Lovebirds and their history

Lovebirds were a largely unheard of species outside of Africa until Europeans wrote in books and journals about these strange brightly colored birds they had seen while in Africa.

The first Lovebird to be described in detail was the Red Faced lovebird in the early 1600, it was also the first lovebird to be imported into Europe during the 19th century since it was found in more widely in the wild than any of the other species.
Other species of lovebird were imported soon after the Red Faced except the Peach face which was thought to be variant of the Red Faced, although the Peach Faced lovebird was acknowledged by the British Museum in 1793. It wasn't until 1817 that the Peach Faced lovebird was recognized as a separate species of lovebird and were imported into Europe in the mid 1800's

Because lovebirds are an easy bird to keep as a pet and are very colorful they became favorites with people all over the world.
Between 1900 and 1927 four more species of lovebird were discovered by explorers from Europe: the Fischers, Masked, Black cheeked & Nyasa lovebird.


Since there are large amounts of lovebirds in petshops or from lovebird breeders aviary's it is no longer necessary to import lovebirds from Africa.
The wide variety of lovebirds around the world gives us an advantage over the Europeans who had to rely heavily of importation of lovebirds from Africa many years ago.
Birds bred locally are much more likely to be tame and healthy.