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Cage design’s effect on lovebirds’ behavior 0809

Page history last edited by ecop 15 years, 6 months ago
Cage Design's Effect on Lovebirds' Behaviour

 

 

 

Anonymous

 

 

 

 

Description and Rationale

     

     The Philippines has 580 species of birds, 30 percent of the birds of which are found nowhere else in the world. There are usually more than 100 species of birds in Manila and most of them are actually not found. This is simply because people are trapping and hurting them, according to Michael Lu, president of the Wild Bird of the Philippines. As Michael Lu says about one of the local schools textbook, that if you show a school textbook to people about birds, they simply can’t find these birds to see them.  

 

     It is important to focus on these challenges because there are lot of birds are nearly extinct. The lovebirds are beautiful birds. Lovebirds give beauty and fill the air with sounds. People can train lovebirds how to behave like good birds and can train them how to talk. Some birds have an important role. For example; they eat seeds out of the fruit and disperses the seeds to grow into new trees. Other focused on this challenged should be easy for the people of the country, it could be easily be say, “Watch, Don’t catch our beautiful birds in the city.”

  

     What kind of environment do love birds prefer? How has the lovebird been affected by our pollution? How are they surviving in such a dangerous environment? Where does a love bird get food when the environment is full of pollution? How many lovebirds are still living throughout the Philippines? Where can the lovebird be found? How can we take care of the lovebirds?

  

     The initial purpose of this project will be research through websites and possible interviews with some Avian Rescuers. The research will focus on how are many birds are still living the Philippines, what causes the birds to be hidden away and why people trap them.

  

     I will conduct an experiment with lovebirds. I will put it in the big cage with a tree inside so they can fly around. After few weeks of monitoring the birds with a tree, the tree feature will be removed out of the cage and again I will be monitored their behaviour without the tree. Experimenting with lovebirds will help understand what the environment is doing to the birds of the Philippines and how they will react to the different kinds of environments. I will also try to help lovebirds reproduce eggs by mating both male and female lovebirds and if possible raise them to be mature lovebirds, and release them to the wild.

  

     This project will prove to the Filipinos what the environment is doing to the lovebirds. Also, Filipinos can help raise lovebirds by mating both male and female lovebirds. This can help reproduce more lovebirds and they can be release to the wild to live on the own. People around our neighbourhood, need to think of the environment around them and should act and work out possible ways to change their environment to save our local area. People can help pick up garbage in the local street, and possibly help plants trees for a better conditions, and do things to preserve our wildlife.

 

 

 

 

   

 

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Biology

  

Common Names and Synonyms

  

     Fischeri's lovebird is also called as Agopornis fishceri. Lovebird is the commonly used name for any of the nine species of the genus Agapornis. These birds are also also called parakeets. “Agapein” is Greek word for love and “Ornis” is a Latin word for bird. In Philippines, it is just called parrot or lovebird.

       

Classification

  

Kingdom:      Animalia

Phylum:         Chordata

Class:              Aves (winged, bipedal, warm-blooded and vertebrate)

Order:         Psittaciformes (parrots)

Family:          Psittacidae (parrot)

Genus :           Agapornis (lovebird)

Species:         A. fischeri ( Fischer's lovebird) 

 

 

There are nine species of lovebirds. Each of them was named by a different people who found them. Fisher's lovebird comes in variety of colors.   

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Morphology and Physical Description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  External Anatomy:

Lovebirds can grow from 13 to 17 centimeters in length and about 40 to 60 grams in weight. Lovebirds are the smallest parrots in the world, and they are characterized by a sturdily built body, a short blunt tail, and a relatively large beak for their overall size. Wild-type lovebirds are mostly green with a variety of colors on their upper body depending on the species. The Fischer's Lovebird and some other species like; Black-cheeked Lovebird, and the Masked Lovebird have a white ring around their eyes. 

 

Internal Anatomy:

Birds live at a pace that would leave us breathless, exhausted, and starving. Birds have lungs and a heart like the rest of the creatures. Lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide between the blood and air. Bird lungs are smaller than any other mammals; they are part of the most effective respiratory machinery known in vertebrates. Even with this effective respiratory system, birds breathe rapidly during flight, for example; the pigeon breath up to 450 per minute.

The different about the birds are air sacs. Air sacs act as it cries to suck air into the body, then circulate it in a one way flow through the lungs - giving the lungs a constant flow of fresh air. The nine air sacs also act as a cooling system since birds don't have sweat glands. They contribute to stability in flight by lowering the center of gravity and act as shock-absorbers in diving birds. During courtship, male grouse inflate special air sacs on their chests like brightly colored balloons to attract a mate.

 

Heart, a bird’s heart is much like ours; a four chambered muscle that pumps blood throughout the body.

 

A bird's heart weighs up to twice as much as that of a mammal of equal size because flying is strenuous. Energy-hungry muscles need a bigger, faster beating heart to send them plenty of oxygen and nutrients. Smaller birds and mammals lead fast-paced lifestyles and generally have faster heart rates than large ones. Like hummingbird beats average of 600 per minute at rest the of Pigeon 200 beats per minute at rest Ostrich 65 beats per minute at rest Human 70 beats per minute at rest.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting Food 

 

A. fischeri should eat varied diets of fruit, seeds, grain, vegetables, and sprout. Pellets specifically processed for lovebirds are recommended rather than the millet food that is usually sold in pet stores. One food should be avoided artificial coloring and pellets that contain the preservatives ethoxyquin and BHT, which are considered toxic. Millet food should be avoided because they contain too much fat and they are not nutritionally balanced. While lovebirds like these kinds of food, it may decrease their life span. Generally, particularly like grains and some different kinds of wild rice, although it is recommended that other healthier foods be mixed in with the grains to ensure that they get the vitamins they need.

   

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Reproduction

   

 These lovebirds reproduce sexually. Although Fischeri's lovebird shows no sexual dimorphism, and it is impossible to tell whether an individual is male or female through plumage alone.

 One of the special things about lovebirds is that they are easy to breed with the different species lovebirds. The lovebirds are willingly as a single pair and some species to breed together as long as they have the same and mounted at the same height of the enclosure. Sometimes male fights over their mate that cause the weaker male to die.

 The female lovebird can lay about 3 to 8 eggs. The incubation period is 22-25 days, with 75% to 80% of the eggs hatching. The female will start to brood after the second egg is hatched, often the male will join the female in the nest. The young ones can leave their nest after 38 days. Lovebirds can live up to 20 years of lifespan. 

 

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Environmental Factors  

 

Sign of illness in the lovebird is to withdraw behavior, feather are ruffled and the plumage is dull and it sits with its eyes closed, watery or dull eyes and sleeps a lot. This means it loses its interest in its environment. Some common illness of lovebirds are injured that from fighting and Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease, Polyoma Virus Infections, Avian Pox Virus Infections etc. There are lots of disease that can cause lovebirds ail.

   

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Origin and Distribution

  

Lovebirds are native to African except for the Grey-headed lovebirds which was originally comes from the island of Madagascar. Fischer's lovebirds were discovered in the late 1800s and were the first bred in United State in 1926. Fischer's lovebirds are native to a small area of east-central Africa. Lovebirds like to have moister conditions. 

For my opinion, since the lovebirds were introduced in United State late 1920s, I think it was possibly that the lovebirds were brought and introduced by an American to the Philippines.

 

   

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Importance to People

   

Lovebirds are the smallest parrots that can make delightful pets for people. They are important to people and have been popular to have them in the house. People in some parts of the world people love to breed different kind of species together and to teach them how to behave, talk and do tricks. Locally in Cartarmar the biggest selling pet store in Manila, the vendors like to trade or sell them for bussiness.

 

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Survivability and Endangered Status

  

With the research throughout the websites, I simply can not find any sites that can tell whether that these lovebirds are survivable and endangered through our status in Philippines. For some of my opinions that these lovebirds are domesticated, which means that it can be pets in our house. Although, all the birds in the Philippines had has been endangered with the pollutions and has been endangered with captivity from people to try to sell them for bussiness.

    

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Potential Solutions

 

Are the lovebirds happy with a tree with lots of branches in their cage or without? Research show that having two different environment (one with a tree that has lots of branches and other one is just plain cage). The research says that the lovebirds are much happier with a tree that has lots of branches because it looks like jungle for them, they are perching places, they played, and they fly more to different branch. During the first few weeks, early morning my lovebirds contacted another species of lovebirds (which was a peachface) because they were pretty loud early in the morning. The lovebirds are also getting more entertainment than they used to be in cage that has no tree with them. But who would be interested in these result? Below, there are some possibilities that might help to those who have lovebirds for pets. Each have an advantages and disadvantages analysis to describe.   

 

Possibility 1 - MAKING A BIGGER CAGE

 

Making a cage will be helpful for researcher to be able to watch the birds of what is going to happen to 

them in the big cage; are their going to be happy or are their going to sit quietly? With the research that I have been conducting to have an experiment them, is just what the lovebirds wants around to be able fly around. Also making a bigger cage for the lovebirds will get them a better chance to live healthy.

 

 

      

 

Advantages:

 

  • Building a bigger cage can simply help the lovebirds to live a healthier life and to get a better chance to fly around, while the other lovebirds are kept in the small cages like in the Cartimar where the biggest marketing of animals.

     

Disadvantages:                                                                                                

 

  • People would love to see their lovebirds to fly around but they won't take their time to build a cage for them. But there is other way to get a bigger cage, they could go to the local wood shop to ask them if they could build one for.    

 

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Possibility 2 - PUTTING A TREE WITH LOTS OF BRANCHES IN THE CAGE

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Putting a tree in the cage is simply the natural way to take care of the birds. Since the lovebirds lived in a tree, there is a good way why the lovebirds are so happy. They also can stand in the different branch.

 

Advantages:

 

  • Putting a tree with lots branches will simply make the lovebirds more comfortable and happy. While a tree is placed in the cage, I have make some tallies to see how many times they preen in one hour. Preening is a sign that a bird show how happy there are with its environment.

 

- Without a tree in the cage = I I I. 3 tallies in one hour.

 

- With a tree in the cage = I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I. 17 tallies in hour.

 

Disadvantages:

 

  • As researcher, I can not figure out any disadvantages of these, of why we can't use a tree to help a lovebirds to come more healthier and to come more like a home for them.

  

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Possibility 3 - MATING BOTH SEXUALLY

 

I've started to mate both male and female sexually. Mating both male and female can be helpful for the lovebirds so they don't get extinct. I will also try to help lovebirds reproduce eggs by mating both male and female lovebirds and if possible raise them to be mature lovebirds, and release them to the wild. It is important that we put where the lovebirds belong.

 

Advantages:

 

  • Mating both male and female sexually will also try to help lovebirds reproduce eggs and if possible, raise them to be mature lovebirds, and release them to the wild. These will be great for them cause we don't want to keep them and die, it is better for them to put where they belong.

 

Disadvantages:

 

  • I don't think that people, who have lovebirds would want to take their time to be wasted just to try mate or try to help reproduce eggs for the lovebirds unless you're a breeder. If people don't help, then all the lovebirds will get extinct and someday, they will realize that some of birds have already extinct.

     

 

 

   

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Bibliography

 

 

 

Wikipedia:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%27s_Lovebird

  

Wikipedia:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebird.23 Feb. 2009

 

Parrot Parrot.” We Put the “Love” in “Lovebird”. 

  

<http://www.parrotparrot.com/lovebirds/fischers.htm>

  

<http://www.nhm.org/birds/guide/pg004.html>

  

Dilger, William C. 1962. “The Behavior of Lovebirds” in Scientific America, vol. 206. no.1. pp. 89-88.

   

<http://www.oaklandzoo.org/animals/birds/fischer-s-lovebird/>

    

Parrots.” Parrots. 2005

  

<http://www.pet-parrots.com/Lovebirds/lovebirds.html>

  

Ortiz, Margaux. “Inquirer” BirdWatch.ph. 31. May. 2007.

  

<http://www.birdwatch.ph/html/news/news20070531.html>

 

    

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