Red Throated Parrot Finch

RED THROATED PARROT FINCH
ERYTHRURA PSITTACEA

© A.Teruel

Also called: Red Faced Parrot Finch, Red Headed Parrot Finch

CLASSIFICATION
This bird is considered a separate species. No subspecies are known.

NATIVE HABITAT
They live in New Caledonia and are mainly found in the bushes. In search of food they fly from bush to bush avoiding open areas. Occasionally they are found on the ground looking for fallen seeds. Grass and weed seeds are their principal food.

There is no fixed breeding period, so juveniles can be seen at any time during the year.

DESCRIPTION
This parrot finch with a lenght of 12 cm is totally green with a red mask, starting behind the ear and cheek to the throat and the upper part of the crop region.

The red mask of the male is more extensive and darker red than the female, although some females have a similar mask. The difference between male and female is sometimes difficult to see, though generally a 100% guarantee of the male is when it sings.
A good advice, females never have red vent feathers.
The upper tail coverts are also red.

An ideal red-headed parrot finch for show has to be stronly built and especially behave calmly.

AVICULTURAL NOTES
Together with the blue-faced parrot finch this bird is one of the most bred parrot finches in our aviaries. They are very active birds and are very tolerant with other birds or members of the same species.

Parent rearing is no problem in a small aviary and with a well-bonded couple three nests are no exception.

Do not forget to provide bath water and greens. They are satisfied with a half-open nestbox and grass and coconut fibre as nesting material. Clutches of 4-5 eggs are incubated for 13 days and at 3 weeks old the yellow-beaked babies will leave the nest.
At 6 weeks they are independent and at 6 months they have their full colour.

MUTATIONS

Green pied
This bird result from de-pigmented parents where only the green has changed to yellow. They keep their red mask on the head.

Nowadays through purposeful breeding some practically totally yellow birds have been obtained.
It is noticed they become more yellow after each moult. Heredity should be autosomal dominant.

Lutino
Through hybridisation the lutino of the blue-faced parrot finch has been inbreed. A lutino red-headed could be obtained by using a young fertile male. The heredity is sex-linked.

Seagreen
All the green of these birds becomes seagreen and all the red becomes orange. The heredity is sex-linked.

As you can see on the pictures the depth of the sea green colour may vary.
The last two pictures shows sea greens with a remarkable blue colour.

Seagreen pied
A combination of pied and seagreen.

Pastel
On this orange headed bird the pastel colour is quite visible.
The heredity is sex-linked.

Seagreen Pastel
A combination of seagreen and pastel.

Seagreen Pastel Pied
A combination of seagreen, pastel and pied.

White tail
This is a bird with a completely white tail and for the moment still in the phase of experiment.

APPEAL
Certain birdlovers have set up some breeding lines of diverged colours with the intention to fix these anomalies.

The problem for the future, and we already can see it, is that whole blood lines will be proven unpure.

I would implore breeders not to lose sight of the wild coloured bird.