Congo Grey, Ghana Grey, Cameroon Grey... What is it??
Many Grey owners refer to their birds as either a Congo African Grey (CAG) or a Timneh African Grey (TAG). The nominate of the species is psittacus erithacus erithacus (Congo) and the smaller, darker subspecies is psittacus erithacus timneh (Timneh). So what do people mean when they say they have a Cameroon Grey?
Here is a good explanation by Jean Pattison on how the name came about.
Ghana, Togo, Camaroon, Congo, and Angola Greys
When people are referring to Ghana, Togo, Camaroon, Congo, and Angola Greys, they are referring to the region in which the birds originally came. These are our street names and refer to *variations* not subspecies. There is the BIG difference. So I am sure the Atlas of Parrots, and I know, many other books refer to these birds, and mentions them by their "street" names. You know (I have been told by taxonomists) bird people are the only group that does this? All others go by scientific names.
Anyway, Ghana Greys come from the country of Ghana. Now here is the hard part. The Camaroon Greys people refer to here in the U.S. are large silver Greys. These Greys actually come from the old Congo, turned Zaire, and now the Congo again. Originally the Congo exported their birds, and they were the largest and lightest in color, the Congo grey. The Congo ceased exporting their birds. Of course by this time the term Congo grey was a permanent label for any red tail. During this time Africa was exporting birds out of Ghana, Togo, Camaroon and other countries. Trappers in Africa were trapping birds in Zaire (the old Congo) and smuggling them to Camaroon. Camaroon would then legally export them out of Africa. (legal but, not legal) So we would receive birds from Zaire (475-600+ grams) with papers saying the birds originated in Camaroon, of course we also would receive birds that actually did originate in Camaroon (425-500grams).
Only in America...........brokers decided to get more money for the larger birds and sold them as Camaroon Greys (would have to since illegal to have Zaire birds) and they sold the smaller darker birds as the common named Congo Greys (any red tail grey). It does get confusing, because we have Camaroon Greys that are really Congo in origin, and we have Congos that are really Camaroon in origin. (We even have Zaire Greys that were imported out of Togo) So much for the street names but after all is said and done, they are all one, and the same subspecies, the nominate Psittacus erithacus
erithacus.
Contributed by Jean Pattison
Read more in her article, African Grey Variations
Read more about African Grey Parrots at
www.africangreys.com.
www.africangreys.com.
Click Here to read an article by Jane Hallender on Congos and Timnehs.