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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
Edwards's
lorikeet |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Aves |
| ORDER: |
Psittaciformes |
| FAMILY: |
Loriidae
(parrot) |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Trichoglossus
(brush-tipped tongue) haematodus (blood red)
capistrasus (haltered face pattern) |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
The
Edwards's lorikeet has green head feathers with
violet and blue streaks on the forehead, cheeks,
and crown. The breast is yellow interspersed with
orange. The abdomen is green. There is a broad yellow-green
band to the nape. As with other parrots, the beak
is hooked. |
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| SIZE: |
Approximately
26 cm (10.4 in.); wingspan 140-151 mm (5.6-6.04
in.) |
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| WEIGHT: |
Approximately
95-100 g (3.3-3.5 oz.) |
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| DIET: |
Includes
fruit, seeds, buds, nectar, unripe grain, and pollen |
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| INCUBATION: |
Approximately
24-25 days |
| FLEDGING
DURATION |
10 weeks |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
Approximately
2 years |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
Approximately
28-32 years |
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| RANGE: |
Timor
Islands, Indonesia |
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| HABITAT: |
Inhabits
rainforest or mist forest areas; at the edge of
wooded areas near savannas |
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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. |
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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| 2. |
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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| 3. |
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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| 4. |
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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| 5. |
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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| 6. |
They
will travel long distances in order to locate a
suitable nesting site. This will typically consist
of a nest with a layer of wood dust along the bottom,
usually in a tree cavity often as high as 80 feet
above the ground. |
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| 7. |
Edwards's
lorikeets nest high in hollow limbs and trunks. |
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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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| |
|
|
| Forshaw,
J.M. Parrots of the World. New Jersey. T.F.H.
Publications Inc. 1978. |
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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
Complete Lexicon Of Parrots
http://www.arndt-verlag.com/loris.html |
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Lory
World Web Page
http://webcrafting.com/catering/verolinks.htm |
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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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