Eclectus parrot
| Eclectus parrot | |
|---|---|
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| Male (green) and female (red) at Singapore Zoo | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittaculidae |
| Subfamily: | Psittaculinae |
| Tribe: | Psittaculini |
| Genus: | Eclectus |
| Species: | E. roratus |
| Binomial name | |
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Eclectus roratus (Müller, 1776) |
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The eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) is a parrot native to the Solomon Islands, Sumba, New Guinea and nearby islands, northeastern Australia and the Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is unusual in the parrot family for its extreme sexual dimorphism of the colours of the plumage; the male having a mostly bright emerald green plumage and the female a mostly bright red and purple/blue plumage. Joseph Forshaw, in his book Parrots of the World, noted that the first European ornithologists to see eclectus parrots thought they were of two distinct species. Large populations of this parrot remain, and they are sometimes considered pests for eating fruit off trees. Some populations restricted to relatively small islands are comparably rare. Their bright feathers are also used by native tribespeople in New Guinea as decorations.
Ornithologists usually classify the eclectus parrot as a member of tribe Psittaculini in the family Psittacidae of order Psittaciformes. However, some recent thought indicates that there is a great deal of commonality between the eclectus parrot and the Lorini tribe.
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson noted there were similarities in the skull between the eclectus parrot and members of the genus Geoffroyus, specifically in the auditory meatus and the prefrontal reaching but not joining the squamosal bones. The skull of members the genus Tanygnathus is also generally similar.
The eclectus parrot is the most sexually dimorphic of all the parrot species. The contrast between the brilliant emerald green plumage of the male and the deep red/purple plumage of the female is so marked that the two birds were, until the early 20th century, considered to be different species.
Although the eclectus parrot is the only extant species in the genus Eclectus, fossil remains of another species, Oceanic eclectus parrot (Eclectus infectus), have been found in archaeological sites in the islands of Tonga and Vanuatu. The species presumably existed in Fiji as well. E. infectus had proportionally smaller wings than the eclectus parrot. The species became extinct after the arrival of humans 3000 years ago, presumably due to human-caused factors (habitat loss, introduced species).
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Wikipedia