White
Bellied Caiques are the undisputed rodeo clowns of the parrot
world. Their coloring is almost as comical as their personalities.
They like being the center of attention and are a joy to watch
play, wrestle, Hop like rabbits, and steal food from each other.
They are very easy to teach tricks and are capable of completing
difficult tasks.
White Bellied Caiques are like small children in that
they can play very hard for a while and then get tired somewhat
suddenly and need a nap. They need this down time which makes
them a good pet for someone who is gone a lot during the day.
They do not need constant attention and have the ability to entertain
themselves when need be.
In
the wild, White-bellied Caiques spend most of their time up in
the tree tops and love to play with twigs and with fellow flock
members! Some times pairs will travel separately from the flock.
They eat fruits, berries and seeds. White-bellied Caiques nest
very high in the canopy. Captive-bred White-bellied Caiques seem
to have an endless energy supply and enthusiastic personalities!
They love to play and bathe, and need an ample supply of leafy
green branches for chewing. White-bellied Caiques are extremely
sociable even though their talking ability is quite limited. Be
sure your bird has many toys and perches in his cage to keep him
amused; a Cockatiel cage is the right size, but the larger, the
better. White-bellied Caiques do very well on a basic pellet food
supplemented with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables along with
grain and sprouted seeds. When raised correctly and handled firmly,
White-bellied Caiques are fun friends! They are very intelligent
and can learn a variety of tricks!
Growing to about nine inches in length, White-bellied
Caiques have predominantly green plumage. They are extremely colorful
little birds with orange upper ear coverts, crowns, napes and
foreheads. Their bill is horn colored, and the periopthalmic ring
is white. White-bellied Caiques have flesh-colored feet. The iris
is red. White-bellied Caiques have yellow throats and cheeks.
Their undersides are a creamy white color, and their under-tail
covers are yellow in color. White-bellied Caiques' primaries and
primary coverts are a deep violet or purple-blue color, and the
upper sides of their tails have green feathers. The underside
of the tail is a gray-black color.
White-bellied Caiques are native to Bolivia, Brazil,
and Peru, where it resides in tropical lowland forests. First
recorded by Kuhl in 1820, obscured White-bellied Caiques have
recently gained an almost overnight popularity in aviculture.
This is wonderful, because as their habitat is destroyed, captive-bred
birds may be the only hope for the reintroduction of Caiques to
the wild and the preservation of the species.