White Bellied Caiques

White Bellied Caiques are the undisputed rodeo clowns of the parrot world. Their coloring is almost as comical as their personalities. They like being the center of attention and are a joy to watch play, wrestle, Hop like rabbits, and steal food from each other. They are very easy to teach tricks and are capable of completing difficult tasks.

White Bellied Caiques are like small children in that they can play very hard for a while and then get tired somewhat suddenly and need a nap. They need this down time which makes them a good pet for someone who is gone a lot during the day. They do not need constant attention and have the ability to entertain themselves when need be.

In the wild, White-bellied Caiques spend most of their time up in the tree tops and love to play with twigs and with fellow flock members! Some times pairs will travel separately from the flock. They eat fruits, berries and seeds. White-bellied Caiques nest very high in the canopy. Captive-bred White-bellied Caiques seem to have an endless energy supply and enthusiastic personalities! They love to play and bathe, and need an ample supply of leafy green branches for chewing. White-bellied Caiques are extremely sociable even though their talking ability is quite limited. Be sure your bird has many toys and perches in his cage to keep him amused; a Cockatiel cage is the right size, but the larger, the better. White-bellied Caiques do very well on a basic pellet food supplemented with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables along with grain and sprouted seeds. When raised correctly and handled firmly, White-bellied Caiques are fun friends! They are very intelligent and can learn a variety of tricks!

Growing to about nine inches in length, White-bellied Caiques have predominantly green plumage. They are extremely colorful little birds with orange upper ear coverts, crowns, napes and foreheads. Their bill is horn colored, and the periopthalmic ring is white. White-bellied Caiques have flesh-colored feet. The iris is red. White-bellied Caiques have yellow throats and cheeks. Their undersides are a creamy white color, and their under-tail covers are yellow in color. White-bellied Caiques' primaries and primary coverts are a deep violet or purple-blue color, and the upper sides of their tails have green feathers. The underside of the tail is a gray-black color.

White-bellied Caiques are native to Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru, where it resides in tropical lowland forests. First recorded by Kuhl in 1820, obscured White-bellied Caiques have recently gained an almost overnight popularity in aviculture. This is wonderful, because as their habitat is destroyed, captive-bred birds may be the only hope for the reintroduction of Caiques to the wild and the preservation of the species.