Agapornis
Lovebird is the common name for the genus Agapornis, a small group of parrots in the Old World parrot family Psittaculidae. Of the nine extant species in the genus, all are native to the African continent, with the grey-headed lovebird being native to the African island of Madagascar. Social and affectionate, the name comes from the parrots' strong, monogamous pair bonding and the long periods which paired birds spend sitting together. Lovebirds live in small flocks and eat fruit, vegetables, grasses, and seeds. Some species are kept as pets, and several coloured mutations have been selectively bred in aviculture. The average lifespan is 10 to 12 years.

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- lovebirdPBDB
- Sits inside
- PsittaculidaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Time the record covers
At most 3.6 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 3.6 Mya and 11.7 ka, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Agapornis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
1 occurrences- Pliocene28%
- Pleistocene72%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
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The named rock units Agapornis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Agapornis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Agapornis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
46 taxa- Acomys1 site
- Anthus1 site
- Aves1 site
- Bovidae1 site
- Cercopithecoides williamsi1 site
- cf. Cisticola sp.1 site
- cf. Estrilda sp.1 site
- Chlorotalpa1 site
- Chrysospalax1 site
- Coturnix1 site
- Crex1 site
- Cryptomys1 site
- Dasymys1 site
- Demodillus sp.1 site
- Dendromus1 site
- Elephantulus1 site
- Elephantulus brachyrhynchus1 site
- Epimys (Aethomys)1 site
- Eptesicus1 site
- Francolinus1 site
- Gorgopithecus major1 site
- Graphiurus1 site
- Hirudinidae indet.1 site
- Lemniscomys1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Agapornis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Agapornis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Charles J. Sharp
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Agapornis lilianae · l-jz:JZ:95
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- GigaScience
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Lovebird”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPsittaculidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Selby 1836