Neophema chrysostoma
| Blue-winged parrot | |
|---|---|
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| In Tasmania | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittaculidae |
| Subfamily: | Psittaculinae |
| Tribe: | Pezoporini |
| Genus: | Neophema |
| Species: | N. chrysostoma |
| Binomial name | |
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Neophema chrysostoma (Kuhl, 1820) |
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The blue-winged parrot (Neophema chrysostoma), also known as the blue-banded parakeet or blue-banded grass-parakeet, is a small parrot found in Tasmania and southeast mainland Australia. It is partly migratory, with populations of blue-winged parrots travelling to Tasmania for the summer. The parrot is sexually dimorphic – the males have more blue on the wings and a two-toned blue frontal band on the head, while females are duller and have more green on the wings and a wingbar. Both sexes have predominantly olive-green plumage. Predominantly a feeder on the ground, the blue-winged parrot mainly eats seeds of grasses. It adapts readily to captivity.
German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl described the blue-winged parrot in 1820 as Psittacus chrysostomus, noting that it had been confused with the turquoise parrot (N. pulchella). However, the material used to describe it contained specimens of both this species and the elegant parrot. The species' name is from the Ancient Greek words khrysos "golden" and stoma "mouth", from the yellow skin around the eyes. In 1821, Coenraad Jacob Temminck gave the species the name Psittacus venustus, however Kuhl had used this binomial name for the parrot now known as the northern rosella (Platycercus venustus). Gregory Mathews described two subspecies but neither is recognised as distinct today.
Early names included the blue-banded parakeet or blue-banded grass parakeet, taken from the species' blue frontal band. However this plumage is shared by two other members of the genus. It was also known as the Hobart ground parrot in Tasmania from its terrestrial habits. It is also called blue-winged grass parrot or blue winged grass parakeet, as well as its official name of blue-winged parrot.
One of six species of grass parrot in the genus Neophema, it is most closely related to the elegant parrot, which is found to the west of this species with some range overlap in South Australia.
Ranging from 20 to 24 cm long and weighing around 55 g, the parrot is sexually dimorphic –both sexes are predominantly olive-green. The adult male has a two-toned band across the face above but not reaching the eyes—ultramarine above and paler turquoise blue below. Its crown is yellowish, and throat and breast pale green and belly yellow, its wing coverts and under wing coverts are deep blue. The tail is blue-grey. The bill is blue-grey and the iris is brown. The adult female is duller with dull olive underparts and smaller blue on wings and less distinctive frontal band. Juveniles are dull olive green with slate-blue wings and no frontal band.
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Wikipedia