Vasa Parrots of Madagascar - Life in the Fast Lane
- Steve Duncan
- Jun 20
- 9 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
By Steve Duncan, Avian Resources
Originally published in the Avicultural Society of America, Avicultural Bulletin
In September 2022, I had the wonderful experience of visiting Madagascar for an entire month of wildlife viewing and photography. At the top of my list was to see and photograph Greater Vasa Parrots in the wild since I have several pairs at home and enjoy their unique personalities. They also provide me the privilege of rearing their chicks each year. I’m always excited to see species in the wild that I work with in my aviaries at home. During the trip, I was rewarded with opportunities to watch wild Vasa Parrots at many of the locations we visited in Madagascar.
Due to its long isolation, the island of Madagascar is a land of unique and bizarre wildlife located in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar separated from Africa along with India roughly 165 million years ago in the middle of the age of dinosaurs. It then separated from India nearly 90 million years ago while dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. India broke away and drifted far to the northeast to eventually collide with Asia. Madagascar has been an isolated island ever since allowing its flora and fauna to evolve and adapt to conditions there without much influence from species on mainland Africa or India. Africa remains Madagascar’s closest neighbor separated by the Mozambique Channel. At its narrowest point, the Mozambique Channel is only 420 km (260 mi) wide, but this distance is enough to make colonization from mainland Africa difficult for most species. Even for birds, this distance has resulted in more than 55% of bird species on Madagascar being endemic only to the island. There are three species of psittacines on Madagascar: the Greater Vasa Parrot, the Lesser Vasa Parrot and the Gray-headed Lovebird. All three of these occur only on Madagascar and nearby Comoros Island. I was fortunate to be able to see and photograph all three species on my trip.
Humans arrived on Madagascar relatively recently. Estimates range from only 1200 years ago to 2000 years ago. Prior to human arrival there, the island was almost completely covered in forests. Since the arrival of humans, the forests of this island have been steadily cut and burned to produce charcoal and to make way for agriculture. Estimates are that between 60% to 80% of the original forests have already been lost. With a rapidly growing impoverished population, the pace of this
destruction has drastically increased in the past century. Adding to the problem is that non-native eucalyptus and pine trees are replacing the native trees. These foreign trees do not provide suitable habitat for Madagascar’s unique animals.
Vasa Parrots are a large parrot belonging to Genus Coracopsis which has two additional species on islands north of Madagascar, the Comoros Black Parrot and the Seychelles Black Parrot that are both very similar and closely related to the Lesser Vasa Parrot. Both the Greater and Lesser Vasa Parrots are still abundant in the wild on Madagascar, but the dramatic loss of native forests makes their wild populations potentially vulnerable in the future. Currently, both species can be observed throughout much of Madagascar except for the central highlands. Greater Vasas tend to be more abundant in the drier western and southern areas, while Lesser Vasas prefer the wetter eastern forests. Although their relative abundance varies in different areas, both species are often seen in the same locations. On a single day hike, I occasionally observed both species, though I never saw them in the same tree or flocking together.
Consistent with many other species endemic to Madagascar, Vasa Parrots are strangely different from other members of their taxonomic family. DNA studies found that the closest living relative of genus Coracopsis is the Pesquet’s Parrot of far away New Guinea which suggests that Vasa Parrots and Pesquet’s Parrots have also been isolated from each other for a very long time. In other words, the Vasa Parrot genus has no close living relatives. The extinct Mascarene Parrot of Reunion Islands east of Madagascar is the closest known relative of Vasa Parrots and Black Parrots.
As the names suggest, the difference between Greater Vasa Parrots and Lesser Vasa Parrots is most noted by size, especially beak size. Greater Vasa Parrots are larger with a beak that is somewhat similar in proportion to a macaw’s beak, whereas the Lesser Vasa is a bit smaller overall with a beak more similar in proportion to an Amazon parrot’s beak. The parrot family is often synonymous with brightly colored birds, but both species of Vasa parrots and their relatives on Comoros and the Seychelles, are basically black or charcoal colored. What they lack in rainbow colors, they make up for in unique behaviors and morphology.
In the wild, both species of Vasa Parrots have very similar lifestyles and social structures. They live and forage in small flocks high in the forest canopy searching for fruits, blossoms, seeds, and nuts and may fly great distances over the forests to find trees offering foraging opportunities. They are often heard before they are seen due to their loud and varied whistling calls. Vasa Parrots are often active at night when the moon is full or nearly full. The quiet nights allow their loud whistles to be heard over great distances. Female Vasas tend to be larger and more dominant than the males especially during breeding season.
As breeding season approaches, females typically lose the feathers on their head revealing skin that has turned bright yellow this time of year. The females also develop a slight swelling or pouch inside the base of the lower beak. Females become very territorial toward other females around the nesting area while males are quite tolerant of others. The physical changes the males go through during breeding season are equally as strange as the female’s. To prepare for breeding season, male Vasa Parrots develop a large phallus that everts from the cloaca during mating. This anatomical feature is unique among parrots. Measuring nearly half its body length and width when everted, it is large enough that the female’s lower abdomen also must swell to be able to accommodate the male’s phallus during copulation.
Vasa Parrots have a complex social structure that includes both quasi-monogamous and promiscuous mating strategies. The females will bond closely with one male but will mate with other males too. In bonded quasi-monogamous pairs, the large phallus serves to tie the pair together during copulation sometimes for up to 90 minutes. In addition to the copulatory tie performed in closely bonded pairs, females will mate with several other males in short more typical avian copulations by what is known as a cloacal kiss that lasts mere seconds. These unbonded males will also opportunistically mate with multiple females using this shorter mating style. This creates a lot of excitement among males around a receptive female and a frenzied breeding season for all.
It is believed that the promiscuous mating strategy serves to encourage multiple male Vasas to feed the female at the nest site. The long duration copulatory ties between bonded pairs ensures that the bonded male has the advantage at fertilizing the eggs. Although the vast majority of chicks are the result of the long duration mating of bonded pairs, a small percentage of chicks may be the offspring of a promiscuous mating. This means that any male that mates with a female has a chance of fathering a chick and thus has an interest in helping to feed her during her time brooding in the nest. In this way, nesting females are often attended and fed by multiple males even though the chicks are most likely the offspring of the bonded male.
Vasa Parrots typically lay two to three eggs in a clutch, and they will not lay a second clutch in the same year even if the eggs are removed as soon as they are laid. There is only one attempt to nest for each female in a year. The nests are located in a tree hollow or possibly in a hole in a cliff. The females stay in the nest and are fed by the males during the incubation and early nestling periods which pass quickly.
Vasa Parrots have one of the shortest incubation and nestling periods of all parrots, certainly the shortest of the larger parrots. Vasa eggs hatch after only 18 days of incubation compared to 28 days for most other similar-sized parrots. The chicks hatch with a prominent bump on each side of the beak. These bumps are very sensitive to touch and will elicit an extremely strong head pumping feeding response which is important to stimulate the parents to regurgitate enough food to sustain the chick’s rapid growth rate. The enthusiastic head pumping action of the chicks when feeding can almost be described as violent. The crops of well-fed chicks can be as large or larger than their abdomens. Vasa Parrot chicks will fully develop in size and are able to fledge from the nest in only 7 weeks after hatching, about half the time of a similar-sized parrot from Africa or South America. The parents will continue to feed the chicks for several weeks after fledging until the chicks can fend for themselves, but for those few weeks, the chicks can be seen doggedly pursuing their parents around the forest canopy pleading to be fed. This rapid development is most likely an adaptation to Madagascar’s unpredictable and often short rainy season when food is abundant enough for the parrots to rear their offspring.
Aviculture – Breeders of Vasa Parrots will sometimes house two or three males with a female. I have several pairs of Greater Vasa Parrots and keep them in bonded pairs only, but I do keep the pairs in adjacent aviaries so they can see, hear, and interact with each other. This seems to satisfy their interactive social needs.
Vasas are quite active birds and need a large enough enclosure to allow for their rapid and agile flying abilities. As the breeding season approaches, the females will begin to spend more time in their nest boxes and will undergo the changes already described as egg laying draws near. I use a tall vertical wooden nest box measuring 25cm X 25cm on the bottom and 120cm tall. The nest box is kept in place year-round. The male’s lower abdomen will noticeably swell with the development of his phallus. The pairs will often be observed copulating for extended periods of time from the onset of the breeding season until the first egg is laid. Nighttime vocalizations also increase at this time of year.
Vasa Parrots seem to have a ravenous need for extra calcium during breeding season, probably to accommodate the rapid growth of the chicks. In the wild, they have been observed using stones to rub against seashells to create a powder that they will consume. I provide my pairs with cuttlebone in addition to a high calcium pellet, and fresh sprouts, fruits, and vegetables to satisfy this need.
I have allowed the parents to attempt hatching and rearing chicks themselves but often the chicks fail to survive this way. My pairs are generally good incubators, but sometimes neglect one or more chicks in the first few days after hatching. Since Vasa Parrots are rare in United States aviculture, I have made the decision to hand-rear the chicks myself to avoid losses due to parental neglect. I’ve found that the chicks are very easy to hand-rear from day-1 and grow just as rapidly as they do when parent-reared. I always keep more than one together, so they have their own species for companionship. Once fully weaned, the youngsters are placed in a juvenile flock next to the breeding pairs. To maintain a captive population, it is important to allow the next generation of Vasa Parrots to mature as part of a social flock of their own kind. Vasa Parrots that have been kept as single pets for their early development are unlikely to develop appropriate social behaviors to successfully reproduce later in life.
As pets, Vasas are delightful and enthusiastic birds. They can learn to mimic words and sounds. They do not tend to develop aggression problems toward their keepers. Due to their high-energy and active nature, it’s best to provide them with plenty of room to fly and exercise. It is also important to understand the annual reproductive cycle that both sexes undergo. Single male pet Vasa Parrots will sometimes evert their phallus during breeding season in what appears to be a horrific cloacal prolapse. This is completely normal and should not be taken as a reason to rush the bird to the veterinarian for emergency surgery. The phallus will normally retract on its own within minutes but may remain everted for an hour or so. Female pet Vasas will go bald and develop the swelling under the beak and the lower abdomen during breeding season. Females also begin making unusual chuckling vocalizations that are used to encourage their mates to begin feeding them heavily. The female’s change in behavior and anatomy is also perfectly natural and should not be taken as an indication that the bird is ill.
Active and agile, Vasa Parrots approach life with enthusiasm and gusto. They have adapted to the unique and unpredictable environment found on Madagascar which seems to have endowed them with a heightened sense of urgency. Hopefully, those qualities will carry them forward into a future that seems uncertain in Madagascar in the face of massive and ongoing habitat loss. It is a privilege to be able to work with them in captivity, and it’s my hope that we will be able to preserve both the wild population and the captive population for generations to come.
