| Mulga Parrot | |
|---|---|
| A male at Wyperfeld National Park, Victoria, Australia | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Platycercinae |
| Tribe: | Platycercini |
| Genus: | Psephotus |
| Species: | P. varius |
| Binomial name | |
| Psephotus varius Clark, 1910 |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Psephotus multicolor |
|
The Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius), also known as the Many-coloured Parrot, is endemic in arid scrublands and lightly timbered grasslands in the interior of southern Australia.[1]
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The Mulga Parrot was given its current scientific name of Psephotus varius by American zoologist Austin Hobart Clark in 1910, after its name Psephotus multicolor was ruled invalid as the original combination (Psittacus multicolor) had been used for another species.[2] It is one of five species in the Psephotus.
Common names include the Mulga Parrot, Many-coloured Parrot, and Varied Parrot.[3]
The male Mulga Parrot is multicolored from which the common name Many-coloured Parrot of this species is derived. It is a bright green overall, with a bluish tinge on the neck and above the eye, and paler on the breast. The rump is light green. The forehead is yellow and there is a red patch on the back of the head. The lower belly and thighs are yellowish marked with orange-red and the wings greenish apart from the yellow median wing coverts and blue outer webs of primaries. The long tail is an assortment of colours: the two long central feathers are dark blue tinged with green, the outer feathers are blue shading to white and there is some red on the upper tail coverts. Its bill is a blue-grey edged with black, and iris is brown. The female is duller overall, with an olive-brown head and chest, duller yellow forehead and red patch on the back of the head, and pale green belly, and more brown-grey bill. It has a red shoulder.[1][3][4]
The species ranges across the dryer interior of the Australian continent, from Western New South Wales from Collarenabri, West Wyalong and Griffith westwards through the northwestern tip of Victoria and across South Australia and into the dryer central regions of Western Australia west to the Wheatbelt and north to the Pilbara.[3] The Mulga Parrot is generally encountered in pairs in arid grassland and mulga scrubland.[4]
Breeding season is anywhere from July to December or after rainfall, with one or occasionally two broods raised depending on rainfall. A hollow in a tree is utilised for nesting, and a clutch of four to six white eggs measuring 22 x 18 mm is laid there.[5]