Eclectus Parrot

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iEclectus Parrot

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Family:	Psittacidae
Genus:	Eclectus
Species:	E. roratus

Binomial name

Eclectus roratus
(Statius Muller, 1776)

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-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 of trees etc. The tribes people usually shoot the parrots with a sling shot and they use the bright feathers as a decoration.

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.

[edit] 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.

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.