Papuan King-Parrot
Alisterus chloropterus
A brightly-colored, long-tailed parrot of forest and clearings from the foothills to the mid-mountains. Males have a red head and underparts, blue rump and back of the neck, dark wings and a pale green shoulder bar. Females in the east have green head and upperparts with a red belly. In the west they more resemble the male. Similar to Moluccan King-Parrot but where the ranges meet, but Papuan King-Parrot has a pale green shoulder bar. Call, a series of clear, high, piping notes given at slightly different pitches.
Identification
The Papuan king parrot is 36 cm (14 in) long including a long, broad tail. It has dark grey legs and orange irises. The three subspecies of the Papuan king parrot all show sexual dimorphism and in all three subspecies the male can be identified by a prominent broad pale-green band on each wing (resembling a shoulder stripe). The differences in the females between subspecies are more marked than the differences in the males.<p>The male has a red head and neck, red lower parts, blue back and rump, green wings each with a broad band of pale-green. In the male of A. c. chloropterus the blue extents upwards from the back to the hind neck. In the female of the A. c. chloropterus and A. c. calloterus the abdomen is red, the green over the head and neck is continuous with green of the back and wings, and the chest has vague transverse green and red striations. The female of subspecies A. c. moszkowskii has a red head, neck, chest, and lower abdomen resembling the male, and differs from the male with its much smaller pale-green wing band.
Taxonomy
First described by Australian ornithologist Edward Pierson Ramsay in 1879, the Papuan king parrot is one of three species known as king parrots found in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and West Papua/Indonesia. Three subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Alisterus chloropterus
- Authority
- (Ramsay, EP, 1879)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittaculidae
- Genus
- Alisterus
Range and habitat
Found on in central and eastern New Guinea east of the Weyland Mountains, it lives in forests up to an altitude of 2600 m.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Birds are encountered in ones or twos, or in small flocks up to 10 birds. They feed quietly in dense forest generally in small trees or low branches of large trees, and are often unnoticed. They eat berries, fruit, seeds and possibly some insects.[citation needed]
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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