Abstract
T hirty years ago it started as an evasive action. Bill Rattray's eldest son announced he wanted pigeons. Thinking of huge free-flying flocks, endless squabbles, heaps of soil on the neighbors roofs and patios, Rattray diverted his kid from pigeons to finches-those sweet, clean and beautiful little birds that can be kept in a cage in the house. Right.
The son laid in a pair of finches, set them up in his room and closed the door. A few days later, Mrs. Rattray opened the door and entered a blizzard of tiny feathers floating about and covering every thing. With a vigorous flourish of the old broom the finches and the son were removed to the garage. Eventually the son oozed back into the house but not the finches.
This situation prevailed for a few months until Bill Rattray, himself, and the younger son, too, each installed a pair of finches in the garage-it became only a matter of time.
Mrs. Rattray entered the garage one day and beheld the same feather storm she noted in the bedroom. With great overhead swings of the broom (wielding it as though it were a great claymore two-handed sword-after all, the Rattrays are from Scotland), out went the finches and all the male Rattrays. The broom was becoming well worn.
This is why Bill Rattray built his backyard aviaries.
When the sons discovered girls, Rattray bought out the sons' share of the birds and had the whole lot to himself.
Following a pattern most of us are familiar with, Rattray put up 18 aviaries and bred Cockatiels. At that time, the next logical move was to other species of Australian psittacines. Rattray wound up with four or five species of rosellas, some Crimson-winged Parakeets, and several other Australian species-then he saw an Australian King Parrot and was smitten.
It happened that at this same time, Rattray heard two different talks, one by Dale R. Thompson and one by Sheldon Dingle, your humble servant, advocating avicultural specialization. Rattray decided to specialize in king parrots, indeed, to become the King of Kings (I told Mrs. Rattray I wouldn't use that term).
His family and friends told him he was nuts to specialize in a species of bird that was very hard to find, was very seldom bred, and gave no evidence of being a prolific aviary specimen. Rattray said, nonsense, it is just another bird and if it's breedable I'll breed it. With predictable Scottish determination he proceeded to do just that.
During the next year or so the Cockatiels disappeared, the other Australian species were cut back and, finally, Rattray bought his first pair of Australian King Parrots. It took another six years for him, finding one bird here and another bird there, to finally accumulate a pretty good collection of king parrots.
Keep in mind that in those days it was still easy to buy birds in Europe and import them into the U.S. In fact, Rattray did get a pair of kings from Germany-s-a pair he still has and which is breeding at the age of at least 15 years. And there was a system of quarantine stations that imported birds from the wild. Circumstances prevailed then that we will never see again.
Rattray wound up with three species of king parrots, the Australian King Alisterus scapular-is, the Greenwinged King Alisterus cbloropterus, and the Amboina King Alisterus amboinensus.
Rattray believes the Australian King makes the best pet and that they are
sometimes kept as pets in Australia. The males are prettier and most popular. Of course, the Australian King is dimorphic with the male having much more color. Even among the young, males have a darker blue on the rump while the females have a lighter blue. Rattray has never made a mistake sexing young Australians. The Australians lay four or five eggs and are good parents. They are very docile and get along well with their mates. When once a pair breeds, they will usually settle down and breed regularly for many years.
Rattray prefers the Australian and Green-winged Kings as they are better breeders and more stable in personality than is the Amboina.
The Green-winged Kings have been even better breeders than the Australians, possibly because during the mid 1970s the vast majority coming into this country were males. They
were wild caught birds imported from
ew Guinea through Singapore. The importers sent the best and most beautiful males and no females. No one here had a chance to breed the Greenwings because they couldn't make pairs. Greenwings are monomorphic but sometimes display subtle clues to sex. The female has green across the back of the neck, is not as bright red, and has a few other subtle signs but should be surgically sexed to be sure.
When at last some female Greenwings arrived, the long deprived and lonely males made up for lost time and were really interested in breeding. They became so good at it that Rattray often used the Greenwings as foster parents for other king parrots.