Special Breeding Success: Prague Zoo Celebrates Rare Parrot Chick

Prague Zoo has achieved a special breeding success: for the first time in the history of Czech zoos, an orange-breasted fig parrot has been successfully reared. The chick, now four months old, is in good health and is being cared for exceptionally well by its parents.

Prague Zoo is celebrating an exceptional new arrival. For the first time, a Czech zoo has successfully reared an orange-breasted fig parrot (Cyclopsitta gulielmitertii). This small parrot species is considered particularly demanding to keep and is housed in only a few zoological institutions across Europe.

What is particularly remarkable is that the inexperienced breeding pair raised their offspring without human assistance. For the zookeepers, this is an exceptional success, as the first breeding attempt does not always go smoothly, particularly with rare parrot species.

“The breeding pair surprised us several times,” explains Antonín Vaidl, bird curator at Prague Zoo. First, the birds impressed with their careful nest-building, followed by the laying of a healthy egg. The surprise was even greater when it turned out that the egg was actually fertilised.

What was particularly pleasing, however, was that the two birds subsequently raised their offspring entirely independently and naturally. According to Vaidl, this is by no means a given for many bird species – and even less so for these demanding parrots.

The chick is currently still being kept in a quiet area of the zoo that is not accessible to visitors.

Photo: Antonín Vaidl | Zoo Praha

Chick Hatched at the End of May

The young orange-breasted fig parrot hatched on 27 May after an incubation period of around 20 days. It has since been confirmed that the chick is male. The bird is in good health and, at four months old, is already considered to have been almost successfully reared.

Prague Zoo has kept this particularly small parrot species since 2018. At that time, the first specimens arrived in Prague from Walsrode Bird Park in Germany. Since 2022, visitors have been able to see the birds on the Parrot Trail (Papouščí stezka).

A chick had already hatched there for the first time in 2023, but died the following day. The successful rearing of the new chick is therefore an even greater cause for celebration.

Photo: Petr Hamerník | Zoo Praha

Demanding Parrots from the Rainforests of New Guinea

The small parrots live mainly in the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and on neighbouring islands. They are also known as fig parrots, as the flesh of figs forms an important part of their diet.

Keeping them is considered particularly difficult because they have high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. Their feeding behaviour is also characteristic: the birds often hang upside down from branches to reach fruit.

Although the orange-breasted fig parrot is currently classified as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), little is known about its actual population numbers. The birds live in remote rainforest areas that are difficult to access, which means scientific observations and reliable population data remain limited.


Prague Zoo (Zoologická zahrada hl. m. Prahy)
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