Expert on Blue-winged parrots Jan Cvrcek talks about breeding of this species. PART II

Breeding

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Read also the first part of this interview:

Expert on Blue-winged parrots Jan Cvrcek talks about breeding of this species. PART I

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How many pairs of the Blue-winged Parrot do you have in your facility?

I had 10 pairs in the last year. However, I want to keep 5 more pairs from offspring 2014. So for this season there are 15 pairs. I don’t let them breed all, some birds are just set aside. I breed this species in F4 generation.

Do you still try to get more Blue-winged Parrots (Neophema chrysostoma)? Is there anybody you can cooperate with?

Yes, I do. You stil have tol bring new bloodline to your breeding to keep the genetical polymorphism. It’s not good to have just one source of genes in the breeding group. A few years ago it could be very difficult to get new birds. However today, it’s not so complicated. I mostly cooperate with my friends from abroad like Piet de Rooij. Recently, I got two birds from Switzerland. They are beatiful and hopefully they are going to be good breeders as well.

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Young pair from 2014, the male is on the left. (c) Jan Cvrcek

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And what about your offspring? How many chicks have you bred in total?

Year 2014 was the best year so far. I had 24 youngers together. All 10 pairs start nesting but in three pairs chicks have died or haven‘t hatched. I had 59 eggs within the last year and 41 chicks hatched, 24 fledged. Up to 2013 I had maximally 7-8 youngers every year. It seems that fortune smiled on me. In the past, we bred mostly females in our conservation group. However, within the last year more males hatched. That’s why everybody in here offers males for sale now.

Is the Blue-winged Parrot specific in breeding when compared with other parrots of Neophema genus?

According to above data you can see that it’s not so easy to breed this species. I would underline one important issue specific for the Blue-winged Parrot. Sometimes it’s mentioned in books and magazines as well. It’s about high temperatures during nesting. That’s why difference between hatched youngers and fledged youngers is so big. Young birds are very sensitive to high temperature and sometimes under such circumstances parents stop feeding their babies. This should be also a huge problem in case of the Orange-bellied Parrot and the Rock Parrot.

In adults I‘ve also faced for several times another problem. Birds comming from the west european coast die suddenly in high numbers in the end of summer (August/September). The cause is probably the wide temperature fluctuation with cold morning, hot afternoon and high humidity. Imported individuals are not used to such changing climate conditions. Sometimes weaned youngers die in this part of the year as well. Their immune system is not fully developed yet so they are more sensitive. In acclimatized and adult birds minimal mortality occurs.

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Jan Cvrcek with its Blue-winged Parrot

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What is the breeding facility for your Blue-winged Parrots?

There are different size aviaries – 3 x 1 x 2m, 2,5 x 0,8 x 2m (l x w x h) and cages 1 x 1 x 1m, 1 x 0,5 x 0,4 ,… (l x w x h). I don’t think that the cage size is an important aspect for successful breeding of this species. Birds have to be in good condition and need to be on high quality diet. I don’t observe any difference in breeding Blue-winged Parrots in a cage or an aviary. All birds are outside all year long. The facility has the inside part which is not heated in winter. In the beginning, I had this species in heated facility. However, when I put them outside in spring, they start moulting and didn’t breed.

How do you feed your Blue-winged Parrots?

The base is Kasper Faunafood. As a supplement they got sprouted seed mixture from Deli Nature (number 68). I also offer them apples, greens, sponge biscuits and everything I find in our garden. In the winter I feed with Deli Nature 69. All birds have in their cage sand, charcoal, a iodine block and cuttlefish bone. As for eggfood, I have used the commercial products enriched with carrots, boiled eggs and other supplements. However, I got very promising formula recenty. So I’m going to try it within this season.

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The breeder shows his birds at exhibition in Prague every year

Young birds. (c) Jan Cvrcek

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When you should recommend this species to other breeders. Tell me, how did they get to your aviaries?

They are just beautiful birds. When I saw them for the first time, it was a huge surprise for me. I have always heard how expensive and sensitive they are. Fortunately, by the time I found out that mostly this is not the true. Do you know why their breeding is interesting? They are not expensive, they are not extremely difficult to breed but they are still rare and you can still improve the technique of breeding of Neophema parrots.

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THE BREEDER HAS FOR SALE AT THIS MOMENT FOLLOWING BIRDS:

Blue-winged Parrot 5,0 (*2014), F2 generation from birds from Loro Parque.

Blue-winged Parrot 3,0 (*2014), F3 generation from birds from Loro Parque.

All birds closed ring, price: 80 euro each. Possible exchange for females or Geopelia humeralis.

Contact: Jan Cvrcek, Jiloviste near to Prague

e-mail: cvrcek.h@seznam.cz

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Title photo: (c) JJ Harrison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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