Lovebirds History
Lovebirds were a largely
unheard of species outside of Africa until Europeans wrote in books
and journals about these strange brightly colored birds they had
seen while in Africa.
The first Lovebird to be
described in detail was the Red Faced lovebird in the early 1600, it
was also the first lovebird to be imported into Europe during the
19th century since it was found in more widely in the wild than any
of the other species.
Other species of lovebird were
imported soon after the Red Faced except the Peach face which was
thought to be variant of the Red Faced, although the Peach Faced
lovebird was acknowledged by the British Museum in 1793. It wasn't
until 1817 that the Peach Faced lovebird was recognized as a
separate species of lovebird and were imported into Europe in the
mid 1800's
Because lovebirds are an easy
bird to keep as a pet and are very colorful they became favorites
with people all over the world. Between 1900 and 1927 four more
species of lovebird were discovered by explorers from Europe: the
Fischer's, Masked, Black cheeked & Nyasa lovebird.
Since there are large amounts of lovebirds in pet shops or from
lovebird breeders aviary's it is no longer necessary to import
lovebirds from Africa.
The wide variety of lovebirds
around the world gives us an advantage over the Europeans who had to
rely heavily of importation of lovebirds from Africa many years ago.
Birds bred locally are much more likely to be tame and healthy.
At this time, more lovebirds
were available for sale, and there was a boom of lovebird buying and
become one of the most popular pet birds today.
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