OzAnimals.com
Australian Wildlife

  King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis)





King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
Male King parrot feeding on fruit at Lamington National Park in the subtropical rainforest hinterland of the Gold Coast, Australia. These are common round the National Park picnic grounds, and in the forest.

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
Close up of female.

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
Close up of male.

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
Immature male King Parrot. You can see the red feathers starting to appear around the neck.

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
King Parrots come to feed in large numbers at the Bunya Mountains National Park.

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
young male

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.

King Parrot | Alisterus scapularis photo
at bird feeder in Brisbane

Image by ozwildlife - Some rights reserved.







KING PARROT FACTS

Description
The male King Parrot is a beautiful rainforest bird with red and green feathers and blue on the wing coverts. The female has green head and red underside. Immatures have green heads and for a period the males have mixture of red and green feathers as they develop their adult plumage.

Other Names
Blood Rosella, King Lory

Size
42cm

Habitat
rainforest, wet eucalypt woodland, coastal woodland, parks and gardens near forest.

Food
They eat seeds, fruit, nuts, nectar, blossoms and leaf buds. They also come to the ground to pick up fallen seeds.

Breeding
Breeds September to January and nests in holes in trees the entrance to the nest is usually high up in the tree. Lays 3-5 white eggs.

Range
coastal areas of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

distribution map showing range of Alisterus scapularis in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Notes
Large numbers of King Parrots come in to be hand fed in some national parks such as Lamington National Park and Bunya Mountains National Park. They will land on your outstretched arm (or on your head!) and feed on bird seed from your hand.

King Parrots are hardy birds - I had an email from Hans Engstrand who is breeding them in Sweden. Hans sent a photo of the birds in a snow covered aviary. He said "they can be outdoors and indoors winter time, but they like to be outdoors (down to minus celsius 20 deg. below)".



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Psittaciformes
Family:Psittacidae
Genus:Alisterus
Species:scapularis
Common Name:King Parrot