Blue-winged Parrot
Neophema chrysostoma
Attractive small parrot of southeastern Australia. Olive-green, with yellow belly and mostly dark blue wings. Face yellow between eye and bill, with small yellow triangle behind eyes and thin blue line between eyes. Feeds on the ground in open areas, including sporting grounds and farmland. Compare Rock Parrot (duller green, lacks the yellow on face, and only a thin blue edge to folded wing) and Elegant Parrot (yellower, no yellow patch behind eye). Call a very high, thin, chiming "zit zit."
Identification
Ranging from 20 to 24 cm long and weighing around 55 g, the parrot is sexually dimorphic—both sexes are predominantly olive-green. The adult male has a two-toned band across the face above but not reaching the eyes—ultramarine above and paler turquoise blue below. Its crown is yellowish, and throat and breast pale green and belly yellow, its wing coverts and under wing coverts are deep blue. The tail is blue-grey. The bill is blue-grey and the iris is brown. The adult female is duller with dull olive underparts and smaller blue on wings and less distinctive frontal band. Juveniles are dull olive green with slate-blue wings and no frontal band.<p>The greater amount of blue on the wing helps distinguish the Blue-winged parrot from the elegant parrot and the orange-bellied parrot. The latter two species have more yellow-green and bright green plumage overall respectively.
Taxonomy
German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl described the blue-winged parrot in 1820 as Psittacus chrysostomus, noting that it had been confused with the turquoise parrot (N. pulchella). However, the material used to describe it contained specimens of both this species and the elegant parrot. The species' name is from the Ancient Greek words khrysos "golden" and stoma "mouth", from the yellow skin around the eyes. In 1821, Coenraad Jacob Temminck gave the species the name Psittacus venustus, however Kuhl had used this binomial name for the parrot now known as the northern rosella (Platycercus venustus). Gregory Mathews described two subspecies but neither is recognised as distinct today.<p>Early names included the blue-banded parakeet or blue-banded grass parakeet, taken from the species' blue frontal band. However this plumage is shared by two other members of the genus. It was also known as the Hobart ground parrot in Tasmania from its terrestrial habits. It is also called blue-winged grass parrot or blue winged grass parakeet, as well as its official name of blue-winged parrot.<p>Within the genus, the blue-winged parrot is classified in the subgenus Neonanodes. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA published in 2021 indicated it is most closely related to the rock parrot, their ancestors most likely diverging between 0.7 and 3.3 million years ago; their common ancestor diverged from the ancestor of the elegant parrot between 0.9 and 3.4 million years ago.
- Scientific name
- Neophema chrysostoma
- Authority
- (Kuhl, 1820)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittaculidae
- Genus
- Neophema
Range and habitat
The blue-winged parrot is found across southeastern Australia. In eastern South Australia, it is found north to the Flinders Ranges, and across Victoria. It is more sporadic across central and western New South Wales and into Queensland, as far north as Diamantina National Park. It lives in savannah woodland, grasslands, orchards, farmlands, marshes, heath, dunes, and other open habitats up to 1,200 m (3,937 ft) above sea level. It is one of only three species of parrot that make regular yearly migrations over a sea or ocean, with many members of the species flying between Tasmania, where they breed in spring and summer, and the mainland, where they winter. Some birds, however, do remain in Tasmania over the winter and some remain on the mainland to breed in the summer.<p>It is a spring visitor to King Island in the Bass Strait.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Striped Kingfisher
Halcyon chelicuti
A small and dainty woodland-dwelling kingfisher with powder-blue tail and flight feathers, creamy collar, dark eye-stripe, and streaky brown crown. Singles and pairs are inconspicuous in the mid-canopy of parkland-like savanna and woodland, preferring more arid thornveld than other dryland kingfishers. It draws attention to itself with a loud, ringing “teeep-tiiii-rrrrrrr” and rollicking “trrreerrr-treeerr-treeer” calls.
Banded Barbet
Lybius undatus
A medium-sized barbet with a black back, a barred belly, and a red patch above the bill. There is considerable geographical variation; the throat varies from speckled to solidly black, and the head can be black with a thin white eyebrow, or black-and-white. Found at middle elevations in montane woodland in the Abyssinian highlands. Not very vocal, but does give quiet rasping calls. Has a red patch above the bill like Red-fronted Barbet, but easily separated by the barred belly.
Principe Seedeater
Crithagra rufobrunnea
An incredibly dowdy small seedeater with a pink-horn bill and a pale throat. On São Tomé its color is gray-brown and on Príncipe more buffy-cinnamon. On São Tomé it is a common resident in most habitats from primary forest to suburban gardens up to 1500 meters of elevation; on Príncipe it is uncommon and more restricted to forest. Song is variable, but mostly a strident, rapidly delivered series of high-pitched notes “tseet-teet-teet-teet-tseeu-tseeu-tseeu” or similar; call is a slurred “tshweet.” The much larger Sao Tome Grosbeak is chestnut in color and rare in remote forest on São Tomé; Yellow-fronted Canary is much brighter.
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