Whilst taking happy snaps of the King Parrots today, I took this quick photo of what I first thought was a female. Well, it's actually a juvenile male. Only the male King Parrots have the pale green on their wings.
Looking at this bird reminds me of a cross between a male and a female King Parrot. The bird has a half green and half red head and red belly, green back and wings. It also has the pale green markings on it's wings. Adult males have entirely red heads. The adult females have entirely green heads.
The eye colouring of the juvenile male is almost the same as the adults however it does not have the yellow colouring around the eye like the adults have. The beak colouring is also the same as the male and female adult birds.
The distinctive green colouring around the juvenile male's chest and head is what looks out of place but makes this bird look so unique. it was spotted in a small family group with an adult male King Parrot and possibly a female King Parrot or another juvenile plus 3 or 4 other King Parrots. I didn't really pay that much attention to the other birds to identify their actual genders.
How old this young male is I do not know but it was very close to fully grown, if not fully grown - length-wise. Still much more research to do on this species.
Plants grow better outside
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It has been too long since I last posted anything on this site so here I am
updating my blog. The seasons are harsh and go from one extreme to another
ofte...
8 years ago
Hi does the pale green coloring's on the shoulders of the male King Parrots change as they grow from juvenile to adult or are they individual and fixed like a finger print is to us humans??
ReplyDeleteHi John. I'm not sure which pale green part you're referring to on the shoulder. In the picture attached to this post the juvenile male is in the process of changing neck, head and throat colour from a green to a red colour.
DeleteHowever, I've noticed that many male King Parrots have unique markings on their wings, like fingerprints. These are a bluish green colour and very pale but bright compared to the rest of the green feathers on the bird. These unique markings do not seem to change from juvenile to adult. On each wing these markings are different too. These markings are a good way to tell whom the birds' parents are, well, the father anyway. The father will have a similiar patterned markings on it's wings.