Red-Capped Parrot

[cheekybeaks]

Hi,
I have bought home a beautiful little Red-capped parrot 3 days ago, the business I bought her from wasn't sure what she was at first but found out she was a Red-Capped and beleived her to be a mature female. As I wasn't familliar with these birds I was doing some research on the internet and I am now wondering that she may be a baby. If anyone has experince with these birds and can tell I would be very grateful as I would like to get a mate for 'her' oneday. I would also love to know the best diet for her as I have read in the wild they eat Eucalyptus nuts and at time nectar and wanted to know if anyone has fed these as part of thier diet.
I bought her as an aviary bird and while she isn't hand tame is very freindly and gentle and will take food from my hand and is now perched on my head having a little snooze ;D


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[avinet]

Red caps are a great bird - often rather highly strung but if you get a quiet one like you seem to have, they are an entertaining bird to have around and the males at least can be good talkers. I've hand raised a few over the years and always enjoyed having them.

It does look like an immature bird - I would guess 9 months old. While males tend to have a brighter and larger red cap the females also have a good cap which from memory comes in around the 12 month mark, and they are not fully coloured until 2 years. I would suggest getting the bird DNA sexed since if you decide to get a mate you will need to be sure of what you have with this one. For what it is worth I do think you have a hen - nice rounded head while the males tend to be flatter headed.

A photo of a young bird is at www.fotothing.com/PinkRocksAus/photo/5501c0b7ada49ea81a0db12e7e1b45af/ - it has a trace of red appearing on the head - maybe 10-12 months old.

If you get another one be sure to get a hand raised one - they are so much calmer than even aviary bred and raised ones and avoid at all costs getting a wild caught bird - some legal trapping still occurs in WA and those birds find their way into some pet shops.

Diet is pretty standard cockatiel type but they usually love fruit, and will really enjoy native flowers such as Grevillea and Banksia. Also if you have any red flowering West Australian eucalypts with the big seed pods they will adore those big gum nuts.

Everyone likes photos so I am including one of a pair I used to have - the male on the perch. I can't claim to have had much success breeding them - the pairs I had were pretty nervous and never settled down for me, so I got very few babies and passed them on to someone with a quieter environment than mine - we had 2 English and 1 Irish Setters at the time.



cheers,

Mike

[cheekybeaks]

Hi Mike,
Thank you so much for the info. It is so hard to find good info about these birds. I noticed you are at the Sunshine Coast, I live just south of Caboolture. Do you know of any breeders locally?
Something I have noticed about this little one is that she has a 'bush' smell about her and think she has probably been fed on Eucalypts or other native plants where she came from. We have three different Eucalypts growing (a red, a pink and an orange) in our yard but not sure what they are but all have large nuts, do you think these would be safe to feed?
Thank again

[avinet]

Any eucalypt is safe to give to birds as are any Grevillea, Wattle, Bottlebrush or Banksia, as long as they have not been sprayed with insecticides etc and if they are in your garden that is great because you will know they are free of chemicals.

I don't know of anybody breeding Red Caps at the moment - I'll ask around. Breeding season will be just getting underway so new season babies would start to become available around December usually.

cheers,

Mike

[meandem]

I had a hand raised male for years, and he was a delight. I also had a pair in the aviaries, they can be such a scatty bird, hand raised is a good thing for a red cap.