Lovebirds earned their name by pairing for life and sitting close
Lovebirds get their name from the way mated pairs bond for life and spend long stretches perched side by side. Weighing just 40 to 60 grams, these African parrots are among the smallest of their kind, yet escaped pets have founded wild colonies as far away as the deserts of Arizona.
The English naturalist Prideaux John Selby gave the group its scientific name, Agapornis, in 1836, joining the Greek words for love and bird. He objected that an earlier scheme lumping these birds in with other parrots was artificial and ignored how they looked, lived and where they were found. Nine living species make up the genus, all African, with the grey-headed lovebird confined to Madagascar. In the wild, the different species occupy separate ranges.
They measure 13 to 17 centimetres long, with a stocky body, a stubby tail and a big, sharp beak. Wild birds are mostly green with patches of colour on the upper body, and Fischer's, masked and black-cheeked lovebirds wear a bold white ring around each eye. Breeders have produced many colour mutants; by 2019 there were 30 known plumage variations, all produced by pigments called psittacofulvins. The traditional split into three groups, based partly on whether males and females look different, does not hold up well in genetic studies.
They live in small flocks and forage for seeds, grains and leaves, along with fruit and grasses. Nest building varies by species: a female peach-faced lovebird carries nesting material tucked among the feathers of her rump. Pets typically live 10 to 12 years.
Fischer's and masked lovebirds have gone feral in East African cities and interbreed there, producing hybrids with reddish-brown heads. Pretoria has two colonies of aviary escapees in colours from white to blue. Rosy-faced lovebirds, native to arid southwestern Africa including the Namib Desert, first appeared in Arizona in the 1980s, and the first breeding pair there was found in 1998.
Source: Lovebird
