Abstract
On October 5, 1978, I was to receive six imported Plum-crowned Pionus Parrots. A problem arose when the birds were not unloaded at the Jackson Airport, having been overlookedby the airline employees, and the birds were sent to Chicago
where they remained an additional 24 hours.
Finally, they arrived in Jackson.
When I unpacked them, they were so stressed they were sitting in a circle with .their heads together. They would not even move when the shipping box was opened and the top taken completely off. I reached into the box and took each bird out and set them on the floor of the aviary. Two birds were in such bad condition that they could not fly but slowly crawled up the wire. Both were dead in less than a week.
None of the birds would eat.
Finally I moved their food and water up to the level of the first perch. They then began to feed. They were fed, as all of my birds are, fresh corn on the cob, grapes, cheddar cheese, spinach, apples, carrots and the Stoodley mix. A variety of seeds was also offered along with raw peanuts. The fruits and vegetables were sprinkled with torula yeast fortified with minerals.
Within a short time, a third bird was dead. Since I did not have access to a veterinarian at the time, I cannot be sure as to why they died although I am sure, in some cases, aspergillus was involved. The three remaining birds were housed in an aviary 4' x 4' x 6' long. I had no idea of the sex of these birds. They lived together in harmony from 1978 to 1982.
One day in March, 1982, when I came home from work, two of the birds were making a great deal of noise, pacing back and forth on the perches with feathers raised, tails fanned, wings dropped, and heads lowered.
The third bird was on the floor of the aviary with almost every feather on its head pulled out, bloody wounds on its body, and its right eye damaged. This bird died two days later.
On March 1 7, 1982, the two remaining birds produced an egg, followed two days later by a second. One egg proved to be fertile and all seemed to be going weII until March 26 when I found the female dead on the floor. She was still warm and there was a trickle of blood coming out of her mouth. The male was sitting on the perch looking at her. When I looked into the nest box, the eggs were buried and the nesting material was much disturbed as if there had been a struggle in the nest box.
At the time, there was a veterinarian in Jackson who was interested in birds. Her autopsy report showed the hen had died from aspergiIIosis. Her lungs hemorrhaged, causing her to strangle, hence the disruption in the nest box. Perhaps the stress of nesting had brought on the aspergillosis.
Not having an incubator, I put the fertile egg in the nest of a Whitecapped Pionus who was getting ready to Jay. She simply buried the egg. I then took the egg to a friend who placed it under a cockatiel. However, the egg failed to hatch.
The foIIowing month I was lucky enough to acquire five more Plumcrowns from the same importer in Florida. Within a short time, two of these birds were dead of aspergillosis. Later I was able to have the four remaining birds surgically sexed. They proved to be two pairs.
In the winter of 1983, a male, the last of the original six, died. In 1986, the remaining pair went to nest. The female laid two eggs in May. They proved not to be fertile. I do not believe any mating took place.
The female, from the very beginning, would not stay in the nest box. During the heat of the day, she would not stay in the box at all. She would go in only when the sun was low in the afternoon. The heat seemed to be a real problem with her and the nest box. The eggs were taken from her but the pair did not go back to nest that year. Perhaps it was too warm.
The following year, 1987, I observed them mating on several occasions. One afternoon I found the male in the outside flight sitting on the ground with his head under his wing. The female was nearby, moving around him on the ground. Since he remained in that position, I caught him up and gave him antibiotics which surely disrupted the breeding cycle.
In May, however, she again laid two infertile eggs. Since spring was hot, she would not stay in the box when the sun was on it. The eggs were removed, and the birds did not attempt to nest again.
On February 25, 1988, the hen laid a soft-shelled egg from the perch. Two days later, she laid a second egg in the box. Twenty-six days later it hatched. All went well, but even this early in the spring she would not stay in the box on warm days. Never did I hear the chick begging for food. The male fed the hen but did not enter the box.
The chick, when first hatched, was covered by a thin white down. As the days passed, I could see white tufts of down beginning to appear through the skin. These tufts quickly grew and covered the chick in a thick white down.
As the chick grew older, the female seemed to feed it less. On many occasions when I checked, the chick's crop was empty but usually had food in it at dusk - never a lot, but some.