Dusky Conure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| iDusky Conure | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Aratinga weddellii (Vieillot, 1818) |
Contents |
[edit] Dusky-headed Conure
Aratinga weddellii (Deville 1851)
[edit] Description
Generally green; greenish-yellow on abdomen.
- Head - Greyish-brown, each feather edged dark blue.
- Upper breast - Olive-green.
- First primaries - Black with blue edge. Remainder green with bluish edging on ends of outer webs
- Tail - Blue with green base.
- Bill - Black.
- Iris - Pale yellow.
- Feet - Grey.
Immatures with generally duller plumage; iris dark.
[edit] Length
28 cm (11 inches)
[edit] Weight
90-110 gm
[edit] Age at maturity
1-3 years
[edit] Distribution
- Amazon tributaries in southeast Colombia
- Eastern Ecuador
- Eastern Peru
- Northwest and Northeast Brazil.
[edit] Habitat
- Rain forest along rivers
- Marshy areas
- Forest remnants in humid savanna
- Secondary vegetation and cleared areas with isolated woodland to 750 m (2,300 ft)
- Occasionally on edges of rain forests
- Sometimes in coffee plantations.
[edit] Status
Common throughout range.
[edit] Habits
- In pairs or groups of 3 to 8 birds outside breeding season, occasionally flocks of 75 to 100 birds when sufficient food available
- Momadic
- Prefers river bank areas
- Roosting trees also here
- Seldom flies over thick forest
- Inconspicuous
- Very quiet when feeding
- Mostly makes sound only during flight
- Call similar to White-eyed Conure (Aratinga leucophthalmus), but more refined and sharper.
[edit] Natural diet
- Seeds
- Fruits
- Flowers and berries
- Seeks out decaying trees probably for insects and their larvae
- Regularly visits areas in forest and on river banks where soil containing minerals to be found.
[edit] Breeding behavior
breeding period from February to May
- in Bolivia and Colombia from July
- nests in dead trees, palms and arboreal termite mounds between 4 m (12 ft) and 15 m (45 ft); often uses woodpecker holes; young fed by both parents; egg measures 27,0 x 23,0 mm (1.06 x 0.91 ins) and weight about 7 gm.
[edit] Aviculture
- Medium-noisy parakeet
- Calls mostly when excited
- Wary
- Accepts attendant very slowly
- Hard chewer
- Provide fresh green branches every day
- Once acclimatized very hardy
- Routine bathing or showering is vital to maintaining good plumage and skin condition.
[edit] Accommodation
- outside flight 2,5 x 1 x 2 m (7.5 x 3 x 6 ft) with adjoining shelter
- keep frost free in winter.
[edit] Diet
[edit] Fresh foods
- Grapes
- Bananas
- Apples
- Carrots (very important)
- Chicory (sometimes called curly endive)
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Mustard green
- Dandelion
- Green beans
- Pod peas
- Grapefruit
- Oranges
- Cranberries
- Pomegranates
- Pears
- Kiwi fruit
- Sweet potatoes (cooked)
- Squash (all varieties cooked)
- Corn on the cob
- Frozen corn
- Frozen mixed veggies
- Blueberries
- Peppers
- Nectarines
- Cucumbers
[edit] Table foods
- Cooked brown rice
- Blueberries
- cooked white rice
- Blueberries
- pasta, whole wheat bread, noodle
- Blueberries
- bean mix (need to be soaked with water over-night and cooked for an hour or more; some will freeze the cooked bean mix and re-heat each serving).
[edit] Dry foods
- Good clean seed mix
- Blueberries
- spray millet (low fat)
- Blueberries
- Peanut
- Blueberries
- walnut,
- Blueberries
- almond
- Blueberries
- pine nut
[edit] Breeding in aviculture
- Very avid breeder
- No fixed breeding time
- Keen interest in nest box signals start of breeding activity
- Clutch 3 to 5 eggs; incubation 23 days
- Fledging period 50 days
- Nest box 24 x 24 x 45 cm (10 x 10 x 18 ins) with entrance hole of 6 cm (2.5 ins) diameter
- Inspect box regularly as birds often chew through base
- 3 breedings per year possible, but no more should be allowed.
