FEATURE
Being scramblers, they often ignore the flight option and climb along the cage front. If the cage is large enough – and it should be – it would pay to clamp natural beech branches to the front of it. Beech has a natural structure that would facilitate scrambling in parts of the cage. I have even bred from a colony of 3 pairs in a 2400 x 600 x 600 cage – there are few parrotlike species that would do that (Parrot Society magazine April 2011). Outwith the breeding season I house my pairs of Mountains in groups in large (2400 – 2200mm) flight cages. I do not separate the sexes.
Do not underestimate the intelligence of Mountains – everything is examined for it’s entertainment potential. My birds have escaped by unhooking one side of a bath – the family were sitting in a row on top of their external nest box – and regularly undo one of the four bolt and (external) wingnut
The chicks, eldest 21 days.
assemblies that retain my cage fronts. I keep my Sierras in an outside flight covered in plastic-coated netting. The Mountains lasted less than a day in a similar unit having immediately set about removing the plastic coating. There are four subspecies of Mountain recognised (including the typical form) but I think this is largely academic to aviculturists. Firstly, I am unclear as to how distinct the ranges are in the wild or whether there are “grey” areas. Secondly, while the cocks are distinguished by the extent of yellow on the front (from hardly any to full frontal) the hens are virtually identical and would almost certainly need to be wild-caught from a known geographic area. My Mountains arrived with a reputation similar to that of Madagascar Lovebirds – “they hide in the nest box, lay lots of eggs and never hatch anything!” To some
BIRD SCENE 07 09
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