Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

The Broad-tailed Parrots

The final group of this subfamily comprises about a dozen genera and fifty species of medium-sized or large Parrots, which are most abundant in Australia, whence they range through New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the Society Islands. They take their general name of Broad-tails from the fact that the tail is rather long and relatively broad, though often graduated. They have a short and thick bill, which is deeper than long, the upper mandible being swollen on the sides, while the cere is small, surrounding only the nostrils, and making a kind of saddle between them. The plumage is usually much variegated.

The first genus to be considered comprises the true Broad-tails (Platycercus), which take their vernacular name from the fact that the feathers of the tail are rather broad and never acuminate at the tips. They are further known by having the bill distinctly notched and the plumage of the back not uniform, the feathers being black, broadly margined, and having thus a scale-like appearance. The sixteen species now recognized in this genus are all confined to Australia and Tasmania, one of the best-known being the Rosella or Rose-hill Parakeet (P. eximius), which takes this name from having been first found at Rose-hill, near Sydney, this name having been later corrupted into Rosella. It is also known as”Pretty Joey,”possibly, as Mr. Campbell suggests, because, like Joseph of old, it wears a coat of many colors, and it is not an inappropriate name, for it is really one of the handsomest of the Australian members of the suborder.

About thirteen and a half inches long, the head, sides of the neck, breast, and under tail-coverts are scarlet, the cheeks white, the nape yellow, while the rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower parts of the abdomen are yellowish green, and the lower breast yellow with a band of scarlet along the middle; the wings are largely deep blue, the two central tail-feathers green, and the others largely dark blue, tipped with white. This splendid bird is one of the commonest and most familiar species of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, though somewhat local in distribution, a river of moderate width often forming a barrier over which it rarely passes.

Mr. Gould tells us that it resorts to the open parts of the country, such as undulating grassy hills and plains bordered and studded here and there with large trees or belts of low acacias or banksias, among the branches of which it may be seen in small parties, the rich scarlet and yellow of its breast vying with the lovely blossoms of the trees. It has a habit of resorting to the public roads, and upon being disturbed by the passers-by will merely fly off to the nearest tree or to the rails of the wayside fence. Its flight is short and undulating, and is rarely extended to a greater distance than a quarter of a mile, often alighting to rest on a leafless branch. Its note is described as a pleasing whistling sound which is very frequently uttered.

It feeds largely on seeds, particularly those of different grasses, and occasionally on insects and caterpillars. The eggs, from six to ten in number, are deposited in a hollow limb or trunk of a tree, often at no great distance from the ground. It is quite highly prized as a cage bird, often breeding in confinement, and, as is common among Parrots, frequently lives to a good old age.

 

 

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