Friday, October 3, 2008

Male & Female Eclectus Parrots


Male & Female Eclectus Parrots by ianmichaelthomas.
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Male is the green, female is the red and blue.
Gorgeous colours!

Impossibly beautiful Australian native tropical parrots! The colours are absolutely stunning!
I first thought these eclectus parrots were soft toys! They were perfectly used to people, only metres away.

The eclectus parrot is most unusual for having such differential colour schemes between male and female.

The male is bright green with blue and red patches,
and the female is crimson with a blue belly. Their feet are very unusual;
the two outer toes of the foot point backward and the two inner toes point forward.
This gives the parrot an extremely powerful grasp so it can manipulate objects close to its bill.
These birds are tree dwellers and live around lowland in tropical areas.

Eclectus Parrots are strong fliers and fly high above the forest canopy.
In the day time they fly in pairs or small parties in search of fruits, nuts, nectar and leaf buds. In the evening they engage in display flights before they gather in groups of about 80 birds to roost for the night.

Body length: (beak to tail) Males: 420–480mm; Females: 400–450mm
Wing span: Males: 900mm; Females: 890mm
Weight: 615g
Scientific name: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi (Gk. eklektikos = select, pick out, L. rorare = bedewed, macgillivrayi = after the ornithologist who discovered the species in Queensland)

Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is the largest of twelve subspecies of eclectus parrot. Plumage between the sexes is markedly different, even in juveniles. Males are predominantly emerald green, with scarlet red on the sides of the abdomen extending across the underwing, and dusky feathers on the remainder of the underwing. The upper wing is emerald green with blue outer feathers. The tail is emerald green on the upper side, fading to light blue with a white tip, and on the underside the tail is grey-black with a yellow tip. The lower beak is black, and the upper beak is orange fading to yellow at the tip. The eye is orange-red in colour with a grey eye-ring. Females have a scarlet-red head and neck, with a darker red tail and back. The upper side of the wings are dark red on the inside half and blue on the outer half. Under the wing is dusky with a vivid purple-blue band that continues under the body and around the back of the neck. A purple-blue ring surrounds the yellow eye, and the upper and lower beak is black. Both sexes have a short, square tail.
Habitat and distribution: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is endemic to Queensland (only lives in Queensland) and is the only subspecies on mainland Australia, with one other subspecies, E. r. polychloros, found in the Torres Strait islands. All other subspecies are located in Indonesia, New Guinea, and several Pacific islands. The eclectus parrot is found in one region in Queensland, the Iron and McIlwraith ranges of eastern Cape York Peninsula. They mainly inhabit the interior and edges of lowland rainforest; however they can also be found in the higher rainforest regions.

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