African Lovebirds

African lovebirds (agapornis) are colourful birds of the parrot family that have caught the fancy of bird-lovers. It doesn't fail that the first image that comes to mind when lovebirds are mentioned is a pair of snuggling colourful birds so much in love that they will not leave each other. They sit in pairs, affectionately preening each other hence the name agapornis. Agape is Greek for love and ornis means bird. Les inseperables is a French term used to describe African lovebirds.

These cuddly birds are found in a large region from the island of Madagascar to South West Africa. The genus agapornis has nine species. The general characteristics of the genus are a small, stocky with short blunt tail and a hooked beak that is somewhat proportionally large for the bird’s size. The first lovebirds were brought to Europe in the 18th-century by explorers from Africa. Europeans took fancy of the brightly coloured and lively lovebirds.

Today, African lovebirds can be found as regular pets all over the world. Children and pet lovers are attracted by the ability of the bird to mimic and entertain with a variety of comical antics. The development of commercial hand feeding formulae has made it possible for breeders to raise tamed sweet pets that they consider as members of the household. The small size of the bird makes them ideal as pets for apartment dwellers. Tamed lovebirds can be kept as single pet. This dispels the wrong notion that lovebirds cannot be kept as a solitary bird.

Two groups are identifiable, the peach faced lovebirds and all its mutations (color variations) and the eye ring. Eye rings are smaller with a white ring of skin around the eyes and with brighter colours. The peach faced variety has different colour presentations like green, blue, yellow and an orange face variety. They are affectionate with regards to its pair but highly territorial and would even fight hard to keep its place.