Animalia Life

Agapornis roseicollis
SUBFAMILY
Psittacinae
TAXONOMY
Psittacus roseicollis Vieillot, 1818, Goodhouse, Cape Province. Two subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Peach-faced lovebird; French: Insйparable rosegorge; German: Rosenkцpfchen; Spanish: Inseparable de Namibia.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
6 in (15 cm); 1.6–2.2 oz (46–63 g). Small bird with mostly green plumage; peach-colored face, forehead, and chin.
DISTRIBUTION
A. r. roseicollis: Namibia and northern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. A. r. catumbella: southwest Angola.
HABITAT
Lowlands and foothills; in dry open country frequents woodlands, scrubby hillsides, and vegetation bordering watercourses; also cultivation, gardens, and urban parklands; dependent on surface water.
BEHAVIOR
Resident, wanders locally with changing water availability. Noisy, gregarious, and conspicuous; usually in small flocks, but sometimes flocks of hundreds where food is abundant. In flight, flock twists and turns with remarkable speed and dexterity, showing reddish foreparts on approach and blue rumps when going away; daytime resting and nighttime roosting often in nests of weavers; regular evening flights to drinking pools before going to roost.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Principally seeds gathered from the ground or taken from standing plants; also flowers, buds, and leaf shoots; fond of cultivated grain, especially maize and sunflower seeds.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Monogamous. Breeds colonially, mainly from February–April, but also July in north; cup-shaped nest of grass twigs or leaves placed in rock crevice or sometimes in wall of buildings or underneath bridges, but commonly in communal nests of weavers without addition of new material; nest-building material carried to site by female tucked under rump feathers; four to six eggs incubated by female for about 23 days; young birds fledge at approximately six weeks.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Generally common, locally plentiful; declines in some populations due to heavy trapping for live-bird trade. Listed on CITES Appendix II.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Very popular cagebird worldwide; many color mutations well established in captivity. Causes damage to grain crops.

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