Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Crimson Rosella

Platycercus elegans elegans

Description:

There are five subspecies of which three are actually crimson (Wiki), and "[t]he form it is named for [P. e. elegans] has mostly crimson (red) plumage and bright blue cheeks. The feathers of the back and wing coverts are black broadly edged with red. The flight feathers of the wings have broad blue edges and the tail is blue above and pale blue below and on the outer feathers." (Birdlife Australia - http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/crim... )

Habitat:

Hanging out near the picnic table at the Bunya Mountains.

Notes:

The Bunya Mountains National Park is my old stomping ground from when I was a kid. Way back then we would arm ourselves with birdseed (there are dedicated feeding times nowadays), stretch out our arms and become inundated with Crimson Rosellas and King-Parrots (Alisterus scapularis). They would march up and down our arms, land on our heads and argue with each other about who gets the seed. On my visit before this one (outside of feeding times), I did not see a single Crimson Rosella or King-Parrot. On this trip, this is the only Crimson Rosella I saw as well as two King-Parrots (both males). Things sure have changed since way back when. Here is some interesting news about "Hybrid natives: Crimson rosellas, eastern rosellas spotted cross-breeding in Canberra" (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-14/ra... ) And some more interesting stuff about colour variations linked to a virus (http://theconversation.com/colour-variab... )

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

armadeus.4
armadeus.4 7 years ago

Coming from you Jim, that means a lot! Thank you :) Liana

Jim Nelson
Jim Nelson 7 years ago

Gorgeous bird...and nice story to go along with the photos. Well done!

armadeus.4
Spotted by
armadeus.4

QLD, Australia

Spotted on Dec 21, 2016
Submitted on Feb 13, 2017

Related Spottings

Crimson Rosella Crimson Rosella Eastern Rosella Crimson rosella

Nearby Spottings

Scrub Turkey/Australian Brush Turkey Australian King-Parrot (male) Satin Bowerbird (bower) Satin Bowerbird (female)
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team