LINEOLATED PARAKEETS

DESCRIPTION

 

Lineolated parakeets(or barred parakeets/bolborhynchus lineola) original habitat, are the high mountains of South-Mexico to West-Panama.  There we find the original bird which is green of color and about 19 cm/7.5" in length.

The bird is mostly emerald green in color, in which the head and neck and the middle of the underside are more yellowish brown of color. The upper and the lower part of the body feathers, have a fine black border. The bill is horned colored. The legs are grey and the eyes are yellowish brown.  In young birds the legs, bill and feathers have a lighter color.

The lineolated parakeets eat  all kinds of seeds from grass seeds, berries and even insects. We can usually find these birds in groups of 30, high in the trees.  They can fly great distances without being seen.

These birds are very quiet. When they are tame, they are very affectionate and very loving. It is preferable to buy hand reared birds, because wild caught are very flighty.

These birds are fairly hardy and very active in a large cage or flight. Especially in the morning and early evening these birds can be seen  hanging upside down from the wires of the cage.

 

Sexual characteristics

 

The most outstanding characteristic between the sexes, is that, the male birds have the end of the tail black, for one or even two centimeter.  The female birds don't have the black on the tail, or have only a little piece of black.  Also the black spots on the wings and the rump are more accentuated on the male birds.

When you have lutino (yellow) or albino (white) birds, you will have to go to the veterinary surgeon to have your birds sexed.

 

Feeding

Preferable to give these birds a good mixture of seeds and especially great for them are pieces of sweet fruit (apples) and a little bit of common oat (which they like very much).

 

Breeding

It is recommended to wait till the birds are a full year old before breeding, so that the birds have the time to mature and fully develop.

When breeding with mutations of these parakeets, it is recommended to use large cages.  For nesting-box you can use the same as you find with budgies, filled up with wood shavings.

 Lineolated parakeets are very easy to keep for breeding.  The female birds lays a total of five to seven eggs, one every two days, and incubates alone for 23 days. The male bird takes care of the alimentation problems, and helps only in a few isolated instances with breeding.

It is best to look every day in the nesting-box to check if everything is fine. If done on a regular basis before breeding the female will be fine . The little birds grow quickly and  leave box after a period of six weeks. After a few weeks more the birds are able to leave the parents and start their own lives.

 

 

Mutations and colors

 

Lineolated have 3 mutations. Lutino, blue, dark green and all combinations of those.

Available colors:

GREEN SERIE: Green

Dark green (one factor of darkness) donkerfactor)

Olive (two factors of darkness)

BLUE SERIE: Blue

Cobalt (one factor)

Mauve (two factors)

LUTINO SERIE : (YELLOW) Dependig on the number of factors of darkness the colours of these birds goes from light till very dark yellow (almost orange)

ALBINO SERIE:(WHITE) These birds are not totally white like some other mutations in parakeets but they have a little yellow shine (crème) over the body. For that reason that are usually called 'crème-inno'.

 

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