Black-cheeked are one of the rare species of love birds. Their scientific name is Agapornis nigrigenis. I just started working with this mutation in 2005. They seem to be very picky about breeding and don't breed as readily as the peachfaced. For my peachfaced I put carefresh in the nestbox, but for my black-cheeked, I bought a stock of Palm Fronds during Easter Sunday and they use this to build an intricate nest. Also I've heard that having more than 1 pair of black-cheeked helps to put them into "the mood". Also, black-cheeked don't like to breed when they're around peachfaced(or are less likely to), so they're now in their own "Rares & Eyerings" room.
Breeding Goals: Produce Black-cheeked babies. (It's harder said than done!!!)
(On 2/5/2007, I produced 2 beautiful baby black-cheeked. See pictures below. You can also read an article I wrote about it here at this link).
Here is one of my black-cheeked males that went on to take first in a show in 2006. This was last year when he took Best Novice at the 2005 Iowa show.
Here's 1 view of the black-cheeked's nest. You can see the black-cheeked are scurrying to get out. Perhaps if I didn't bother them so much, they'd have more success in breeding. : )
Here is another view of the nestbox, and you can see some eggs underneath the palmfronds. They've also dragged an eaten stalk of millet to use as part of their nest also.
Here is a picture of another nest that the same pair of black-cheeked build at a different nest. I had better access to see the eggs with this view.
Beautiful Black-cheeked babies from my Champion Black-cheeked, Captain Morgan.