Howdy, folks.  Its time for birds again.  This week’s bird is the red-capped parrot, a medium sized parrot native to southwestern Australia.  Males and females look more or less the same, although the female is said to have somewhat duller plumage.  In exchange, the females get some pretty cool looking red spots on their flanks, which I was able to find a picture of.  They also have a white stripe on the underside of the wing that is visible in flight, but despite this bird being fairly common and extremely distinctive, I wasn’t able to find any images of that.  Juveniles are mostly green, as seen below. The parrot’s spectacular coloration has been referred to as gaudy, which I think is pretty funny since that word implies poor taste, as if the bird is really laying it on thick and could stand to dial its plumage back.

These parrots live in a variety of biomes including dense forests, “open” forests with widely spread trees and without a contiguous canopy layer, and heaths, a kind of shrubland.  In all of these cases, the bird is most common within 100 km (~62mi) of the coast, becoming less common further inland.  Besides staying relatively close to the sea, the red-capped parrot tends to live in/near eucalyptus trees and what is as best as I can tell a subspecies of eucalyptus called the marri.  The seeds of this plant are the parrot’s most common food source, and it the marri’s range and population have increased since the arrival of Europeans on the continent, allowing our colorful friend to spread along with it.  The most interesting thing I learned this week is that the marri can grow to be a large tree, but in poor soil it is more of a bush or shrub called a mallee.  Heaths are characterized by acidic soil, so it makes sense that they would be host to plants that can adapt to such conditions and birds that can feed on those plants.  

Red-capped parrots are so committed to eating seeds that they will use their beaks to tear open non-native fruits like apples and pears to get to the seeds, ignoring the flesh.  They will squeeze the flesh with their beaks and drink the juice, but still do not eat it.  The bird feeds primarily on the ground, and appears to be widely left footed, grasping fruit or seed pods in its left foot and scooping out seeds with its large, curved beak.  Because of its preference for seeds, our bird can often be found in orchards and farms, and has in the past been classified as a pest to be culled.  Despite this, it is adaptable to human settlements and is rated as “of least concern” by the IUCN.  

The red-capped parrot is thought to be monogamous, forming a long-term bond with another at around two years old.  Females have been observed forming such bonds as early as eight or nine months old, although they do not breed with their partner until later.  The courtship display of the male involves a lot of rump-raising and displaying of tail feathers.  The female will respond by making a “give me food” call.  Red-capped parrots require trees to nest in which are mature enough to have hollows in the trunks or branches.  Nests are usually 4.5-16m (15-52 ft) off the ground and around 50-100m apart, and are vigorously defended, even from other members of the species.  Newly hatched chicks will fledge after 30-40 days and all leave the nest on the same day.  Parents will continue to feed them for two more weeks.  

It is illegal to import, export or trade this parrot under the auspices of an international treaty on flora and fauna called CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, in effect since 1975.  It has a reputation in captivity for being anxious and difficult to breed.  Who amongst us, colorful bird.  Have a good weekend, everyone.  

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