when the forest carries more fruit. The newly fledged chicks will thus find sufficient food. They are still fed by the parents for a few weeks, but get independent quite soon. The behaviour and also the breeding behaviour of the Greater and Lesser Vasa Parrot is almost identical. It seems that especially hens of the Greater Vasa are more aggressive in the breeding season, so males need more places to hide. Incidentally, there are also reports of aggression in breeding season with the Lesser Vasa hens. Although the hen is dominant victims of injuries never happened with me. In a group there is a clear pecking order.
For me, there are always a few birds (males mostly) that are lower in the ranking and are picked on. This cannot be avoided. Incidentally hens also pair with these
bedraggled males. It does not matter where in the ranking the males are placed they can also be good fathers. The Lesser Vasa has a greater range of melodic whistling than its big brother. Especially in the breeding season they let us hear a large variation of (short) melodies. They rarely screech. If they screech, there is usually something wrong. It clearly is a panic reaction, which they emit when they are attacked or, sometimes if they are held in the hand after being caught.
Outside the breeding season they are calm yet vibrant birds. At the start of the breeding season, however, they really are noise generators. I know several breeders
20 BIRD SCENE
who abandoned their Vasa Parrots due to complaining neighbours. Even less fun for the neighbours (and often also for me and my wife) is that they also make noise at night. At night the hen occasionally leaves the nest box to be fed. Just like during the day and she produces whistle tunes at high volume. After being fed by one of the males she is quiet again after a few minutes. But also males are heard at night sometimes. They produce a gentle soft whistling tone as they probably want to let know the hen know that they are nearby. This sound can take longer. This behaviour is not acceptable for everyone and one’s sleep (temporarily) can suffere. Therefore breeders of Vasa Parrots are advised to house the birds not directly under the bedroom window and it is appropriate to modify a known proverb: a distant neighbour is better than a good cousin........ Vasa Parrots don’t show any sign of
affection. Brushing each others head and neck feathers, as we see for example in Amazon parrots and Macaws, they never do. Individual birds keep to themselves and do not look for others. Only in the breeding season, the birds feed each other, but even that goes pretty rough and fast. After feeding the feeding party is chased, which flies away quickly, usually noisily with a kind of chattering sound like a duck. Lesser Vasas are sensitive to stress, especially when it comes to changes in their environment. This also applies to offspring.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
