Rosy-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis) Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67958540

Dear Readers, as today is Valentine’s Day I thought I’d feature a bird that is associated with all things romantic – the lovebird. This is actually a tiny parrot, and in the wild lives in south-western Africa, from Angola through Namibia and down into South Africa. However, it is also a popular pet, being smaller and less noisy than many other species, and in the US there are feral populations in Phoenix, Arizona, and in parts of Hawaii.

In spite of their adorable pair-bonding behaviours (looking into one another’s eyes, sleeping face to face, grooming one another etc etc) they can also be very aggressive, and pairs don’t always get along. Personally I’d be leaving them in Africa where they can choose their own partners, rather than condemning them to life with someone they don’t get along with, like a Victorian trapped in a loveless marriage, but there we go.

However, the point of today’s post is not actually to discuss the love life of the lovebird, but to consider how it gets around in the trees. In her article in New Scientist this week, Chen Ly looks at the work of scientist Edwin Dickinson at the New York Institute of Technology. Dickinson has been examining how lovebirds move, and how they deal with novel situations, and has found that they use a technique described as ‘beakiation’ – when presented with a horizontal bar attached to the ceiling, they grabbed it with their beaks and pivoted their whole bodies around their heads – you can see a video here. I must admit that I’m not sure how unusual this looks to me, but it could be I haven’t been paying attention. Help me out here, parrot-watchers/owners!

Wild rosy-faced lovebirds in Namibia (Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67958546)

And so, if you celebrate Valentine’s Day, I hope you have a lovely time. I am remembering my first Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend (now husband). We went to a local Italian restaurant, had a wonderful meal, and at the end of it discovered that it didn’t take credit cards, so I ended up paying. Oh well. Personally, I’ve found restaurants on Valentine’s Day are about the most unromantic spots that you could possibly choose, with twice as many tables as usual, double the price and rather too many starry-eyed couples sitting practically on top of one another for any chance of whispering sweet nothings, but there we go. These days it’s more likely to be pasta and an episode of ‘Grand Designs’, and none the worse for it in my opinion.