Young ringneck courting!!

[maryfrancis3]

Hi

I have a lutino male, who has just finished his first moult and the red ring is starting to appear!! yay!! Also have two olive supposed to be about a few months old, a lighter green with hint of blue in the tail and two lovely blue 4 month old.

Well, what is going on is the lutino male who is around 18 months old, according to the beginning of the red ring, has started the whole courting dance, eye pinging and it is delightful. He is trying to court the lighter green bird.

At the same time one of the olive birds is doing the same thing with the same lighter green bird and in fact is regurgitating his food, which the other, lighter green bird accepts.

So, what I am wondering is this......, is the olive bird too young to start mating? I assume he is going to be a male, but he is too young for his ring to begin yet. But the behaviour indicates that he is more than willing and ready. I have even seen him try to get around the back of the lighter green bird, obviously to try and mount.

Any help, especially from the moderators of the forum would be much appreciated.

Thank you all very much for reading my post

Mary xx

[dog_glenn123]

Hi there both the birds that are dancing and regurgitating are males and the other is female.

The 18 month cock will be able to breed.

The 4 month old will be able to mate but wont be firtile.

And if the female is under 12 months old she will lay but wont be firtile.

Males are fertile on average around 18months old and females can be at 12 months.
Some go a little earlier.

I would say that the birds you have said are olive are most likley greygreen.

Thanks Glenn

[ellieelectrons]

I noticed our male bird doing the heart-shaped wing dance from very young. He would also experiment with trying to step on Janey's back (actually he'd try to step on her head rather than her back). I think they experiment for a while before they figure out what to do. I walked in the room the other day and he was on her back but he didn't seem to be doing anything else other than just sitting there on her back. I think they are both figuring out how it all works. Our male bird is just over 1 year old and our female is about 2.5. I don't expect to see any real "action" until next breeding season. Having said that birds mature at different rates. Someone on the forum has had eggs hatch from a 1 year old male.

Ellie.

[maryfrancis3]

Glenn and Ellie, thank you so much for replying to my post. I really appreciate it

Glen you are absolutely right, our 'olive' are greengrey, we just called them olive as we did not know what their true colour name is. Thank you so much for that.

It is so delightful watching the males do their dance and the different sounds they make, different from their normal calls, is wonderful.

Thanks again for your input.

Mary xx