Abstract
The Yellow-bibbed Lory is certainly among the "cadillacs" of the lory family. It is a member of the genus Lorius which includes the Blackcaps, Red-breasted, and the Yellowbacked and Chattering Lories. It looks smaller than its cousins but does have the appearance of a Black-cap. As you will note from the accompanying picture, this species differs from the others by two very distinct features. One is the beautiful yellow bar across the chest (bib) of the bird ending with a black spot on each end. At the bend of the wing there is a noticeable white/blue area, small in size, but which stands out when the bird is at rest. It is like the icing on a cake. Its behavior is typical lory and clownish like most other members of the genus.
Mr. van Oosten received a young pair of these lovely birds from Wolfgang Kiessling, owner of Loro Parque in the Canary Islands, in December 1988. The birds arrived after 30 days in quarantine in New York and were in good shape except for a few ruffled feathers. The birds were checked for disease with nothing being found and thus were only wormed. They were then almost a year old and settled in very nicely. They were housed in a 3 ft. x 3 ft. x 5 ft. suspended 1 '' galvanized wire cage with an attached "L" shaped nest box. The perches were all natural branches which they from day one enjoyed picking apart. It took them about two months before they would enter the nest box, but from that point on they always slept in their nest box.
The pair unfortunately happens to be brother and sister and a second pair is due once one of the other pairs at Loro Parque decides to produce young. The Parque has several pairs but only one pair is breeding. The parents are rather unique in that the female is totally blind. She is an interesting bird to watch as she comes out of the nest box, climbs down the wire to the perch, and then proceeds along it to the feeding dish and helps herself. I have also seen her bathe and preen herself all as if she had perfect sight. She is in perfect feather and it is hard to believe she has hatched so many healthy youngsters. The two young birds were removed from the nest and hand reared by Rosemary Low when she was the curator there. The two were fairly tame so once they had settled into their new home no effort was made to encourage any kind of tame behavior. After about six months, they would no longer come to the door when fresh fruit or nectar was put in their cage. From experience with other species, I have found that sometimes if the birds are too tame they tend to make poor parents.
The birds were fed a nectar mixture consisting of Purina Game Bird Startena, Purina Trout Chow #1, white sugar, Soyalac, BVMO (a horse vitamin), table salt, Prime (vitamin mix by Rolf Hagan), L-Cystine, Brewer's Yeast, bee pollen, fresh carrots, fresh apples, papaya, banana, 30 oz. can of fruit cocktail including the juice, and one jar-of Gerber's junior size Sweet Potato. All of this is mixed together in a blender with water and fed in plastic "half moon" cups twice a day. Being captive bred, they consumed four of these cups per day. Captive bred birds seem to always eat more than wild caught birds. In addition to the nectar mix, they received 1/2 an apple every day and once a month they would get a slice of papaya and 1/2 a pear. These items they just relished and although other items were given them including sweet corn, they never consumed it but just nibbled sparingly at it.
After a year and a half, the pair was transferred to John Vanderhoof because of the roof collapsing on one of Jan van Oosten's buildings. As the birds were too valuable to keep under improper conditions and because they were showing signs of...