MEYERS & BROWNHEADED NEW BEGINNINGS AVIARY Top-Quality ~ Lovingly Raised ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KIRABO THE BROWNHEAD FEMALE Kirabo (Kira for short) means ‘gift’ in the African language of Luganda. She truly is a gift. She came to me from Susan of Tikibird Aviaries. Kira is one of  theeee sweetest birds I have ever met. Originally I bought her to eventually pair up with a 9 year old Brownhead male. After she arrived I fell so in love with her that I changed my mind and decided I will either keep her as a pet or find her a young fellow so that they can grow up together and fall in love during their high school years.

At first I didn’t handle her very much because I figured if I was getting her for breeding than I would only handle her once in a while but I quickly discovered that when handfed these little Brown head parrots are theeee sweetest birds and even without a lot of handling she will let me do anything with her. I know that many breeders say poicephalus that are pets, or have been pets, don’t often make good breeders and they are probably right. However, both of my Red belly’s were, and still are, pets and are extremely bonded to humans and yet they turned out to be a fantastic pair and have raised some beautiful babies. All of my breeding pairs come out of their cages when I am cleaning them (which is every other day). I have boings and things hanging from my ceiling in the bird room for them to get some nice exercise on. I will continue to treat Kira as a pet and when I introduce her to her future husband he will also be a pet. I will just have to keep my fingers crossed that they will also fall in love…get married….and have some babies!

Kira is still very young. She was born on May 5, 2007. She will not be ready to even consider love, marriage and babies until she is at least 3 years old. In the meantime I have the pleasure of enjoying her company. I am hoping though, that it won’t take me too long too find her a future husband so that she can also spend some quality time with him

As you can see from the pictures that Kira is truly a  beautiful bird. In all the books and magazines it talks about how plain looking the Brown head parrots are but the first time I saw a real life Brownhead parrot I had to absolutely disagree. The green on these birds is absolutely spectacular and is a brilliant emerald! When they stretch out their wings you can see a beautiful yellow underneath. They have beautiful eyes and their beaks are not nearly as big as other Poicephalus particularly the Red belly’s.  So not only are these birds beautiful but they also have a fantastic, friendly, calm, and sweet disposition. They aren’t as likely to become just a one-person bird. They make a superb pet and even if you have never owned a bird before I would most definitely recommend one of these sweeties!

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Zori is a beautiful 3 year old male Meyers. He came too me from a wonderful lady who was just unable to keep him. It is very obvious that Zori was well-loved. I am hoping that Zori falls in love with a beautiful young lady named Maggie (who is also a Meyers parrot). In his previous home Zori was a pet. Here he will be a pet and hopefully a breeder. Although it is uncommon for a poicephalus that has been hand fed and hand raised as well as previously bonded to humans to make good breeders it is possible. Both my Red belly’s were extremely bonded to humans and then they met each other. They are still pets and handled on a regular basis but also have raised several of their own babies (but you can read more about them on their own page).      As you can see, Zori is a beautiful male. His feathers are gorgeous and he does take wonderful care of himself.  He does talk a little…. ‘Hi Zori’ ‘Hello’ and ‘Whatcha doing?’ He likes to mutter on occasion and we think he has said "I know" and "I love you". He also likes to whistle and he does make theeee funniest big wet kiss sounds.  He also likes to make a clicking sound and enjoys it when people respond with the same sound. He really likes to have his head rubbed. He REALLY loves women. Zori really loves the smell of the Tropican Lifetime Granules. He will sometimes stick his face in his bowl of freshly poured granules and just seems to sniff it.

Zori just LOVES dried papaya. It's his favorite treat! (It is always good to know what your birdies favorite food is because you can use it as a treat when teaching your bird a new trick or getting him to like someone that it wouldn’t normally) Zori also loves banana but only fresh and he won't eat banana chips. He loves mushy food and likes to dunk his granules in his water before eating them. Zori will pretty much eat any fruit/vegetable/beans/rice/pasta. This shows that his previous owner really gave him a wonderful varied diet as he will try anything and eat most everything.  He enjoys having a shower and washing all his beautiful feathers. He is a very clean and nice smelling young man…now you tell me what girl could resist him? Of course he loves to bath in his water bowl! No smelly armpits for this fella!!! It is a real pleasure that Zori could come and join us at New Beginnings Aviary and we have already fallen in love with this delightful fellow.

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MAGGIE MY BLUE-BELLIED MEYERS I have to start off by saying that Maggie is a complete sweetheart. Maggie was born in 2004. She is extremely friendly and just loves to be with people. It is obvious that she was well loved in her previous home! It might be hard to tell but Maggie is not the regular meyer’s but rather a blue-bellied Meyers. Her chest has a bluish colouring to it in comparison to Zori’s whose is green. My understanding is that the Blue-bellied Meyers and the normal Meyers are the same species but different sub-species. I spoke with several other breeder’s as I was concerned about putting Zori and Maggie together to breed and I didn’t want to do anything that was frowned upon in the bird world. I found out that it would definitely be preferred if you could keep the same sub-species together especially since blue-belly’s are quite hard to find but it is okay to breed the two. Just to be clear though…this is not the same as say…breeding a Red belly with a Senegal OR a Senegal with a Brown Head OR a Red belly and a Meyers  (I am using these as examples as they are the kinds that I keep). Having said all that, I am constantly learning new things and like to get as much information as possible so I reserve the right to change my mind on putting the blue-belly and the regular meyer’s together down the road.

I have found the Meyer’s are super birds and even make great pets for someone who is new to the world of parrots. They have a calm, even disposition that can make them suitable for even a ‘mature’ 12 year old to handle with adult supervision. I have one 12 year old daughter who can handle all the birds with very little supervision but I have another 12 year old daughter who is not at all comfortable around them and can only handle the occasional bird and while I am right there. The relationship with the bird and the person really depends on both.             I have put Maggie and Zori together and am hoping in a couple of years they decide they want to move forward in their relationship and start a family. I am not going to rush them though as they have lots of years ahead with me and each other as they can live to 30 years or more!

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