phoenix — Minutes after arriving at a park in downtown Phoenix, you can see flashes of green in the sky and hear chatter because love is in the air — or at least, the lovebirds are.
The little parrots are transplanted plants from the other side of the world and are believed to be descendants of domesticated birds. Arizona is believed to be home to the largest colony of pink-faced lovebirds outside of southwest Africa. They have managed to survive in A place known for hot weather By sticking close to humans and their air conditioners.
Maybe lovebirds have something to teach humans that Valentine’s Day About maintaining strong romantic connections.
Pink-faced lovebirds are native to another arid region, the Namib Desert, which stretches from Angola, through Namibia to South Africa. It is one of the nine species of lovebirds.
Lovebirds are a popular pet all over the world. No one knows for sure how the lovebird colony began in Phoenix, but they were first noticed around the city in the 1980s.
Some believe the pet lovebirds escaped, were released by their owners or escaped from a pet store, said Robert Carter, a Maricopa Bird Alliance volunteer who leads birding tours in the Phoenix area. Others have speculated that they could have flown to Arizona, but Carter believes that in that case, they would have found another barren area to stay in along the way. The bird population rose to an estimated 2,000 birds in Phoenix today, he said.
They can be seen sticking their heads out of holes in the cactus and palm trees in which they roost. They are also known to hang out near air conditioning vents on really hot days to be at least a little less hot, including in Arizona State University Science Building.
While Carter believes they should have been left in Africa, he admires their ability to adapt.
“They definitely show a sense of resilience in the face of the situation they are in,” he said.
While Phoenix lovebirds are thought to be the largest and most established colony outside of Africa, there are also fairly well-established colonies of pink-faced lovebirds in parts of Hawaii — on the Big Island and on Maui, said Ken Kaufman, an Audubon field editor who Books about love birds.
He added that there is another type of lovebird, the Fisher’s lovebird, which appears to have established a small colony on the southern coast of Portugal.
Lovebirds earned their name because of their tendency to form lifelong bonds with their mates, who like to sit close together, almost as if they were embracing them. While many parrots mate for life, less than half of bird species mate, Kaufman said.
While genetic testing has revealed that birds considered “monogamous” sometimes breed with other birds while raising their young with a mate, lovebirds are not known to stray. They often groom the feathers of their mates, especially those that are hard to reach, and feed each other food throughout their lives, not just when they court, like some other birds, Kaufman said.
People who have kept lovebirds as pets have reported that their partner seems depressed when they lose their partner due to them being inactive or making abnormal calls, said Dr. Stephanie Lamb, an associate veterinarian and avian specialist at Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital.
Even when they’re with other birds, lovebirds aren’t afraid to engage in some PDA — or as Kaufman says, “show parrot affection.” He said they pass food to each other with their beaks, which often looks like kissing.
But the truth may seem unkind to people: the food they share gets regurgitated.
“It wouldn’t be very romantic if humans were doing that,” he said.
All this care and attention helps keep their bonds strong over their long lives, he said. He said that they live about 20 years, which is less than larger parrots but longer than smaller songbirds.
However, Lamb says lovebirds, like other parrots, can sometimes be violent with each other, screaming and pecking each other with beaks strong enough to open seeds. She added that sometimes they have to sit on opposite sides of the cage for a while, until someone comes and prompts them to embrace.
“Then everything is fine,” she said. ___ Slevin reported from Denver.