Love is in the air! This Valentine’s Day, millions of couples will express their affection with gifts of cards, chocolates, flowers, jewellery, and romantic dinners for two.
It’s also the traditional start of the bird breeding season, who have been linked to Valentine’s Day ever since Geoffrey Chaucer connected romantic love with the religious celebration of Saint Valentine in Parliament of Fowls. This 699-line poem describes birds gathering to choose their mates on Saint Valentine’s Day, cementing their association with love and courtship.
For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take,
Since then, birds have frequently symbolised love, with the term lovebirds often used to describe devoted couples. The earliest recorded use of this phrase appears in The Woman In The Moone, a comedic stage play by John Lyly published in 1597.
The play overturns the biblical story of Eve, presenting Nature as the supreme deity who introduces her ultimate creation, Pandora. In a twist, Utopian shepherds compete for Pandora’s love, but their pursuit is complicated by the seven planets, whose attributes Nature has instilled in her, leading them to take revenge by influencing Pandora’s fate.
Ile giue thee ſtreames vvhoſe pibble ſhalbe pearie,
Loue birdes whoſe feathers ſhalbe beaten gold.
Muſteflyes vvith amber berries in their mouthes,
And is there any bird that symbolizes love more than actual lovebirds? These small parrots, belonging to the Old World parrot family Psittaculidae, are renowned for their affectionate nature. The genus Agapornis was first described by English naturalist Prideaux John Selby in 1836, deriving its name from the Greek words agape (love) and ornis (bird). This fitting name reflects their strong monogamous pair bonds and the remarkable amount of time they spend nestled together.
There are 9 species of lovebirds as well as several subspecies that are all native to the African continent
Rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis) also known as the rosy-collared or peach-faced lovebird. Mostly green plumage with a blue rump, and pink face and throat. Found in open country and savanna woodlands in southwest Africa
Yellow-collared lovebird (Agapornis personatus), also known as the masked lovebird, black-masked lovebird or eye ring lovebird. Mostly green with a yellow breast, collar and nape, and blue tail feathers. Black face, bright red bill, and white eye-ring. Found in the Arusha Region of Tanzania.
Fischer’s lovebird (Agapornis fischeri). Green back, chest, and wings, with some purple or blue tail feathers. Golden-yellow neck, orange face, olive-green crown, red bill, and white eye-ring. Found in grass plains with isolated clumps of trees in northern Tanzania south of Lake Victoria.
Lilian’s lovebird (Agapornis lilianae), also known as the Nyasa lovebird. Mainly green with orange on its head, neck, and upper breast and white eye-ring. Found in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Black-cheeked lovebird (Agapornis nigrigenis). Mostly green with orange bib, dark brown throat and cheeks, and reddish-brown forehead and forecrown. Bright red beak and white eye-ring. Found in deciduous woodland in southwest Zambia.
Grey-headed lovebird (Agapornis canus), also known as Madagascar lovebird. Sexually dimorphic. Male is green with pale grey head and upper breast. Female is green all over. Native to the island of Madagascar.
Black-winged lovebird (Agapornis taranta), also known as Abyssinian lovebird. Sexually dimorphic. Male is mostly green with black feathers under the wing, black-tipped tail, red forehead, red beak, and red ring of feathers around its eyes. Female is green with brown feathers under the wing, and lacks the red on the head. Found in high areas in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Red-headed lovebird (Agapornis pullarius), also known as the red-faced lovebird. Sexually dimorphic. Male is green with red on the face extending to the top of the crown and red beak. Female is green with orange on the face and paler beak. Found in tropical rainforest in central Africa.
Black-collared lovebird (Agapornis swindernianus) also known as Swindern’s lovebird. Mostly green with blue rump, reddish-brown breast, yellow neck, narrow black hind neck collar, and dark grey beak. Found in tropical rainforest in equatorial Africa.
Between 1979 and 1986, researchers uncovered the fossilised bones of an extinct lovebird species that lived 2.5 million years ago in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind, a site about 30 miles from Johannesburg, famous for its wealth of early human fossils, tools, and artefacts.
Unlike modern lovebirds, this species had unusually long legs, suggesting it was a ground-dwelling bird that foraged for seeds in the dense grasslands rather than living in trees. Its wings were also proportionally shorter, further adapting it to life on the ground. Described in 2024 as Agapornis longipes, meaning “long-footed” in Latin, this bird would have lived alongside early hominins such as Paranthropus and Homo. Since the Cradle of Humankind’s environment has remained relatively stable over time, its extinction was likely caused by microclimatic changes or the disappearance of a key food source.
Another extinct lovebird species from South Africa, dating back to the Zanclean epoch (3.6 to 5.3 million years ago), was named Agapornis attenboroughi in honour of Sir David Attenborough.
Lovebirds are primarily vegetarian, feeding on a diet of seeds such as grass, sunflower, corn, sorghum, maize, millet, and wild rice, as well as flowers, fruit, and berries. They will also occasionally eat caterpillars and insect larvae.
Courtship begins when they are around 10 months old, and once paired, lovebirds mate for life which is typically between 5 and 15 years in the wild. While many birds engage in courtship feeding, lovebirds take this behaviour to the extreme. The male regularly feeds the female regurgitated food, not just during courtship but throughout their lives, particularly after separation or times of stress. Pairs also spend a great deal of time preening each other’s feathers, reinforcing their close bond. When resting, they often perch so closely together that they appear to be cuddling.
Their bonds are so strong that in Spanish, they are called inseparables, and in French, inséparables. In captivity, if a bonded pair is separated, both birds may experience a decline in physical health.
