Female Electus Parrot

by Daniel Hebard

Title

Female Electus Parrot

Artist

Daniel Hebard

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

The eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) is a parrot native to the Solomon Islands, Sumba, New Guinea and nearby islands, northeastern Australia and the Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is unusual in the parrot family for its extreme sexual dimorphism of the colours of the plumage; the male having a mostly bright emerald green plumage and the female a mostly bright red and purple/blue plumage. Joseph Forshaw, in his book Parrots of the World, noted that the first European ornithologists to see eclectus parrots thought they were of two distinct species. Large populations of this parrot remain, and they are sometimes considered pests for eating fruit off trees. Some populations restricted to relatively small islands are comparably rare. Their bright feathers are also used by native tribespeople in New Guinea as decorations.
orange irises and juveniles have dark brown to black irises. The upper mandible of both male and female juveniles are brown at the base fading to yellow towards the biting edges and the tip.[5]
The above description is for the nominate race. The abdomen and nape of the females are blue in most subspecies, purple abdomen and nape in the subspecies (roratus) and lavender abdomen and nape in the (vosmaeri) subspecies from the north and central Maluku Islands, and red abdomen and nape in the subspecies from Sumba and Tanimbar Islands (cornelia and riedeli). Females of two subspecies have a wide band of yellow on the tail tip, riedeli and vosmaeri which also have yellow undertail coverts. The female vosmaeri displays the brightest red of all the subspecies, both on the head and body.
Diet[edit]
The diet of the eclectus in the wild consists of mainly fruits, wild figs, unripe nuts, flower and leaf buds, and some seeds. In captivity, they eat most fruits including mangos, figs, guavas, bananas, melons, stone fruits, grapes, citrus fruits, pears, apples, pomegranate, and papaya (pawpaw). The eclectus has an unusually long digestive tract, so tolerates a high-fiber diet. In captivity, the eclectus parrot does benefit from a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, leafy greens such as endive and dandelion, and a variety of seeds, including spray millet, and a few nuts such as shelled almonds and walnuts.

Uploaded

April 21st, 2018

Statistics

Viewed 358 Times  -  Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/17/2024 at 6:08 AM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags