Unrelated Spectacles & Green Rumps

Sandee,

Greetings!!

I was speaking with Ed Singh today he has some wonderful Blue Mutation Yellow Napped Amazons. Wow he is very smart as well, he had mentioned your name and spoke very highly of you. I have also been E-mailing with Brian Nielsen in Denmark he has a very good sense with Parrotlets. But he will not ship to USA.

I have purchased 3 Green Rumps from *****, these birds are so small and sweet. But they are related I was looking for an un-related male that was banded and have had no luck. I have spoke with **** and found that I am number four on his list to receive a Spectacled Parrotlet, which is very exciting except that I will be looking for a un-related female Spectacle Parrotlet AND and his stock of Green Rumps are related to these birds...

I am finding myself going around full circle each time and continue to write you. So I would like to say that with out your help I would have given up already. I can NOT believe how much I have learned./ I have read your book of Parrotlets endless times and nearly have it memorized. And I would like to ask if you would know where I could find a Banded male Green Rump, and a Female Spectacle Parrotlet. These birds are very difficult for me to locate.

There was one gentleman in Orlando interbreeding Green Rumps to Pacifics and have decided not to purchase ANY of his birds.

Please if you have any info I would be most grateful. Thanks
Sincerely,
Matt

Dear Matt:

Thank you for your email and your patience waiting for my response. As I responded earlier, I was on a much needed vacation and have just returned.

It is ironic that you mention Ed Singh. I had not heard from Ed in years and just recently ran into him at the AFA convention in August. It was wonderful catching up with him. He is an amazing man with an incredible knowledge of birds and I am very lucky to consider him a friend. As for Mr. Nielsen, neither he nor ANYONE else can legally export normal birds into the US. They can only export color mutation Pacifics and even then, only the color the US government says he can.

I understand your frustration with the extremely limited gene pool available in the US with regard to Green Rumps and Spectacles. If you think those birds are hard to come by, don’t even think about Blue Wings, Mexicans or Yellow Face. I am currently writing a very sad article on genetically extinct species of parrotlets in the US and ALL of them fall under that category except for Pacifics. Even with Pacifics it is almost impossible to find any normal, wild-type birds that do NOT have mutations in their genetic background. This is something that has been very hard for me to accept since I had worked tireless for the last almost 30 years to preserve these species by helping found the International Parrotlet Society, organizating breeding cooperatives, publishing books and countless magazine articles and of course, speaking about the need to preserve these species at national and international avian venues for decades. Unfortunately, however, human greed and ego, along with the passage of the Wild Bird Conservation Act in 1992 has led us to the place where we are now.

You do not mention the WBCA so I apologize in advance if you know about it but I am going to go into it briefly since its passage was instrumental in contributing to these birds no longer being available. In 1992, Congress passed the Wild Bird Conservation act which was intended to stop the importation of wild caught birds. It was required in order for the US to comply with its obligations as a member of CITES (Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species). Unfortunately, US Fish & Wildlife Service, which is responsible for its implementation and enforcement, decided that since there is no way to visually determine if a bird was hatched in captivity or the wild, regardless of being banded or microchipped, they set up regulations that made it so difficult to import birds that even zoos have had problems. For the average hobbyist or breeder, forget it. Only approved breeding cooperatives (usually managed by non-profit organizations not individuals), captive bred birds listed on the Approved Import list, approved foreign breeding facilities and pet birds traveling with their owners can be imported. Most species of parrotlets mature at 1 year of age and produce offspring. So in almost 20 years, we have had 20 generations of birds being produced. Every generation, of course, further drains the gene pool of unrelated birds. Ironically, the birds that were allowed to be imported under WBCA, i.e., color mutations, have proved to be the ultimate downfall of every species of parrotlet in the US except for Pacifics. This is because people got rid of all their other species of parrotlets and chose to breed color mutation Pacifics instead. This was because a) they could charge hundreds if not thousands of dollars for new color mutations and b) they could feed their egos by producing color mutation birds that did not previously exist. This further depleted the availability of birds and the birds that were still available can almost all be considered related.

By 1987 most South American countries had quit exporting their birds, including Green Rumps Obviously this was before the passage of WBCA so their genetic contributions to the US captive bred populations were cut off even earlier than 1992. Also, Green Rumps, were notoriously difficult birds to breed and keep. This was because they are very timid very shy birds. They are easily stressed, picky eaters and very unpredictable parents. Even proven pairs were known for suddenly stopping breeding, producing infertile eggs and abandoning/killing chicks. Today, they are almost impossible to find and for those that can be found, while I am not a betting woman, I would bet my last dollar they are all related. They have to be – otherwise they would not exist.

As far as Spectacles go, there were none in the US until 1992 when approximately 20-30 pairs of birds were imported. They came into the country right before the WBCA was enforced on Jan. 1, 1993. The International Parrotlet Society had been founded in 1992 and the first thing we did was set up a breeding cooperative. It obviously worked very well since the birds were bred and available to the pet trade in less than 2 years. This was due to the devotion and dedication of the breeders who traded birds rather than sell them and the birds’ own strong health and great parenting skills. Unfortunately, many people got rid of their Spectacles to breed color mutation Pacifics. Of the people who continued to breed, our already tiny gene pool was further depleted. I can guarantee you that all of the Spectacles available these days are related.

When it comes to the other species – Mexicans, Blue Wings, Yellow Face and Sclaters, the picture is even more dismal. They are truly extinct birds flying – at least in the US anyway.

Mexican parrotlets were always difficult to breed, only produced one clutch per year if you are lucky and since so many were smuggled many came in with avian t.b. and killed off any birds that were exposed. Not many people worked with Mexicans because of that; I only know of 1 other private breeder although there were a couple of zoos working with them. All of the birds are either related, too old or both to breed.

Blue Wings were a little easier to breed but they never made good pets being nervous and difficult even when hand-fed so very few people worked with them. To complicate things, a color mutation blue Blue Wing surfaced and, once again, due to the amount of money that could be made, everyone tried to breed these birds by breeding them to the few remaining normal birds so they are all related. Now, there are only 2 breeders of Blue Wings in the US and all the birds are very closely related. When they die, the species will officially be extinct in the US.

Yellow Face were never imported in large numbers. In fact, I can only verify 3 legal importations of the birds and the last one was in 1985. In the early 2000’s, there were two reported cases of the birds being smuggled – many of them had avian t.b. and died off; the others, due to their limited availability were hybridized with Pacifics. While some of these birds are still around everyone I have seen have been hybrids so they are now considered ‘extinct’ in this country.

Of the Sclater’s Parrotlet, only one pair was ever documented to have had offspring. That was in the late 1980’s and the birds, along with their single offspring, died in a house fire.

So I am sorry to take such a long time to get to my point, you are not going to be able to find any birds that are unrelated to yours. I do still breed Green Rumps and Spectacles but mine are certainly related to yours – if not directly from my stock. I was one of the first people in the US to breed Spectacles and my Green Rumps were spread far and wide across this country. And while I still breed, they are all getting older producing fewer and fewer birds – very soon I won’t have anything but my retired birds.

To say this is sad beyond belief is an understatement. I had made it my life’s work to be able to preserve these species but unfortunately I was not successful. I wish you the best of luck and perhaps you will be fortunate enough to find the birds you are looking for. After all, a Spix’s macaw was once located in the US but rarely does lightening strike. I do hope you have a better understanding of this situation so you do not get taken advantage of – anyone who claims to have birds unrelated to yours should produce a DNA pedigree and/or they should have been breeding these birds since before 1992.

I do wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.
The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com
Join the International Parrotlet Society, – the World’s Largest and Oldest Parrotlet Organization www.internationalparrotletsociety.org
A Chattering Bird Builds No Nest.
Camaroonian Phrase

Pacific Parrotlet/Yellow Face Hybrids

Hi Sandee,

What a pleasure to "meet" you today! I am forwarding the pictures of my two hens, Lauper and Abby, Abby being the one I believe to be hybrid. I hope these are good enough but I can take new ones if need better pics.

I await your feedback and guidance. Again, many thanks for taking the time to help, it is greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards,

Didi

Thank you for the pictures. In my opinion, they are both hybrids between Pacifics and Yellow Face. Abby is probably about 90% Pacific; I’d say that Lauper has more YF – but is also a hybrid. I’d say probably 50%-60% Pacific. Hope this helps!

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.
The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com

WOW!!!

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I am disappointed but grateful for the information. I guess I should stop thinking about breeding them, even Lauper, if she's not yellow faced, the whole point of me breeding them was to try to help the conservation efforts of these little guys!

May I pick your brain as to what made you see the pacific in her? I know I am but a novice, and to my untrained eye, she looked like a full yellow faced, but haha, I've only ever seen them in pictures in your book and on the web! If you could guide me in what you saw that led you to conclude she was hybrid, I can be more discriminating if I try again.

Since you mentioned the virtual impossibility of getting full 100% yellow faced here in the US, would you suggest I try to get them from Peru or Europe instead? How hard would it be to do this? I read the plight of Henry (how saaad!!!) but I am wondering if there have bee nany changes since you wrote it in 2006... any laws changed yet or who do I have to harass?? (haha!)

On another note, I am also very interested in the Lucida Pacific, but seem to have a hard time finding 100% full that have not been crossed. In your article you mentioned that you had started the Lucida breeding with birds caught in the wild, I was wondering if you still had availability of these? I would love to be able to conserve these.

Thanks for taking me under your wing, so to speak!! : )

Kind regards,

Didi

Dear Didi:

Unfortunately, there are many species of parrotlets in the US which are pretty much genetically dead – Yellow Face are certainly one since they were never imported in large numbers. Mexicans are almost gone since they were difficult to breed in the first place. Blue Wings are also on that list – most people finding them difficult to breed and they were considered too nervous and flighty to be good pets so after almost 20 years of non-importation, these species are pretty much gone from US aviculture. Fortunately, there are tons of them in Europe and Asia so even if Americans can’t breed them, the species’ will survive. Also none of these parrotlets are highly endangered in the wild.

I don’t know how I can explain to you the differences in a YF/Pacific hybrid since you have never seen a pure YF. Its kind of like describing a Catalina macaw (blue & gold hybridized with a scarlet) if you have never seen a blue and gold macaw. Mainly its size – YF are much larger than Pacifics about the size of a PF lovebird, the structure – YF weigh about 30 grams or more than Pacifics, placement of color – the yellow is supposed to go from the crown of the forehead around the entire face including cheeks and chin, down the throat, the entire chest, belly and all the way to the tail and it is a pure deep yellow and not that washed out greenish yellow. It is a deep, deep bright yellow. Finally, the beak doesn’t have enough black on the upper mandible nor is it dark enough. The entire upper mandible should be dark black. So while there is YF in both birds, one is at least 3 generations of hybridizing with Pacifics, the other could have had one Pacific and one YF parent although I doubt it. It probably is 2 generations of hybridizing with Pacifics.

As for the lucida subspecies of the Pacific, these birds have been bred interchangeably since people first started breeding Pacifics and certainly since the WBCA ban in 1992. With the introduction of color mutations, they are all but gone although unlike the YF, they are not hybrids. They are called ‘generics’ because they are still Pacifics but have a commingled subspecies.

Sorry. I appreciate your offer but you cannot change the law. There are exceptions to it if you are a zoo, a US&FW approved foreign breeding facility or a breeding cooperative sponsored by a non-profit (which is what IPS tried to do but was unable due to people refusing to cooperate and the fact that the most of the birds were either hybrids or had TB or both). But the WBCA was written in accordance with the parameters set up by CITES (Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species) which the US is a signatory. They were written to protect species from becoming extinct in the wild. More and more countries are passing laws to prevent the sale of wild caught birds – the EU passed their own version several years ago. The only species of parrotlets that can be legally imported are visual color mutations of the Pacific parrotlet. Ironically, it is because of this exception that we have lost most of the other species from American aviculture as people dumped the rarer species in order to make more money when the new colors were imported.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.