Golden-shouldered parrot
| Golden-shouldered parrot | |
|---|---|
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| Male and female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittaculidae |
| Subfamily: | Platycercinae |
| Tribe: | Platycercini |
| Genus: | Psephotus |
| Species: | P. chrysopterygius |
| Binomial name | |
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Psephotus chrysopterygius Gould, 1858 |
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The golden-shouldered parrot (Psephotus chrysopterygius) is a rare bird of southern Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia. A small parrot related to the more common red-rumped parrot, it is considered to be a superspecies with the hooded parrot (P. dissimilis) of the Northern Territory and the apparently extinct paradise parrot of Queensland and New South Wales.
The golden-shouldered parrot is 23–28 cm long and weighs 54–56 g. The adult male is mainly blue and has a characteristic yellow over the shoulder area. It has a black cap and pale yellow frontal band. It has an extended dark salmon pink lower belly, thighs and undertail-coverts. It has a grey-brown lower back.
Adult females are mainly dull greenish-yellow, and have a broad cream bar on the underside of the wings. The head in older females has a charcoal grey cap. The feathers of the vent area are a pale salmon pink. Juveniles are similar to the adult female though newly fledged males have a brighter blue cheek patch than females of the same age.
The golden-shouldered parrot lives in open forested grassland liberally populated by numerous termite species and their mounds. Often these mounds are found every few metres apart. The parrot feeds on the seeds of small grass species and several months of the year, principally those prior to the onset of the wet season, the birds are almost entirely dependent on the small but plentiful seed of firegrass (Schizachyrium fragile). An important habitat requirement is the presence of suitably sized terrestrial termite mounds, in which the birds nest. This has led to the Golden shouldered parrot and its relatives being known as the antbed parrots.
The golden-shouldered parrot will build a nest in the taller magnetic termite mounds (up to 2 m high)but surveys point to the preference for the lower dome type mounds. This may be to do with the slower heating up and cooling of the smaller denser mounds.Commonly they dig a burrow into the mound when wet season rains have softened the substrate of the mounds. Typically a 50 –350 mm long tunnel is dug down into the mound ending in the nesting chamber. The clutch size is between 3–6 eggs, which are incubated for 20 days. The termite occupants of the mound use a natural form of airconditioning to preserve the climatic conditions of their colony and this process regulates the temperature of the parrot's nest chamber at around 28-30 degrees C. Temperature surveys have shown however, a range of 13-35 degrees C. These conditions have led to the parrots developing a habit of leaving the eggs at night beginning around the 10th day after hatching. A symbiotic relationship is present between the Golden shouldered parrot and a moth species (Trisyntopa scatophaga) that is worthy of note. Found in around half of parrot nests, the moths seek out the newly dug nest tunnels and deposit their eggs in the entrance. The hatching moth larvae consume the faeces of the nestling parrots therefore helping to keep the nest chamber clean. Whether the parrots receive any other benefits from the presence of moths is arguable as not all nests contain moth larvae.
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Wikipedia