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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
Duivenbode's
lory, brown lory |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Aves |
| ORDER: |
Psittaciformes |
| FAMILY: |
Loriidae
(parrot) |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Chalcopsitta
(copper or bronze colored) duivenbodei |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
The
body of the Duivenbode's lory is predominantly dark
brown with a yellow ring around the head and a hooked,
blackish beak. The wing converts are bright yellow
as are the legs, nape and neck. |
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| SIZE: |
Approximately
26 cm (10.4 in.); wingspan 135-150 mm (5.4-6 in.) |
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| WEIGHT: |
Approximately
133 g (5 oz) |
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| DIET: |
Feeds on fruit, seeds, buds, nectar, unripe grain,
and pollen |
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| INCUBATION: |
24-25 days |
| FLEDGING
DURATION: |
Young
leave the nesting hollow for the first time after
7-8 weeks but return to the nest to roost for a
short time; fledglings may remain with the parents
over summer before moving into the communal roost |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
About 2 years |
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| RANGE: |
Northwestern
New Guinea |
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| HABITAT: |
Inhabits
lowland areas |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
Unknown |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Not listed |
| CITES |
Appendix II |
| USFWS |
Not listed |
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| 1. |
Duivenbode's
lory is named after a well-known merchant of Ternate.
He is sometimes referred to as "King of Ternate"
- an island in the Moluccas, Indonesia. |
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| 2. |
Lorikeets have very specialized tongues for feeding
on nectar. Tiny hair-like structures called 'papillae'
line the end of the tongue in the shape of an "U".
When a lorikeet extends its tongue during feeding,
the papillae stand on end, like bristles on a brush,
allowing nectar and pollen to be easily soaked up.
Unique to lorikeets, this trait has earned them
the nickname "brush-tongued" parrots. |
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| 3. |
Also unique to lorikeets is the shape of their beaks.
The upper mandible has a long, pointed tip and much
narrower structure than other parrots. This serves
to easily extract hard-to-reach seeds from cones
and other hard vegetation. The birds will scrape
the fruit on the inside of their bill and remove
the sweet juices with their specialized tongues.
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| 4. |
Approximately
70% of their day is spent feeding, and lorikeets
will travel more than 30 miles a day to find food.
Some lorikeets can feed on as many as 650 flowers
each day. |
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| 5. |
They
are constantly active and noisy, feeding in large
groups and even in the company of other parrots
or other honey-eating birds. |
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| 6. |
Lorikeets
will establish daily flight paths connecting their
feeding sites, which tend to follow the natural
contours of the landscape, such as hills, valleys,
and rivers. At night, lories retreat along these
paths back to their communal roosts, which can contain
as many as several thousand birds. |
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| 7. |
During
the courtship dance the male hops around the female
and then dazzles her by revealing his bright yellow
converts. |
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There
are 53 species of lories. Nearly all of them suffer
from habitat destruction, logging, agriculture,
and exotic pet trade.
Their
diet of fruits such as apples and pears as well
as corn often causes them to be responsible for
crop damages and are thus seen as pests in some
parts of their range where they are no longer
protected. In addition, trapping them in the wild
instead of captive breeding and the increase of
introduced predators such as cats and dogs are
responsible for their rapidly declining numbers.
Lories
are very important to our ecosystem because of
their eating habits. Not all of the seeds they
consume are digested; many are passed in the bird's
guano over new areas of the forest. Some species
eat nectar and are important in the pollination
of many species of plants in the tropical forests.
The
U.S. Wild Bird Act forbids the commercial import
of any bird listed by CITES which includes most
parrots - endangered or threatened.
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| |
|
|
| Low,
R. Lories and Lorikeets. New York. Van Nostrand
Reinhold Company. 1977. |
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|
Low, R. Lories and Lorikeets. New York. Van
Nostrand Reinhold Company. 1977. |
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| Parker,
S. P. (ed.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia.
Birds II. Vol. 8. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Co., 1972. |
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| Perrins,
C. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Birds. New
York: Facts on File Publications. 1985. |
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The
On-line Monograph of the Lories and Lorikeets.
http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/rare-lories.html |
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