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I have read the hybrid posts and thought that I would inform the ones that are interested about what happens in the wild. I owned 8 acres of property with 30 more acres behind my property outside of San Carlos ( Ciudad Quesada ) Costa Rica. We raised great green and scarlet macaws, but none were ever in cages. We had nestboxes on our back porch,which they used and also some in the trees on the property. Years ago the almandro trees in that area were cut down for furniture and building needs and so the macaws left the area, but with the help of the local law enforcement people we had as of four years ago 23 free flying macaws in our area. The funny thing was that there were two pairs of macaws that decided to hybridize and produce babies without anu human intervention. At no time did we cage any unrelated species with each other. In Costa Rica you cannot own a macaw in a cage unless it is being used as a breeder and you have the proper paperwork saying that you are setup as a zoo or a research center open to the public. We received most of our stock that flew over our property from confiscated birds that were taken from hotels, bars and other places that thought that the Vida Silvestre would never come to visit and confiscate the birds. Some had no tails and butchered wings when we received them. We had bamboo playgrounds in the yard and a covered area for when it rained and they used both until they could fly. Once they knew that we were taking care of them and that no one was going to capture them they would leave and fly as far as 20 miles away and back in that same day and other times pairs would be gone for days and weeks, but they still came back. Very few never returned. The hybrids were beautiful birds, but my point is that nature will produce what it feels like whenever it feels like it without human intervention. The birds are still flying outside of the town and I donated my land and home to the La Marina Zoo because I have a blood disease and had to come back to the states for proper treatments with blood transfusions every so often. I now live outside of Tampa and I am back into breeding birds as of this February and my first young uns are baby major mitchell's,which hatched this week. We have great greens, blue throats, blue heads, greenwings and hyacinths. We also do golden conures ( aratinga aratinga) and cuban amazons. Oh and by the way the macaws there don't bond for life as some would produce with one bird one year and another bird the next. Also the babies from hatch to flying were only about three months old in comparison to around 4 to 5 months here. The parents also would say have fun kids and leave them at around 7 months of age and the parents might sleep in one tree and the babies across the road in another tree. They would not come sit with their parents except for meals once they were independent.

The property originally belonged to my best friend whom is now gone, but not forgotten in the San Carlos area Thomas B. Armstrong.

Denis W. Sloan

It is, still IMO, that parrots don't hybridize naturally in their natural habitats... or rather from where they originate. And if they do it's probably on very rare occasions.

I've known for quite some time that parrots don't mate for life, however I appreciate the info you've seen among the flock in Costa Rica which only confirms that well parrots really DON'T mate for life!

Also figured that parent raised chicks wean faster than human raised... doesn't surprise me but it's an interesting bit of info! Also found info about the chicks and parents interaction interesting. Many times birds are sold shortly after weaned, and I often wonder if that has any issues in the future behavior, since it seems as if chicks stay with their parents for a while longer even after weaned...

My best friend is in Australia and the president of the PSOA. When we talk he has sent me pictures of crossbreeding cockatoos and I know that there is no human intervention in these birds. We had enough birds flying free and coming and going and it wasn't like we had three scarlets and 15 great greens in our flocks. We seemed to have around 14 scarlets and the rest were great greens.I was really surprised when they did it on their own. If you ever looked at most of the macaws at Parrot Jungle that were flying around the grounds they were hybrids and as Trent whom was the keeper of the birds told me, he didn't make them breed with each other, but then again there weren't a lot of choices for the males and females on the grounds.
Another litle tidbit about C.R. The government likes to have their pictures showing that they are all for helping these birds survive, but most of money will always come from your own pocket and you get your picture taken with goverment officials and that is about as good as it gets. I even supplied their Vida Silvestre with microchips and two readers in case a bird is caught to see if it has a history behind it as to where it came from. Since there was little intervention with the babies very few were ever microchipped on our property.
I am not aksing for any arguements as to how the birds are cared for around C.R. I am just telling you what I dealt with while living there. The good thing is that we proved that the birds in C.R.can survive without the Almandro trees for food and can find enough to eat to keep themselves healthy.

Thanks for the nice e-mail.

Denis :)

Not to look completely stupid, but I posted that I raise golden conures and their scientific name now is ( Guarouba Guarouba ) Not Aratinga Guarouba or Aratinga Aratinga. I guess that is what happens when you write without thinking.

I do believe I could understand the reason for the name change... such as that with the nanday conure...

However, on the topic of Golden Conures, what is your opinion on their personality and habits?

The goldens have a wonderful disposition, un like many other hybrids.

The only downside that I have found over the years with the golden's is that they all are LOUD and they all at some period in their life seem to pick out their tails or necks or wings an some of them recover from this and seem to go on in life while others make themselves look like little yellow chickens for life.

The fish and wildlife and I have had a conversation about whether they should be sold as pets or all held back for future breeders and that conversation can go on forever.

I have three last year hatches that have gone from perfect feathering to no tails, but they have started letting the tails finally start back in.

The reason for the name change was to reclassify them as their own specie and not a part of the Aratinga family. Actually they look very close to the size of some of the mini macaws. My blue heads are just a tad bit larger then the Queens.

Denis

If all of them started going after their feathers and it's not due to clumsyness then I'd have to figure that either they are missing something in the diet, something in the environment is wrong, or maybe they are ingesting something that's not good? Or maybe there's some natural behavior related to this?

I do know that Aratingas and Aras can hybridize so it doesn't surprise me that they may act or look so similar... but one thing I have wondered is just how closely the Golden Conure may be to the Sun Conure... considering the fact that the green on their wings is so similar... Maybe it's just a "coincidence of evolution" for two birds to have similar characteristics?

From the limited info that I've read, it says that goldens tend to be very sweet conures...

The aratingas aren't crossing with the ara's. They do hybridize or we wouldn't have all of the different names in the macaw group and all of the different names in the conure group. The queen's are notorious for pulling tail feathers and other feathers and some of them go through a phase and then it is over. I have raised queens since around 1989 and I have personally seen it all in this species. I have one pair that looks beautiful until it is breeding season then the female pulls the head feathers out of the male and then female makes herself look like she was hit with a weed whacker.
Thanks for your comments as it is always nice to hear someone else's input.

Denis

If aratingas and aras are not hybridizing, then I'd like your opinion on these two hybrids...

This one is said to be a sun conure/hahns macaw


This one is said to be a hahns/nanday (okay not aratinga, but conure still)


And this one... well its supposedly a sun/blue crown/mini macaw (?) mix



I didn't even think about aratingas and aras hybridizing until I saw the sun/hahns cross... and supposedly someone did some research which mentioned that aratinga means "little macaw".... such as how parakeet is suppose to mean "small parrot".... Either way, I've found some interesting (more 'rare') hybrids and have gathered photos at
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0903/ ... ?start=all


As for the queens, well I could understand the behavior if its something like how the female vasa parrots go bald during breeding season.... so would be interested if you've spoken with other queen breeders and the behaviors of their breeders?

I think you are misunderstanding me. I was talking about the two hybridizing with each other. You know like macaws with conures in that last posting. I know about conures and conures and macaws and macaws as that was what my topic started with. I use to sell Sundays at my store as one of my employees raised them and the naturally occuring scarlet and great green crosses that I had on my property in Costa Rica. I might have written this so that i confused you and confused myself. Sometimes I think one thing and write something else that I think that others will understand, but I write it so that only I can understand what I wrote.

My best friend whom raises Queens and has around 75 or more has had the same problems that I have and when I talk with others this has been a normal thing with them. It seems as though the plucking and the normal loudness are their downsides. Their talking and funny antics are their plus. I don't play with my queen babies once they are raised so that they don't become so bonded that they want us instead of a mate. I made that mistake years ago and my first female to this day will produce eggs, but doesn't want a male to breed with her and she has been now with a couple of males. She is also now going on 17 years of age.

Indeed, the previous posts of yours was confusing...

Either way, I hadn't heard the info on the queens before so I do find it interesting.... I'll see if someone can get more info about that too...

VERY INTERESTING READ

This is BS plain, and simple. You say there was no human intervention. Did all those nest boxes appear magically? That sounds like human intervention to me. With deteriation of the natural habitat you still provided a place to nest. Hybrid activities do not happen in the WILD unless of human intervention. If this is real, which I doubt. Now you've created a huge problem.

I don't intend to be rude but Mfids is on every chat topic here. Do you have every kind of bird? How much experience could you have in your 19 years of life? I think that advice should only be given from your own experiences. People aren't asking to be quoted common sense answers, we aren't stupid. I didn't think that Denis' post was at all confusing.