City Parrots

Bill ‘will protect birds’

City Parrots — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:25:32 +0000

Kaarakin wildlife and clinic manager Louise Hopper introduces the Member for East Metropolitan Region Alison Xamon to Jason the cockatoo. MEMBER for East Metropolitan Region Alison Xamon says protecting the remaining forest areas in the State will help protect rare and endangered cockatoos.

The comments came after Ms Xamon attended a Conservation Council of WA meeting earlier this month, which heard from experts on the topic Why WA’s rare and endangered cockatoos are starving.

“It is quite clear that our native cockatoos, in particular the Carnabys, Baudins and Forest Red Tailed Black Cockatoos are under threat and this has been attributed to a combination of land clearing, drought and fire,” she said.

This is the worst reproductive strategy in the animal kingdom

City Parrots — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:15:58 +0000

Camouflaged: The Kakapo parrot, one of just 124, was captured amid dense scrub on a compact cameraThink pandas are inept when it comes to carrying on the species? Think again. The giant panda is a champion reproducer compared to a chubby, land-bound parrot called the kakapo. Between navigational problems, botanical problems, and the occasions when horny male parrots try to have sex with animals that can kill them, this is the most hopelessly inefficient reproducer on Earth.

How tweet! Cockatoo makes four-legged friend by feeding dog NOODLES

City Parrots — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:04:51 +0000

Maybe he thought they were worms.

This bird made an unlikely four-legged friend after feeding a dog noodles from the kitchen counter top.

Illegally traded birds in India

City Parrots — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:32:33 +0000

Birds Carrier passing by, on the narrow streets of Benares. Image by Aegon Targaryen Rosy ringed Parakeets are most common illegally traded birds in India. Every other week scores of beautiful Indian parakeets are rescued by People For Animals volunteers and brought to Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre. They are taken off trains and tops of buses, hundreds cramped into square cane boxes with split levels. The bottom layer is barely 6 inches tall and the birds are squatting, many of them with broken legs and wings covered with the faeces of the top layer birds. The boxes are covered by gunny bags and many die from suffocation.

Alex the parrot’s last experiment shows his mathematical genius

City Parrots — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:24:29 +0000

Alex, Whats different? Image courtesy The Alex FoundationEven in death, the world’s most accomplished parrot continues to amaze. The final experiments involving Alex – a grey parrot (Psittacus eithacus) trained to count objects – have just been published.

They show that Alex can accurately add together as many as eight Arabic numerals and three sets of objects, putting his mathematical abilities on par with (and maybe beyond) those of chimpanzees and other non-human primates. The work was just published in the journal Animal Cognition.

Back from the brink: superb parrots return to north-west

City Parrots — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:05:40 +0000

Male superb parrot. Photo: Geoffrey DabbCanberra's brilliant birds are winning new ground in the ACT.

Bill Oddie: Unplugged

City Parrots — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:54:18 +0000

Ring-necked parakeets can make quite a racket, but it's nothing compared with a dentist's drill - or a leaf-blower.Everybody loves garden wildlife – but many people don’t like it in their own back yard.

20 caged green parrots set free

City Parrots — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:15:28 +0000

Free as a bird! Ring-Necked Parakeet.BHOPAL: Twenty-caged green parrots put up for sale at a weekly market were set free by the forest department as part of the bird awareness drive, which began on Saturday.

Parrot test out feather transplants

City Parrots — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:27:07 +0000

ON THE FLY: Dr Adrian Gallagher with Bruce, who has had a feather transplant. Picture: Jamie Hanson MEET Bruce the ringneck parakeet. He's the Shane Warne of the bird world.

Bird smugglers continue brisk business

City Parrots — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:23:47 +0000

The Parrots of India (click to enlarge)Despite the blanket ban on trade in bird species across India since 1990-91, hundreds of parrots continue to be collected and traded annually in the country.