Our Coral Bill Pionus
Breeder Program

The Coral Billed Pionus is still somewhat of a rarity here in the United States as of this date in 2006. There are a few breeders who breed these "Red Billed" Pionus, however, I am a breeder that has taken a big interest in breeding my two pairs to produce unrelated offspring. It is my intent to see that these loving beauties become a popular species in the Pionus family along with the Maximilian Pionus. The Coral Billed and the Maximilian look similar except the Coral Billed Pionus has a red or coral like coloring in the mandible and there are other slight differences such as the eye area, which is different from the Maximilian's eye ring.

I know I have along road a head of me and at this time it may or may not work out. I'd like to have each pair produce, then I can take a male from one pair and a female from the other pair to put together which will result in an unrelated bonded pair. If the parents are good at rearing babies in the nest, then I will allow the babies to be raised solely by the parents to a full fledging. As a rule there are more males then females that are produced so I will most likely always have more males. If this is the case, then the parent raised males can be sold as single breeders.  I typically determine the sex of the hatchlings through DNA testing when they are between two or three weeks old. I will pull them from the nest for a short while to band them and then take blood samples of the babies and then put them back in the nest. Once I get the DNA sex results back I will determine which Coral Bills will be paired for breeding (they will remain in the nest), and the ones that cannot be paired will be pulled for hand feeding to make pet quality or can be sold to someone else who wants breeding stock. If  I have additional females they may remain with me for future use as a breeder with an unrelated offspring at some later point.

In a program like this it can be very rewarding but yet challenging at the same time. At this time the first pair are great producers and the second pair is just coming up on 3 years old. So I am hoping that during the spring of 2006 the second pair will produce, if they do not ... then it just makes it that much longer to wait to make "unrelated" pairs. If this happens I will need to hold the first pairs offspring until they can be paired at a later point with the second pairs offspring. Ideally I would need a few more pairs to make this more successful with a quicker outcome.

I'd love to find 1 or even 2 other unrelated pairs to bring into the breeding program, but that is easier said than done! All good things take time!

Updated 4/13/07: Things have been going along fine so far.  Since I have acquired the two pairs only the first pair has produced for me but then they are older too. They gave so far 2 males and 2 females which resulted in a total of 4 clutches. In their 1st clutch in 2005 they produced 2 males and one egg was infertile.  Then their 2nd clutch in 2005 had 3 eggs in which 2 chicks hatched and one was infertile then one of the chicks died at about one week of age, the one that lived was a female. In 2006 they produced only one female.   The hen from Pair #1 tends to lay only 2 or 3 eggs per clutch and sometimes one is infertile. The Pair #2 of Coral Bills have not produced for me as of this time and they are now along 3 years old but I have heard them while in the aviary making the gesture sounds of mating... but was not in the act of it.

The newest and most exciting news has come up! I now have traded the 2 female offsprings of mine for 2 other female offsprings with another Breeder.  It benefits us both and allows us to create new unrelated bloodlines which is a goal for both of us.  This does allow me to get a better jump start and hopefully will not be quite as long of a wait and seeing that my second pair has not produced for me yet at the time of this writing. I also bought one single female too so I would have a 3rd choice for pairing up of unrelated birds when the time comes.

It's going to take a while until I get pairs that I want. My ultimate goal is not only for myself but for others as well. When I feel I have produced enough actual pairs there will be times that I can then start selling a baby or two here and there. Once I am about where I want to be, then I can still go solely into selling the Coral Bills into the pet trade. I know there are numerous Coral Bill pets out there but what I have found is, there was still never enough of the Coral Bills in circulation, especially not all that many breeders who are set up with them. The price is still high on them too due to their somewhat rarity, meaning they are still not easy to come by and you do not see them like the other Pionus species.

I will slowly but surely plug along on the Coral Bill Program of mine and hope it will go the way I'd like it to go.

Updated 6/07/07: I now have the new females paired with the males that I produced. This gives me a total of 4 pairs at this time, although the 2 newest ones that I paird up are only 2 years old at this time and will be at least another 1 to 2 years before they possibly will produce. I have one other female that I had bought that I may pair up with this years offspring should one be a male. This would only make the female a year older than the 2007 offspring. If both the 2007 babies were to both be females then I will hold them for future use of trading or pairing up with ones that I get from my pair number 2.

You can see photos of each pair on the links at the left, so be sure to take a look at them and read on how they are progressing with each other.

Updated 12/12/07: You can read on this link for info of the 2007 Coral Bills that were produced.