Dear All,
A recent enquiry from KWS as to the identity of some captive Lovebirds
had opened up a real can of worms, as to what a pure Fischer’s
Lovebird actually looks like.

Out of nine publications showing the image of a pure Fischer’s
Lovebird, seven of these use the form from around Ndutu as the
example. In Mackworth-Praed and Grant the image is a little hard to
discern but in Forshaw and Cooper’s Parrots of the World, the bird
looks very different and resembles the birds that KWS currently hold
in captivity. Don Turner found out that the illustration was painted
from a specimen in Leiden Museum forty years ago, but we don’t as yet
know the location where the specimen was obtained, or its date.

Because the regional publications illustrate the form I call “Ndutu”
this has become recognised by everyone as the pure Fischer’s. My
thoughts are (and certainly not shared by all) is that it is a hybrid
of Fischer’s and Yellow-collared and I am trying to gather evidence
that will either support or refute this hypothesis.

I have a theory that quite uniquely it’s the literature that has
evolved, and because of the Ndutu form being used as the pure
Fischer’s in all regional guides, we now DO NOT KNOW what a proper
Fischer’s Lovebird looks like, and I think it is the western
orange-faced bird, and not Ndutu.

Interestingly birds around Kenya that have casually been classed as
hybrids between Yellow-collared and Fischer’s have interbred over the
generations, and now the dominant form in Nairobi and Thika is
absolutely indistinguishable from Ndutu.

I have attached a few images to show the three forms, and won’t go
into the arguments here, but what we need is images that have
locations not only for Tanzania (please don’t send in any from Ndutu
unless it is different, as we have enough), and all around Kenya to
see what is happening with our birds. Old (dated with locality) images
would also be extremely useful and trying to piece together this
bizarre story.

At present there are three different plumage types, Yellow-collared
east of the Rift, “Ndutu” west of here, and Fischer’s which probably
occurs towards Lake Victoria, maybe further south of the range of
“Ndutu” but in all honesty we do not know the distribution of the
orange-headed Fischer’s.

Thanks to all who help out in this,

Best for now
Brian