal lovers have long kept unusual birds as pets.
Variety of species
There are more than 300 varieties of parrots in the world, and in total there are 10 964 (2017 data) species in the bird kingdom. About 700 live in Australia, some of them live only here. A large group are Australia's parrots:
- royal;
- lorikeet;
- noble;
- singing;
- wavy;
- barnards;
- earthen;
- Corella
- red-winged;
- night;
- cockatoo;
- red-caps;
- azure;
- luxurious;
- rosella;
- Herbal
- flat-tailed.
Many species are divided into subspecies, such as cockatoos. There are palm, pink, small and large yellow-crested. One of the most unusual is black. A distinctive feature of all cockatoos is the presence of a large and bright crest in birds. At rest, he is adjacent to the head, and in a state of excitement, he can stand on end. A powerful beak is able to bite a human finger. Size from 30 to 60 cm, very popular for home content.
Many species are little known, not only because of the isolation and remoteness of the continent. The Australian government tightly controls the export of any animals. The ban is imposed on the import, including insects and plant seeds.
Unique birds
Budgerigars in Australia live everywhere. Ornithologist John Gould brought the first birds to Europe in 1840. He did colossal work to describe the feathered continent. The book "Birds of Australia" consisted of 36 volumes with drawings. A small funny bird quickly gained popularity, everyone wanted to have such an unusual creature in their home. In 1945, the first bird care guide was published. The catastrophic volumes of export of budgies from the country forced the Australian government to impose a ban on their export.
Already in 1850 the first offspring in captivity were obtained. The spread of parrots in the new homeland continued at an accelerated pace. In Holland, France, Belgium, England, farms for breeding exotic pets were created. They gained even more popularity after revealing their ability to imitate sounds, imitating human speech. Parrots were introduced to Russia at the end of the nineteenth century.
Breeders worked on breeding new varieties of Australian parrots. Birds were selected by color of feathers. Yellow individuals were first obtained in Belgium and Germany in the 1870s. The blue-tinted parrots were brought out by Belgian experts in 1878, and in 1920 white parrots appeared in England and France. At this, the breeders did not stop and continued to breed birds with a variety of plumage. To date, more than 200 species of budgies have been bred in captivity. According to ornithologists, today the number of domestic animals exceeds the number of wild relatives. Budgies are the most popular decorative birds in the world.
A pet
Many Australia parrots are suitable for home maintenance. In addition to wavy and cockatoo, are widespread:
- multicolor lorikeet, a subspecies of moluccanus - attracts a bright combination of scarlet chest with blue plumage;
- azure, color mutations allow you to get the original color from multi-colored to brown;
- Rosella, there are two subspecies: variegated and ordinary (they differ among themselves in some details of the color of plumage), mate well with each other, are easily tamed;
- luxurious, characterized by unusual color variations, in Australia there are three species: Alexandra (in England he is known as the parrot of the Princess of Wales), mountain, barrabands;
- grassy plants are distinguished by a variety of spectacular colors, breed well in captivity, when kept in spacious enclosures;
- noble or electuses are distinguished by a significant difference in the color of plumage between the sexes, initially females and males were mistakenly assigned to different species.
Years of experience have shown that breeding and keeping parrots at home do not pose any problems. The bird perfectly adapts to conditions, easily makes contact with humans and successfully reproduces.
