King Parrot

Where   : Turramurra, New South Wales
When    : Sunday, 21st October, 5-30pm
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3

This is a King Parrot (alisterus scapularis), in our front garden this afternoon.

These magnificent birds are usually around 40 to 45 cms in length (and stand 20cm tail).

The male king parrot is very striking - he fronts with this brilliant red breast and head, extremely long blue-black tail and rich, dark green body. The female has a dullish green head and body with an equally dull red underbelly. So this is a male, ever the showoff !

Great to see these wonderful birds in the garden ...

They are unsuited to captivity because of their size, but seemingly almost tame, often venturing like this into the suburban areas. They are kept in aviaries and can be bred easily, but may be susceptible to ling disease and calcium deficiency in captivity. In any case, I don't like or really understand why people put birds in cages without their permission.

Although they do not readily panic when approached, a couple of the local lorikeets seem to be able to buzz them away with a great deal of noise and gnashing of beaks.

They are found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion of the continent, including eucalyptus wooded areas in and directly adjacent to subtropical and temperate rainforest. They range from North and Central Queensland to Southern Victoria.