FEATURE
The eldest at 33 days. Six adults also shared this box at night!
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 extent I found that to be true, although they bred irregularly and, if deprived of a nest box, very quickly became steady. On two occasions when I have had a solitary cock bird for a while
it has rapidly come to hanging on the cage front and nibbling one of my fingers – with a little patience they would make excellent pets. I presently have three youngsters that vie to hang nearest to the corner of the cage to monitor the progress of the breakfast trolley. I read that Mountains were burrow- nesters and required a nest box either with an entrance tube or with two compartments of which they would use the inner. Another breeder also suggested that I fill the inner compartment with coco fibre for them to build a nest. With my first Lineolated this was the trigger that started them – my Mountains were horrified and refused to enter the inner compartment. Always remember that your birds may
BIRD SCENE 27
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