Red-winged Parrot
Aprosmictus erythropterus
Bright pale-green parrot with a red shoulder patch; note blue rump in flight. Male has black back. Occurs in a wide variety of habitats where it feeds primarily in trees. Flight style recalls a large pigeon.
Identification
The red-winged parrot is typically about 30 to 33 cm (12–13 in) in length. Both sexes have bright red wings and a bright green body. The male birds have a black nape, lower blue back and rump with a yellow tip on their tail, an orange bill and grey feet. The female birds have a yellowish-green body and the wings have red and pink trimmings. Also distinguishing the females are dark irises and the lower back is a light blue colour. Juveniles have orange/yellow beaks and pale brown irises, and otherwise resemble females in colouration. Males develop adult plumage at about the age of two years and females at the age of about a year and a half.
Taxonomy
The red-winged parrot was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus erythropterus. Gmelin based his description on the "crimson-winged parrot" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The red-winged parrot is now placed with the jonquil parrot in the genus Aprosmictus that was introduced in 1842 by the English ornithologist John Gould. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek απροσμικτος/aprosmiktos meaning "unsociable" or "solitary". The specific epithet erythropterus combines the Ancient Greek ερυθρος/eruthros meaning "red" with -πτερος/-pteros meaning "-winged. Alternative common names include crimson-winged parrot and blood-winged parrot.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:<p>Naturally-occurring hybrids with the Australian king parrot (Alisterus scapularis) have been recorded from Bell in southeastern Queensland.
- Scientific name
- Aprosmictus erythropterus
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittaculidae
- Genus
- Aprosmictus
Range and habitat
Their range is from the Pilbara, Western Australia to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland (to be seen almost all over Queensland) and as south as northeast South Australia. They are occasionally spotted in south New Guinea. These birds inhabit riverine forests, forest edges, acacia scrub, savanna, mangroves, and farmlands. They are seen often in pairs or flocks near water.
- Migration
- Nomadic movement
Behavior
The birds typically breed in spring and summer, but breeding times depends on their location. A hollow space in a tree at a height of 11 m from the ground usually acts as nest for breeding . Generally, three to six white eggs are laid per season, the eggs being 31 mm in length. The female incubates while the male searches for food. The chicks stay with their parents for about five weeks. It has been hybridised with the Australian king parrot.[citation needed] The hybrid is fertile and breeds true to form. [citation needed]<p>Their diet typical consists of seeds from eucalyptus, acacia, berries, flowers, and insects. The birds' call are ching-ching, chink-chink or thin screeching.
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Black-throated Wattle-eye
Platysteira peltata
Small black-and-white bird with a patch of bright red bare skin above the eye. Females have a black hood, and males a white throat and black breast band. Found in forest, thick woodland, and mangroves. Generally local and uncommon. The unmusical song is usually given as a duet: a mix of low-pitched rasping notes and higher bleating notes. Similar to Brown-throated Wattle-eye but never shows white in the wing, and the female has a black rather than brown throat. Separated from batises by the red wattle and lack of white in the wing.
Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise
Paradisaea raggiana
A large bird of foothill forest and edge. The national bird of PNG. Both sexes have a black chest and yellow eyes. Males have red or orange plumes, depending on the race, which are raised above the back during the display, in which he leans forward and flicks his wings. Overlaps slightly with Greater, Lesser and Emperor birds-of-paradise but Raggiana male has reddish rather than white plumes. Raggiana female is distinguished by its combination of yellow eye and yellow back of the head. Male gives a repeated, nasal squawk, typical of the group.
San Blas Jay
Cyanocorax sanblasianus
Handsome blue-and-black jay of tropical forests, woodlands, and gardens endemic to west Mexico. Usually in small groups, which can be noisy and conspicuous or very quiet and easily overlooked; often with Yellow-winged Caciques. Around the town of San Blas (in Nayarit, Mexico), appreciably larger Purplish-backed Jay occurs at southern end of its range (and northern end of San Blas Jay’s range). Purplish-backed is deep purplish blue on back and tail, not strikingly two-toned blue-and-black like San Blas Jay, and has bright yellow legs. Voices also very different. Purplish-backed occurs in mangroves and adjacent woodlands in and around town while San Blas Jay occurs in foothill forest of coffee plantations south of town.
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