LOVEBIRDS in Gauteng

Parrots are not often seen in South Africa, and lovebirds even less often. Three lovebird species – Rosy-faced, Lilian's and Black-cheeked – occur in southern Africa, although you need a magnifying glass to find the distribution of Black-cheeked along the Chobe and Zambezi rivers.

- BRIGETTE COHEN

Rosy-faced Lovebirds are found in Namibia and in a small area of South Africa where the two countries meet. But it was not always so; the fossil record paints a very different picture of lovebird (and parrot) distribution. Just last year, a new species of extinct lovebird was described from Gauteng.

Parrot origins: what genetics tell us

We know that the transition to modern birds occurred during the Cretaceous (65 million years ago) and that parrots and many other modern lineages existed well before dinosaurs and pterosaurs went extinct. The fossil record for parrots is sparse, to say the least. Genetic evidence tells us that parrots colonised Africa in the Late Eocene or Early Oligocene (about 35 million years ago) by dispersing across the ocean from Antarctica. In this period the giant landmasses of the past, Pangaea and Gondwana, had already broken up and the continents were more or less as we know them today. The global climate, however, was fundamentally different. It was not until the Early Oligocene that the ice sheet of Antarctica expanded rapidly, forcing the resident bird populations to find warmer habitats. Parrot ancestors headed for Africa. Lovebird ancestors, of the genus Agapornis, colonised Madagascar before dispersing to mainland Africa in the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene (about 24 million years ago).

Given this, it seems surprising that the oldest parrot fossil from Africa is only five million years old. There is a big gap in our knowledge here, stemming from both the general rarity of bird fossils – delicate bones require unusual conditions for preservation – and a lack of sampling and excavations on the continent due to ongoing geopolitical challenges. In fact, the oldest parrot fossil on the continent was discovered at the West Coast Fossil Park near Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape.