Blue-Headed Pionus
An Ideal Pet
By John Stoodley

The blue-headed pionus parrot, Pionus menstruus, has much to recommend it as pet--it is a common bird and easy to keep and to breed. Its quiet disposition and medium size make it ideal for a garden enclosure or if you have neighbors close by.

We have bred them when they reached three years old. Given a small nest box about 18 inches deep and approximately 7 inches square, the blue-headed pionus will usually respond with a clutch of three to five eggs. After an incubation period of 26 days, the diminutive hatchlings arrive weighing around eight to nine grams. Blue-headed pionus are good parents. The babies grow quickly, and it isn't long before they are perching at their parents' side and enjoying a diet of the same diced fruit and vegetables their parents seem to love. To our great surprise many youngsters in their early days had red feathers on the crown which disappear as they mature.

Between 12 and 14 weeks of age, the blue-headed pionus babies are ready to go to a new home as a pet or as breeding birds. We sold a pionus to a woman who had telephoned looking for another pet. She drove from the western part of England 70 miles in a three-wheeled invalid car, quite a daunting experience by any standards. The cars, manufactured by Reliant, are supplied with concessions to people with mobility problems. Her surprising fellow passengers were a cat and a small dog. When she left, a baby blue-headed pionus joined the family group.

It was during her visit with us that we learned this resourceful woman was a volunteer who helped children with learning difficulties and that a young boy about eight years old from Italy was her pupil for the summer months. Some time later, to our surprise, a picture appeared in a newspaper showing the lady, the boy and the blue-headed pionus having breakfast at a table in the departure lounge of the airport. The parrot was on the table, and naturally it aroused enormous interest.

When the time came for the boy to board his flight back to his home in Italy, he was so upset at leaving his parrot friend that the lady gave him the bird to keep. He boarded the aircraft with it and happily flew home. The woman was sure that the pet had been responsible for the young boy's excellent progress during his time with her and that to face such a disappointment would lead to the youngster's regression.

I did not hesitate to call this extraordinary woman and offer her a replacement parrot which she readily accepted.. This is just one of the advantages of being a parrot breeder.

John Stoodley and his wife, Pat, reside in the United Kingdom. They have concentrated on parrots of the new world since 1973 and have authored three books.