SOCIALIZATION OF SPECTACLED PARROTLETS FORPUS-CONSPICILLATUS - THE ROLE OF PARENTS, CRECHES AND SIBLING GROUPS IN NATURE

The social development of individually marked Spectacled Parrotlets wa s studied in their natural habitat in Colombia from the fledging day o nwards up to five weeks later. The parents actively reassembled their family by guiding the second and subsequent fledglings, which were lea ving the nest in intervals of 1-2 days into the tree where their previ ously fledged nest mates were staying. Several neighbouring breeding p airs assembled their offspring in the same tree and established a crec he there. They deprived their newly fledged offspring of affiliative i nteractions from the first day after fledging onwards. The parents sta yed in the vicinity of the creche locality for short periods only. Mos t of the time they were out, mainly for foraging activities. After ret urning they fed exclusively their own young. In the evening the pairs guided their offspring into high and dense roosting trees, and every m orning the creche was reestablished The fledglings passed through four developmental periods. (1) A short period of strong affiliative relat ionships with the parents. (2) A period of interactions with their sib lings as well as with unrelated juveniles of approximately the same ag e in an immobile creche. (3) A mobile creche period in which all crech e members together explored the environment of the creche tree (4) A p eriod in which the crechlings established strong sibling relationships and finally became independent of the parents. Socialization in crech es and long-lasting sibling relationships might be the outcome of an e arly parent-offspring conflict that is decided predominantly by the pa rents. It enables the parents to prepare themselves for a subsequent b reeding period by minimizing the time they spend with the young, which nevertheless are provided with excellent conditions for socialization .