General description
 Lenth 5 1/2 in (14cm) General plumage green(To be completed)
The qualities of a good specimen are
1. A 'cobby' rounded shape
2. Exhibitioncarriage and stance, standing well clear of the perch
3. Wing tips should be touching but not obscuring the rump
4. Rump and back should be broad and strong
5. The breast should be rounded and full
6. The tail should be as sharp and compact as possible and not fanned
7. The head should be large, wide and rounded with some 'front' over the base of the bill and be mounted on a wide 'bull neck'
8. The face should be wide and appealing with large, round and bold eyes
9. The plumage colour should be even, deep and clear but with special features of each mutation taken into account
10. Feather condition should be immaculate
11. The feet should be clean, large, strong and not turned in and the toes should be straight and show no signs of curling inwards, there should be no scars or mutilations and all nails should be present
12. The bill should be clean and show no scars or mutilation, it should be large and not protruding at an acute angle
Reproduced with permission from the African Lovebird Society, Australia
Comment from Ed: I believe I recognise this as the Editors work who are Lyn and Peter Grant
 A word of caution when purchasing Fischer's - purity is extremely important. Some breeders mix species together in a colony condition and all eye rings will freely interbreed. So when you purchase your birds ask about their background. Hybrids are not always easy to distinguish A few helpful hints would be to look for bright orange checks, no shading or dark areas near ears or beak, the forehead must be a bright and clear orange colour again with no dark areas. Even in wild birds there is a slight variance in the brightness of the colour of the face, the birds with the most orange should always be kept as the best breeding stock.
Personally I have one other preference and that is the real violet rump. Not many Fischer’s have this beautiful colour today, but every so often you come across a bird with this asset. There is a strong possibility that this may be a subspecies as many were imported with the violet rump in the early years (early 1940's), Unfortunately, most of the birds today have a dull greyish blue on the rump and even very little of that.
Sexing the Fischer’s (or any of the eye rings) is much easier than the Peach faced and its mutations. This is truly an asset for all of us. At about eight to ten months of age there is a visible difference between the sexes. The hens are larger, about 10-15%. In most cases the hens are also heavier than the males. The pelvic test is also much easier for sexing the Fischer’s.
White maturing the birds we put them in flights as large as possible, about 15-18 feet long by 6-8 feet wide. When they are near breeding age (about 10 months or older) nest boxes are put in to stimulate the birds to pick a mate and start to build a nest Nesting material is provided freely As pairs seem to match up we pull them out one pair at a time and put them in a single cage for breeding. We find that this process of letting the birds choose their own mate helps than breed more readily. Although in many cases where genetic background becomes a factor we select the cock and the hen ourselves and put them in a cage for breeding.
Fischer’s will lay five eggs and usually hatch four or five young. In a few cases a maiden hen will lay only three eggs but this is usually an exception. They are good parents and we have no difficulty inspecting the nest and banding the young. We do this to all our birds except for the Abby's and the Madagascar. Fischer’s are subject to feather picking their young more so than other species, this disturbing habit usually develops in older birds. We find that fostering the young that have been picked to Masked (Blue) helps, to our experience the young raised by the Masked do not become feather pickers.
Colony breeding of Fischer’s has been very successful for breeders over the years. For many years we have used this system with much success in a flight 6 x 15 feet we have colony bred eight to ten pair of Fischer’s. In recent years we have been doing some tests on different systems for breeding to see if any of these would help with the mortality problem which exists with the young, before they reach maturity. The most successful method used to date is single pair cage breeding. The cage is about three feet long, two feet high and 11/2 feet wide. The nest is placed on the outside for easy inspection. all cages have wire bottoms where droppings fall through. In this manner the young cannot get to debris that is not good for them. Often I have seen young after leaving the nest sitting on the floor of the cage or aviary trying to learn how to eat by picking and eating the worst the floor has to offer.
We also leave the young with the parents as long as possible even when the second nest is hatching. If the young disturb the nest too much a second box is put in for them to sleep in. if the disturbance continues, the young are removed to a separate holding cage for a few months. In most cases we are able to leave the young with the parents until the breeding season is over. At that time the parents and the young from several cages are turned loose into aviaries for maturing and resting. With this procedure we have found very few losses of young. This method seems to remove as much stress as possible from the birds during this crucial time of maturing.
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