Natural Breeding Habits
Breeding season is from November to April in their natural distribution range. Average clutch size is 2–4 eggs measuring 34.0 x 26.9 mm (1 x 1.3 in). The average incubation period is 28 days usually starting with the laying of the second egg. The chicks fledge around seven weeks of age. They are reared for about three weeks and are typically weaned between 12 to 16 weeks of age. They are critically endangered in Pakistan, especially in Punjab province. This is mostly due to loss of habitat (cutting of old tress), and excessive poaching of wild chicks. Although it their sale is officially banned in Pakistan, they can be found openly being sold in markets of Lahore. Trapping pressure to cater to the demands of the pet trade have caused a drastic decline in this species' wild population. It is illegal to trade in Alexandrine Parakeets in India and yet these birds are sold in broad daylight in urban bird markets, suggesting that the Indian government is allocating insufficient resources towards the protection of this species.
Read more about this topic: Alexandrine Parakeet
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)
“Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created. The average conservative is a slave to the most incidental and trivial part of his forefathers’ glory—to the archaic formula which happened to express their genius or the eighteenth-century contrivance by which for a time it was served.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)