Papuan king parrot

Papuan king parrot
Male at Jurong Bird Park
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Superfamily:	Psittacoidea
Family:	Psittaculidae
Subfamily:	Psittaculinae
Tribe:	Polytelini
Genus:	Alisterus
Species:	A. chloropterus
Binomial name
Alisterus chloropterus (Ramsay, 1879)

The Papuan king parrot (Alisterus chloropterus), also known as the green-winged king parrot, is a species of parrot in the Psittaculidae family. It is found in West Papua and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

First described by Australian ornithologist Edward Pierson Ramsay in 1879,^[2] the Papuan king parrot is one of three species known as king parrots found in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and West Papua/Indonesia.^[3] Three subspecies are recognized:^[2]

• Alisterus chloropterus (Ramsay, EP 1879)
  • Alisterus chloropterus chloropterus (Ramsay, EP 1879), the nominate subspecies, which occurs in eastern New Guinea to the Huon Peninsula in the north, and Hall Sound in the south.
  • Alisterus chloropterus callopterus (Albertis & Salvadori 1879) is found in the Central Highlands west to the Weyland Mountains, the Sepik River area and upper Fly River.
  • Alisterus chloropterus moszkowskii (Reichenow 1911) is found in the north of the island, from Cenderawasih Bay east to the Aitape region.

Description

The Papuan king parrot is 36 cm (14 in) long including a long broad tail. It has dark grey legs and orange irises. The three subspecies of the Papuan king parrot all show sexual dimorphism and in all three subspecies the male can be identified by a prominent broad pale-green band on each wing (resembling a shoulder stripe). The differences in the females between subspecies are more marked than the differences in the males.^[3]

The male has a red head and neck, red lower parts, blue back and rump, green wings each with a broad band of pale-green. In the male of A. c. chloropterus the blue extents upwards from the back to the hind neck. In the female the of A. c. chloropterus and A. c. calloterus the abdomen is red, the green over the head and neck is continuous with green of the back and wings, and the chest has vague transverse green and red striations. The female of subspecies A. c. moszkowskii has a red head, neck, chest, and lower abdomen resembling the male, and differs from the male with its much smaller pale-green wing band.^[3]

Distribution and habitat

Found on in central and eastern New Guinea east of the Weyland Mountains, it lives in forests up to an altitude of 2600 metres.^[4]

Behaviour

Birds are encountered in ones or twos, or in small flocks up to ten birds.^[4] It feeds quietly in dense forest generally in small trees or low branches of large trees, and are often unnoticed.^[4] They eat berries, fruit, seeds and possibly some insects.

References

Cited texts

• Forshaw, Joseph M. (2006). Parrots of the World; an Identification Guide. Illustrated by Frank Knight. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09251-6.