 |
 |
Jenday Conure
|
Jenday Conure
The jenday, or jandaya, conure is similar in size to the gold-capped conure. The range of this bird is northeastern Brazil. The jenday has an importation history similar to the gold cap's in that it was imported sporadically for a short period of time. As with the gold cap, importation stopped when it was realized that these birds were not captured in the country of export but were taken out of Brazil.
The jenday is a bird that had the good fortune to be purchased almost exclusively by breeders while it was being imported. They have been, on the whole, only fair breeders but excellent parents. They can go to nest at almost any time of the year, unless the weather is too hot. Nestlings number two to four and make excellent pets when handraised. Their requirements are exactly the same as for the gold-capped and sun conures.
The breeding flights that I use are 4 feet in length and 2 feet square. All flights are placed on galvanized pipe benches that keep them 4 feet off the ground. I use standard, medium sized conure nest boxes. They are plywood with a wire lining. They measure 12 inches square and 16 inches deep. The weld wire lining is necessary to keep them from emptying the bottom of the box of the pine shavings that I give them for nesting material.
There are no subspecies listed for the jenday, which carries the scientific name Aratinga jandaya. I do, however, believe that there is sufficient evidence to suggest the existence of a subspecies. This is due to the fact that the wild-caught jendays that were imported presented themselves in two distinct forms.
The first form is the one that we are all used to seeing. The points to concentrate on when comparisons are made is the periophthalmic ring (around the eye) and the color of the breast. The periophthalmic ring varies from white to less-than-medium gray, depending on how much time the birds spend in the sun. The grayish coloration is similar to a suntan in humans. The breast color ranges from orange to orange-red, and the abdomen is orange-red. The unnamed subspecies is a bird of much heavier pigmentation. The periophthalmic ring ranges from medium gray to black, again depending on how much time the bird spends in the sun. The breast and abdomen range from red-orange to red. This bird is extremely beautiful. I call it the black-eyed jenday.
One must be very careful when searching for specimens of this type. The problem is the sunday conure (jenday x sun) hybrid. Although, personally, there are some hybrids that I approve of, I think the sunday is one that should be discontinued. Whenever a hybrid looks similar enough to either of the original parent species as to cause possible confusion between it and a purebred specimen, it should be placed in a situation where it can never be bred. The sunday looks almost identical to the black-eyed jenday in body coloration. Even though most of the aviculturists that produce this hybrid sell them to be used as pet stock only, many of these birds recirculate into breeding collections. The pet owner may get tired of his bird and sell it to a pet shop that does not know the history of the bird. They in turn may sell or trade the bird to a breeder as a mature jenday. The unknowing aviculturist pairs it with one of his jendays to produce offspring that can be used to introduce new blood into his flock. Unfortunately, the offspring will be 25-percent sun conure. This is no way to increase your gene pool.
The key factor in determining whether you have a purebred black-eyed jenday or a sunday is the pigmentation of the periophthalmic skin. On a sunday, the skin will be white to light gray. On a black-eyed jenday, the skin will be medium gray to black, depending on sun exposure. The black-eyed jenday often is a bit redder than the sunday, but this is too subjective a criteria to be used with accuracy. The best rule of thumb to follow is the color of the skin around the eye. For this reason, I chose to refer to this bird as the black-eyed jenday instead of the red jenday. I propose the scientific name Aratinga jandaya negra.
Field studies will have to be done in order to determine the black-eyed jenday's exact range, but I can personally say that I have definitely verified their existence in the jungles of Brazil. While I was in South America waiting to escort a shipment of birds to the United States, a collector there received a group of 20 specimens that were going to be sent to Europe. All of them were of the black-eyed type. She had no idea that they were such a rare variety. She had purchased them from a Brazilian bird trader but never bothered to ask in what part of Brazil they were captured.
|
|
|
|
