Turquoise parrot
The turquoise parrot is a species of parrot in the genus Neophema. It is native to Eastern Australia, from southeastern Queensland, through New South Wales and into North-Eastern Victoria. Found in grasslands and open woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus and Callitris trees.
About Turquoise parrot in brief
The turquoise parrot is a species of parrot in the genus Neophema. It is native to Eastern Australia, from southeastern Queensland, through New South Wales and into North-Eastern Victoria. A small lightly built parrot at around 20 cm long and 40 g in weight, it exhibits sexual dimorphism. Found in grasslands and open woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus and Callitris trees. It feeds mainly on grasses and seeds and occasionally flowers, fruit and scale insects. Much of its habitat has been altered and potential nesting sites lost. Populations appear to be recovering from a crash in the early 20th century. There is little geographical variation, with some minor local differences in the amount of orange on the belly. Some males have orange patches on the breast and belly, which may extend to the breast. The male is predominantly green with more yellowish underparts and a bright turquoisine blue face. Its wings are predominantly blue with red shoulders. The female is generally duller and paler, with a pale green breast and yellow belly, and lacks the red wing patch. Both sexes have predominantly green upperparts and yellow underguts. The English common name has varied between chestnut-shouldered. grass-parakeet, chestnut.- Shouldered grass-Parakeet and turquoin grass parrot. The name red- shouldered parakeet was incorrectly applied to this species, as it was an alternative name for the paradise parrot, which is a common name in aviculture.
It has been kept in captivity since the 19th century, and several colour variants exist. The holotype likely ended up in the Leverian collection in England, and was lost when the collection was broken up and sold. In 1915, Gregory Mathews described a subspecies dombrainii from Victoria on the basis of more prominent red on the scapulars; however, this distinction was not confirmed on review with New South NSW specimens, and hence no subspecies are recognised. The species name Lathamus azureus is from the Medieval Latin word azureUS meaning “blue” and refers to the bird’s face patch. In 1811, Johann Matthäus Bechstein gave it the scientific name Psittacus edwardsii. William Swainson used Shaw’s name in 1823 in his work Zoological Illustrations, noting that it was “impossible to represent this superb little creature in its full beauty” The species is most closely related to the scarlet-chested parrot and is one of the only two species to exhibit marked sexualDimorphism—where the male and female are different in appearance. It nests in hollows of gum trees and can be locally nomadic. It can be found in Queensland, Victoria and South-South Australia. It was first described by George Shaw in 1792. It’s one of six species of grass parrots in the tribe NeopheMA.
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This page is based on the article Turquoise parrot published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
