Angola Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella)

Angola Peach-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella). Photo taken by the Danish Monggaard-family, currently resident of Luanda, Angola.

For further elaboration of the article about the Namibia Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis roseicollis), which is the most widespread Lovebird species in human care, you will here find some additional information about the subspecies, which is called the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella):

Notice of 04.10.2018: About the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird.

Some relatives of my eldest son's closest friend have for many years lived and worked in Angola's capital, Luanda, and they have been kind enough to put some photos of the local Peach-faced Lovebird at my disposal, including the above photo of 3 birds kept as cage birds.

The photo shows the so-called Angola Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella), which is mainly native to the country's Benguela region. For ordinary people, it is immediately confusingly similar to the nominate subspecies, Namibia Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis roseicollis), which originates from Namibia and Botswana as well as the Cape Province in South Africa, which we know so well in human care in Europe and the USA.

The differences between the subspecies that come from Angola and the nominate subspecies are also minimal, and the impression is also "disturbed" by the fact that, in human care, numerous colour mutations of the nominate subspecies, the Namibia Peach-faced Lovebird, have arisen - and been bred - several of these also in different shades of green. The differences between the subspecies and the nominate subspecies would only be properly identified if both types of birds were in their own cages next to each other and under exactly the same lighting conditions - preferably in natural daylight - where you would then be able to see the colour differences with certainty. Nevertheless, if you look carefully, you will be able to see in the photo above that the bird's red colour on the forehead and above the eyebrows is a little deeper in tone, almost scarlet (i.e. a generally deeper colour in the face mask than the rose-red mask that you see in the nominate subspecies). The green colour on the back of the birds shown also appears deeper and purer in colour, just as the blue upper tail coverts also appears deeper blue.

A big thank you must go to the Monggaard family for making this and other photos of the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird available to www.birdkeeper.dk.

Angola Peach-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella). Photo taken by the Danish Monggaard-family, currently resident of Luanda, Angola.

Notice of 18.10.2018: A little more about the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird.

Some time ago I spoke with Dirk Van den Abeele, the well-known Belgian author of many books on especially colour mutations within the Lovebird genus (Agapornis). Sometime before, he had been in Angola, where he had observed the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella), and in that connection he had used the opportunity to take a number of photos.

Dirk Van den Abeele was kind enough to send me some of these photos, but since he does not want them published, I cannot show them on www.birdkeeper.dk. The photos I received from Dirk show the birds perched high up in a palm tree in bright sunlight in the Angolan border region and are taken from a distance in contrast to the close-up photo I bring of the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird, above.

Dirk Van den Abeele called me one evening when I had asked him about the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird in human care, and he told me that he had had the opportunity to examine the skin (type specimen) of the first recognized Angola Peach-faced Lovebird, as English Mrs. Hall back in 1952 brought it home to London and first showed it to the members of the British Ornithologists' Club, which was used for the subspecies determination of it.

He also said that the Natural History Museum's other skins of the nominate subspecies, Namibia Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis roseicollis), were of such an old date that the minimal differences that can be observed and that back in 1955 led to the acknowledgement of a new - and more intensively coloured - subspecies of this kind of bird, just as well could be due to "the ravages of time", as the old skins obviously looked somewhat "worn".

Dirk Van den Abeele is thus not convinced of the existence of a distinct subspecies of this bird in Angola. However, the state of Angola itself has no doubt that their version of the Peach-faced Lovebird is something special, as a few years ago a series of stamps were issued with the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird as the overall motif. Several of these stamps can be seen elsewhere on www.birdkeeper.dk under the article, "Namibia Peach-faced Lovebird", but here you see another:

Here is a stamp published as a small series of stamp with Angola Peach-faced Lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis catumbella) as motif. Yue can read the scientific Latin subspecies name, "catumbella", on the stamp.

Regardless of what you see, it is certain that the top science in the field maintains the existence of this subspecies, but new scientific field studies, etc., will - together with new DNA analyzes - perhaps be able to change this over time.

Once again, a big thanks must be given to the Monggaard family, who live in Angola's capital, Luanda, for also making the accompanying photo of the Angola Peach-faced Lovebird available to www.birdkeeper.dk.

Jorgen Petersen

Conceived/Updated: 04.10.2018 / 12.02.2024

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