Moluccan eclectus
| Eclectus Parrot | |
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| Male Eclectus Parrot, Melbourne Zoo | |
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| Genus: | Eclectus Wagler, 1832
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| Species: | E. roratus
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| Binomial name | |
| Eclectus roratus (Müller, 1776)
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The Eclectus Parrot, Eclectus roratus is a parrot native to the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, northeastern Australia and the Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is unusual in the parrot family for their extreme sexual dimorphism; the males are bright green, having bright candy corn coloured upper mandibles and black lower mandibles, and blue or red tail and wing feathers. The females of the species are red headed and blue to purple breasted, with black beaks. Joseph Forshaw, in his book Parrots of the World, noted that the first European ornithologists to see Eclectus parrots thought that they were of two distinct species. In Papua New Guinea there are many Eclectus parrots and they are sometimes considered as pests. They will eat fruit off trees etc. The tribes people usually shoot the parrots with a sling shot and they use the bright feathers as a decoration.
Taxonomy
Ornithologists usually classify the Eclectus Parrot as members of tribe Psittaculini in the Psittacidae family of order Psittaciformes. However, some recent thought indicates that there is a great deal of commonality between the Eclectus Parrot and the Loriinae tribe. It is thought that there are six subspecies of Eclectus Parrots in the wild, each with differences in size, coloring or habitat.
Diet
The diet of the Eclectus, like any parrot consist of mainly fruits, nuts, seeds etc. The favourite fruit of the Eclectus is the pomegranate. They will eat most fruit including mango, fig, guava, cherry, banana, any melons, stone fruits (peaches etc), citrus fruits, pears and apples. In captivity they should not be fed avocado, chocolate, parsley. Walnut is also not recommended. Eclectus need a protein rich diet, more so than other birds. Foods such as dairy are a favorite of eclectus, but should not be given regularly, because of the, relative to the bird, high fat content.
One must be careful when feeding an Eclectus fortified foods such as pellets, breads, pastas, etc. The Eclectus, which has a longer than normal digestive tract, is sensitive to the additions, and it can lead to the phenomena known as toe-tapping and wing flipping.
Conservation status
The Australian subspecies, macgillivrayi, is under threat from nest robbing for illegal bird trading.
Gallery
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male -
female -
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References
- Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Garnett, S. (1993) Threatened and Extinct Birds Of Australia. RAOU. National Library, Canberra. ISSN 0812-8014
External links
