14 Fun Facts About Lovebirds, From Their Lifelong Devotion to Surprising Aggression

It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air. Millions of people will express affection through chocolate, flowers, greeting cards and stuffed animals.

But in the rest of the animal kingdom, relationships can be a little different. Female praying mantises, for example, feast on their male lovers after sex. Red-sided garter snakes are known for their “mating balls,” in which up to 100 males simultaneously attempt to mate with a single female. For most organisms, mating seems to be a purely reproductive strategy carried out to pass on genetic material, though some species, such as voles, do bond with partners.

In romantic sentiment, though, perhaps no animal represents Valentine’s Day like the lovebird. The petite, brightly plumed parrot is a favorite among avian enthusiasts and a popular pet. Lovebirds have inspired scientists, musicians and poets alike for their devotion and apparent infatuation with each other. In Spanish, they’re called “inseparables”—and “inséparables” in French—referencing their nature to stick together.

Here are 14 fun facts about lovebirds.

1. Surprise, surprise: Lovebirds mate for life.

Lovebirds reach sexual maturity when they’re about 10 months old, and they begin courtship behavior then. Once a lovebird finds a mate, the pair will likely stay together for the rest of their lives, which span 5 to 15 years in the wild or 10 to 20 years in captivity. Monogamy is essential to the social stability of flocks and underlies much of their social behavior.

2. Lovebirds pine for a lost love.

If a mate dies or gets separated from the flock, its companion exhibits erratic behavior that some have likened to depression. A pet lovebird that loses its mate might experience a “complex and painful” grieving process. Lovebirds kept as singular pets don’t like being alone and could exhibit similar depressive behavior in captivity.

3. Just like that affectionate couple in the restaurant, lovebirds feed each other.

“Bonded” pairs of lovebirds feed each other by passing regurgitated food between their mouths. This act is part of the courting process, but established couples also continue the practice year-round. After a period of separation or stress, breeding pairs of lovebirds often feed each other to re-establish their bond.

“When one bird is passing food to the other, beak to beak, it looks for all the world as if they were kissing,” wrote birder and conservationist Kenn Kaufman for Audubon magazine in 2020.

4. They encompass several species.

The nine species classified as lovebirds make up the Agapornis genus in the parrot family. Most lovebirds sport green feathers on their bodies and a different color on their heads, and they range from about five to seven inches in length.

One species, the rosy-faced lovebird (also called the peach-faced lovebird), can be found in the United States: In the 1990s, some captive lovebirds of that species escaped in central Arizona, and now, about 2,000 of them are settled around Phoenix. But that’s not their usual habitat.

5. Lovebirds are from Africa and have lived there for millions of years.

Eight lovebird species originated in continental Africa, while one is native to the island of Madagascar. Fossils of prehistoric lovebirds have been unearthed in South Africa. In August 2024, scientists discovered a new extinct species of lovebird that lived 2.5 million years ago. They uncovered 96 bones from the species, called Agapornis longipes, at the Cradle of Humankind site in South Africa.

6. Lovebirds live in holes.

Lovebirds | National Geographic

These feathered friends are cavity-dwellers: They make their homes in holes in trees, rocks or shrubs in the wild. Some species nest in groups, while others pair off to build their nests away from the flock. In urban settings, they might rely on anything from a tree to a crevice in a building. The out-of-place rosy-faced lovebirds in Arizona, for example, often make their homes in cacti.

7. Different lovebird species build their nests in different ways.

Fischer’s lovebirds line their chosen nesting cavities with grass and strips of bark, which the female gathers and carries in her beak. Rosy- or peach-faced lovebirds, on the other hand, tuck bark into their hind feathers to transport it to the nest. Scientists suggest the latter’s complex material-gathering technique is an example of the intersection of evolved and learned behavior.

8. Some lovebirds look androgynous.

In three species of lovebirds—the red-headed lovebird, the black-winged lovebird and the gray-headed lovebird—males and females have defining characteristics that visually distinguish them from each other. Male black-winged lovebirds, for example, have crowns of red feathers just above the beak, where females have green plumage. This visual difference is called sexual dimorphism.

But other lovebird species don’t have the same degree of sexual dimorphism, making it difficult to determine their sex by sight alone. In some of these species, males may be slightly larger than females, but only a DNA test can provide conclusive results.

9. Lovebirds keep a healthy diet.

Save your Valentine’s chocolate for your human sweetheart. Wild lovebirds survive on grass seeds, berries, fruit and occasionally insect larvae. Owners of domesticated lovebirds can supplement their pet’s diet with calcium-rich oyster shells and fresh greens.

10. Lovebirds can be mean.

Aggression isn’t uncommon in lovebirds. The parrots are territorial, and they’re known to get along poorly with birds of other species. Within their own kind, lovebirds can also become jealous or hormonal during mating season. Lovebirds in captivity have a reputation for attacking birds in the same cage as them, with peach-faced lovebirds considered notorious for aggressive behavior.

11. Lovebirds can carry diseases that infect humans.

Some studies suggest lovebirds can carry yeast bacteria (Cryptococcus) capable of infecting humans with weakened immune systems. They pick up the bacterial spores through the environment, typically by contact with pigeon feces. Other reports found evidence of a parasite called Encephalitozoon hellem in Fischer’s, peach-faced and masked lovebirds. The parasite has also been found in humans with compromised immune systems, such as AIDS patients.

12. Some lovebirds are facing conservation threats.

The black-cheeked lovebird, native to Zambia and found in parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Its biggest threat is a dwindling water supply, brought on by dams, drought and potentially climate change. An estimated 2,500 to 10,000 mature black-cheeked lovebirds remain in the wild today.

Likewise, the Fischer’s lovebird, native to Tanzania, is considered near threatened with a decreasing population. Humans drove down their numbers by trapping them for captivity beginning in the 1970s, but climate change and development of their habitat continues to put the birds at risk.

13. Lovebirds are playful pets.

Like other parrots in captivity, lovebirds are known for their energetic intelligence. They like to fly and climb, and to occupy their beaks, pet lovebirds shred paper or chew on wood or toys. A lovebird owner should buy swings, ladders and bells for their bird to play with when in a cage.

14. Lovebirds (sort of) inspired Valentine’s Day as we know it.

The Gory Origins of Valentine’s Day

Scholars typically cite a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer as the first evidence of the connection between the religious celebration of Saint Valentine’s Day and romantic love. The poem, “Parliament of Fowls,” features a story of birds gathering to choose their mates. Most of Chaucer’s talking avian characters find partners, though the leading female postpones her decision due to having too many suitors—three birds are trying to gain her affection.