Dear All!
What is understood by Wild-type Green Fischer? A Wild-type Green Fischer is a genetically pure Green Fischer (walang halong ibang mutation or split for nothing). It is not easy to find them now-a-days. One important characteristic is that all wild type Agapornis fischeri have only a little red psittacine (red color) on the back of its head. The color at the back of the head is more olive (bronze) green than red. Many of them (as you will see in the following links) possess a yellow transitional zone on the mask. The collar is yellowish (ochre color).
Generally the Green Fischers you see now-a-days are categorized into 4 types and they are as follows:
A. Variable Wild-type Green Fischer (see links below); it is a bird found in the wild (nominate race):
Pictures of Agapornis fischeri in the wild (Serengeti National Park, Tanzania):
http://www.africaimagelibrary.com/-/galleries/east-africa/tanzania/-/medias/ada6753e-1fe7-11e0-a976-850b7236540d-fisher-s-lovebird-agapornis-fischeri-serengeti-national-park?hit_num=1&hits=2&page=1&per_page=24&search=fischerihttp://www.africaimagelibrary.com/-/galleries/east-africa/tanzania/-/medias/8efb8bbe-1ec6-11e0-a539-19b3c51f6ea7-tanzania-serengeti-national-park-fisher-s-lovebird-agapornis?hit_num=2&hits=2&page=1&per_page=24&prev=ada6753e-1fe7-11e0-a976-850b7236540d&search=fischeriOther photos of A. fischeri in the wild:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbaraelaw/3002583448/http://www.avifischeri.com/agapornis-fischeriWild Agapornis fischeri captured on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eft-0i2sQg&feature=player_embeddedWild-type Green Fischers from a local aviary (PH):
https://2img.net/r/ihimg/photo/my-images/687/greenfischers1.jpg/https://2img.net/r/ihimg/photo/my-images/843/greenfischers2.jpg/https://2img.net/r/ihimg/photo/my-images/412/greenfischers6months.jpg/The most important consideration for this first category is that the birds must be genetically pure. Consider yourself fortunate if you own some specimens. For breeding purposes, always go for genetically pure wild type green fischers.
B. Standard Green Fischer (Exhibition or Show type)
It is the bird for shows; it is an "improved" wild-type green Fischer. See the link below on youtube (notice the ameliorated colors in the bird, with single colored mask [not bi-colored], even and well-defined body color, better size and proportion). Check the one with the gold medal! Ganda!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffpiUMEmRmQ&feature=player_embeddedAgapornis fischeri Standard:
International color name: Green
Front (forehead): deep orange red.
Head: bronze-green, towards the back of the skull and the neck gradually fading into olive-yellow.
Cheeks: deep orange-red with a bronze-green transitorily zone towards the neck.
To simplify a bit, imagine a vertical line through the eye. The area before the eye is orange-red, behind the eye an increasing amount of melanin is found, while the red psittacine diminishes. This contrasts sharply with the Black-Masked lovebird, where the red psittacine is covered by the black hood and extends exactly to that surface. Just remember this: the A. fischeri normally has NO red psittacine on the back of the head.
Chin, throat and upper breast: deep orange-red
Eyes: dark brown
Beak: red
Lower breast, flanks, abdomen and anal zone: light green
Mantle and wing deck: a shade darker than the rest of the body.
Primaries: green outer flag, blue-black inner flag
Bend of the wings: yellow
Rump and upper tail coverts: clear violettish-blue
Tail feathers: mainly green with a blue tip. The tail feathers (except for the two outer ones) in the
center show an orange-red patch bordered by black.
C. Domestic Type (an in-between phenotype of "B" above and "D" below).
Not desirable since it doesn’t meet the standard of what a good green fischer show specimen should be. Mr. Dirk Van den Abelle of the Belgian Lovebird Society (BVA) mentioned in one of the email messages in the BVA Lovebird e-group that he was able to see Agapornis fischeri lovebirds in the wild. He also studied about 180 skins of wild type Agapornis fischeri in different scientific collections. He can assure us all that the wild-type Agapornis fischeri has only a little red psittacine on the back of its head. The color is more olive (bronze) green than red.
D. Sable Type (Green fischers with red heads)
Simply a selection but most probably is a result of hybridization with personatus sp. (in other words, a mestizo!?). This is not what a green fischer should look like but others seem to like them very much. Anyway, each to his own taste. As they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! See a link below:
http://www.pinlovebird.com/gallery.asp?catid=47According to Mr. Dirk Van den Abelle, some years ago in the Netherlands, a few breeders were trying to breed fischeri with complete red heads in order to improve the red mask of the lutino. To achieve their goals they used hybrids F2/F3 fischeri - personatus and selected the fischeri hybrids with too much red in the neck area.
Because the show judges didn't accept these birds, they sold these “hybrids” via export. Later in the blue series, they named them “sable” because of the complete white head.
Around that time, a board member from ALBS (U.S.A.) came to the Netherlands and also bought some of these (hybrid) birds because he was impressed by the larger size of the birds. A few months later they changed their standards because they believe that this is the domestic type.
The question remains: Is it a good idea to promote these birds (i.e., birds under Category C. and D. above)? Won’t it be better to protect and preserve the pure wild type?
Caveat: if you find some things confusing about this write-up, just let me know. I’m not an authority in this field. Like most of us, we’re on constant learning mode.
Best regards to all and wishing everyone the gift of a Holy Christmas and great blessings for a prosperous New Year!
God bless!
Tyler
Tue Nov 04, 2014 6:04 pm by 
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