one for all you smarty pants out there,

Gemstone · Post by **Gemstone** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:58 am

ok genius.

what the the little nub on the top of the tail on my babies?
i'll take a photo if i need to, but i also noticed on on amazon, and he won't let me touch it.

grab you parror and have a look at the base of the tail on the top, there will be a small black thing that looks like a new feater coming thru.

i can't find anything about them on the net.

thanks

Melika · Post by **Melika** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:24 am

Sounds to me like his preen (uropygial) gland.

nil · Post by **nil** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:10 pm

have you photo of it?

Donna · Post by **Donna** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:54 pm

No need for photo!! :lol:

It is it's preening gland
The uropygial gland, when present, lies on the mid-line dorsally on the trunk in the rump area above the levator muscles of the pygostyle. In domestic fowl, the gland is drained by a pair of ducts. Each duct drains one lobe and each duct opens into a single, narrow nipple-like papilla. Other species have up to eighteen orifices.1 There are no feathers normally on the skin over the gland. There is, however, a tuft of down feathers at the tip of the papilla in most species, and this is called the uropygial wick. In many species of bird, the tail usually flexes laterally each time the bird reaches around to contact the gland and the wick.
Among the psittacine species that do not possess a uropygial gland are the hyacinth macaw, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus , the Lear's macaw, Anodorhynchus leari, and the Spix's macaw, Cyanopsitta spixii. All of the parrots in the genus Amazona also do not posses a uropygial gland. The gland is present in the other psittacine species. The gland is also present in canaries and most finches.

Donna

Gemstone · Post by **Gemstone** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:56 pm

ok, i thought there might have been a chance it was the boy bits :oops:

Melika · Post by **Melika** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:22 pm

If only it were so easy to sex them!

Parrots don't have any external sex organs. They mate by lining up their cloacas and basically shooting the sperm into the females cloaca. ^_^

Fah · Post by **Fah** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:09 pm

Eye.. when said like that it sounds more like one of those competitions with an air rifle you have at a carnival etc instead of the... cept you dont get a fluffy prize till about 2 months later O.o

Melika · Post by **Melika** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:18 pm

Fah wrote:Eye.. when said like that it sounds more like one of those competitions with an air rifle you have at a carnival etc instead of the... cept you dont get a fluffy prize till about 2 months later O.o

LMAO!!! XD

Post by **Lauren** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:54 pm

I once thought that was Jibbys 'man parts'. :roll:

How silly did I feel. :lol:

Post by **kyria** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:44 am

The way they rub it and pay so much attention to it you would think it was the males bits .. lol .. just the oil gland, they will bite it to release oil then madly rub it spreading the oil around their feathers during preening, clever little things :wink: