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This month's featured bird
is the African Grey. It is, in my opinion, a wonderful bird. So,
I hope you will enjoy the information I have provided for you about these
facinating birds.
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The African Grey (Psittacus
erithacus), or African Gray as it is also spelled, is native to Equatorial
Africa, especially in the forests of the Ivory Coast in the west, to the
western parts of Kenya in the east, and south as far as the northern parts
of Angola, and sothern Congo and northwestern Tanzania. There are a couple
different subspecies of the African Grey, such as the Timneh (which is
native to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast)and the Congo
(most prominant to the Ivory Coast and western parts of the Congo).
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The African Grey grows to
be approximatly 14 inches in length. Usually, each cluch of eggs laid contains
two to three white eggs. The incubation period is 29 to 30 days. After
the young leave the nest they will still be fed by their parents for at
least another four months. For breeding, make sure you have a sexually
mature pair, which means the birds must be at least five to six years of
age.
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There are many advantages
of owning an African Grey. The African Grey has the intelligence of a five
year old child. They are considered to be the most intelligent of the parrot
species. They are good talkers and great mimics, however they are not a
noisy bird. The average life span of an African Grey can range from 40-60
years. They reproduce quite commonly.
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As with all things, African
Greys do have their disadvantages. It wouldn't be fair if I did not mention
them. African Greys are known to have an unreliable temperment, meaning
that one minute it can be the sweetest thing imaginable and the next turn
into a holy terror. Most often this occurs only if the bird is over stimulated.
Most birds have the temperment of a two-year old child, so approach the
situation knowing this. African Greys NEED ALOT OF ATTENTION and are notorious
feather-pluckers when neglected. Last but not least, they are one person
birds, meaning they will bond with one person, but they have been known
on occasion to bond with two and sometimes three people.
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I hope the information I
have provided you will give you a better understanding of these parrot
geniuses and will encourage some of you out there to adopt one of these
beauties.
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~Information retrieved
from "The New Bird Handbook" by Matthew M. Vriends, PhD
