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Greater Vasa Parrots · Quetzals in Aviculture · Monitoring the Brazilian Rainforest by Satellite
by Laurella Desborough
November, 2000
One of the least known but most interesting of the parrots is the Greater vasa parrot (Coracopsis vasa) which originates from Madagascar. The vasa parrot is considered to be one of the most ancient and primitive of parrots.
 The body size of the Greater vasa is similar to that of a large grey or blue-fronted Amazon or vosmaeri eclectus parrot, although the neck appears to be longer and the legs are definitely longer than other parrots. Adult Greater vasas weigh around 500 grams. These birds have a very dark grey feathering on the head and body. It is so dark it appears to be black, but is not. It is not a shiny black like a crow's feathers either, but a dark matte grey. The wing primaries and secondaries have a steel grey color on the outer edge. The undertail coverts are very light grey, edged in off-white, and the long tail feathers, over eight inches, are a medium grey with a dark grey bank across the middle, leaving a lighter grey tail band on the tip. During the off-breeding season, the vasa beaks are a dark grey, and their eyes are dark grey also. Off-white facial skin is observed in the bare space around the eye. Their basic skin color is a matte off-white with pinkish tones where muscle is underlying.
During the breeding season the males and females undergo marked physical changes. The hens loose the feathers on top of their heads and the skin turns a rich saffron yellow. The skin on the male's head turns a very dark grey-black and he develops a deep saffron to orange wattle under the lower mandible. I won't describe the changes in their cloacas in this brief article, but let me say they are quite dramatic. Copulation lasts up to one hour. Copulation begins with the male mounting the female, but after they are joined, they stand side by side on the perch until the session is terminated.
The hen will lay two to three eggs in a standard boot box or Z box and sits very tightly. The male stands guard and provides food to the hen during incubation and during the feeding of the chicks. She hardly exits the nest during the incubation and early chick development. When she does exit, she calls continuously and loudly for the male to feed her.
 During this process there is also ritual mating (ritual inthe sense that it is not the typical mating process, but is much quicker and does not involve a long joining). The males are so anzious to feed the hen that in the early morning feeding service, they will literally grab the new food bowl and pull it into the serving area. And these are wild caught birds. The eggs hatch in 17 days and the chicks grow incredibly fast. Jonathan Ekstrom, field biologist studying vasas in the wild, reports that one hen with eggs or chicks will be fed by several males, and during the feeding process copulates with each one.The vasa parrots are extremely smart, very active and quite agile on their feet and on wing. They fly swiftly and can turn in just about any direction in an instant. On the ground, they can run like a chick and hop or jump like a jay. They roll on their backs and play with toys like the caiques or lories. Two vasas may decide to wrestle and roll around on the cage floor.
Their intelligence and observation are apparent as they study the way in which the cage door is secured and after you leave, they undo the snaps and clips. I use a wire stand-off near the door attachment area to prevent them from reaching the clips. Vasa parrots are definitely full of foolishness and play. At daybreak you can find them working with their wood toys.
Flocked together, they show little interest in being territorial or fighting until breeding season occurs. Then the hens want to get rid of the other hens! At that time we separate out the pairs from a flock situation. If we need to re-pair a male or female, we simply place the new bird into the flight with a nest box and within 10 seconds the newly introduced pair is mating! Breeding season is a powerful force for these birds and the entire flock dynamics are dramatically changed within a couple of weeks.
 The number of vasa parrots in the U.S. is not known, but the numbers are suspected to be low. Most of the wild caught vasas were imported in the eighties. In the wild these birds are under severe threat of habitat loss as the only remaining forest is a tiny sliver of green extending from the top to the bottom of Madagascar, along a hilly rocky ridge. The Greater vasa parrots forage in the forest, but mostly along the forest perimeter and into the surrounding crop lands, where they are sometimes considered a pest. The smaller version, the Lesser vasa (Coracopsis nigra) appears to prefer the deeper forest areas for feeding and breeding.
In 1995, the nonprofit organization, Advocates for Bird Conservation (ABC) whose mission is education about avian species and conservation of threatened avian species, chose to work with the vasa parrots. Since the vasas are a dark feathered bird, largely unknown in the pet market, the likelihood of their disappearance in captivity was considered to be particularly great.
ABC obtained a flock of 16 Greater vasa parrots and continues to add to this flock when vasa parrots appear in the marketplace. The purpose of this project is to set up a permanent long term breeding collection in order to maintain the genetic viability of the species in captivity. The breeding pairs in the collection are provided the opportunity to completely rear and fledge their young, which they do quite enthusiastically.
Presently, ABC is working in collaboration with two zoos, the Sacramento Zoo and the National Aviaries. These two institutions are managing the Lesser vasas and ABC is working with the Greater vasas. For further information regarding vasa parrots or the Vasa Project, contact Laurella Desborough by email: EclectusCI@aol.com.
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Q: Is it desirable to breed all vasas in captivity? - LS
A: If someone has wild caught birds, they need to be bred and the young identified and the first few from each different pair should go into a breeding program.
After that, the young from those pairs can go onto the pet market
...the idea is to save SOME of the genetics from each wild caught bird, and to make sure there are a few birds from each pair that go into tracked breeding programs.
But, we do not need many birds from the same pair, so the others are genetically excess and can go into the pet market. - LD
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