Lovebird

Overview

Lovebirds are a genus of nine small parrot species native to Africa and Madagascar. Their name comes from the strong pair bonds they form - bonded pairs spend hours preening each other and sitting pressed together. In captivity, a single lovebird deprived of a companion will often direct all its attachment behavior toward its human keeper - requiring significant daily interaction to thrive emotionally and prevent behavioral problems.

Quick Facts

History

Louis Pierre Vieillot described the rosy-faced lovebird in 1818, and Anton Reichenow named Fischer's lovebird in 1887 for Gustav Fischer, a German explorer of East Africa. Wild trapping supplied the trade for most of the century that followed, and it cost the birds heavily: collectors worked the black-cheeked lovebird so hard in the 1920s that it is listed as Vulnerable today across its small Zambian range. Fischer's lovebird went out of Tanzania in such volume that the country suspended export licenses in 1992. Captive stock had by then set off on its own line, with a blue Fischer's first bred by R. Horsham in South Africa in 1957.