Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
FAMILY: Loriidae
GENUS: Trichoglossus
SPECIES: chlorolepidotus
OTHER NAMES: Green Lorikeet, Green and Yellow Lorikeet, Green Keet, Green Parrot, Green Leek, Greenie.
Description:
Medium to large lorikeet
with like sexes. The general body
plumage is green. The crown and sides of head emerald green tinged with blue.
Feathers of back of neck, throat and breast yellow, broadly edged with green
(gives a scaly appearance). The tail is green with the base of outer tail
feathers being marked with orange red. Lower flanks, thighs and undertail coverts green strongly marked with yellow. Underwing
coverts orange red. Eyes orange-red, bill coral red
and legs grey-brown. Females resemble males but are somewhat duller
Immature birds are duller still than adults with a
shorter tail, brown eyes and a brown bill with yellow markings.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets
are nomadic and often occur in mixed flocks such as with Rainbow Lorikeets to
which they are similar in size and behaviour.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are essentially arboreal.
Length: 230-240mm.
Subspecies:
None.
Distribution:
Coastal areas and
associated highlands from Cooktown (QLD) to
Wollongong (NSW). An introduced
population occurs near Melbourne (Vic). Nomadic flocks frequently penetrate
inland to the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, where they usually
prefer riverine woodland.
Habitat:
Most types of moist
coastal forests, including rainforest and melaleuca
and banksia scrub.
Diet:
Mainly nectar, but also
pollen, seeds, fruit and ripening grain.
Specialised
diets have been developed for lorikeets in captivity. These are pollen and
nectar substitutes and a number of reputable brands are now available.
Essentially, these come in two forms; a wet mix (nectar substitute) and a dry
mix (pollen substitute) both of which are essential. Although these diets are
designed to provide the essential requirements for lorikeets, they must be
substituted with other foods such as fresh fruits (apples and pears,
stone-fruits, most citruses, banana, melon etc.) and seed. You will find that
certain fruits are preferable to others at particular times of year (eg. citrus is preferred in summer).
Breeding:
May-December.
The usual nesting site is a tree cavity (often at great height) lined with a
layer of wood dust.
Only the female incubates the eggs, but both parents feed the young.
In captivity the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet will breed both in logs or boxes. Logs
should be around 60cm in length with an internal diameter of around 20cm internal diameter and an entrance hole of around 10cm
near the top. However, for conveniance it is best practise to use boxes as nesting receptacles. This is
because lorikeets generally are particularly messy nesters and it will be
necessary to replace nesting material with fresh material between (or sometimes
during) broods. Boxes should be around 25cm x 25cm x 30cm and suspended
vertically. the preferred nesting material is
wood-dust or shavings. Shavings should not be too coarse so as to prevent the
eggs from becoming buried in it.
Courtship Display
The male approaches the
female stretched to his full height with his neck arched and pupils dilated. He
then hops along the perch making full circles. During this process, he may
utter a musical "coo".
Sexual Maturity:
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets
become sexually mature at 18 months of age.
Clutch:
2-3 white oval eggs
(20mm x 26mm). Incubation period: 22 days. The young usually fledge at around
40 days.
Mutations and Hybrids:
Mutations in this
species include: Blue, Olive, Jade and Cinnamon.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are known to have hybridised
with Rainbow, Purple -crowned and Musk Lorikeets. They are also known to have hybridised with the Ornate Lory (Trichoglossus ornatus)
Suitable Aviaries and Compatible Birds
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets
may be kept singly or in pairs in a medium sized 50cm x 50cm x 65cm suspended
cage. Clearly however, larger cages offer more room to fly and choices for the
inclusion of a nesting box etc. Although these birds usually spend the night in
a nesting box, it is good practise to provide larger
aviaries with some form of shelter (partially covered roof and sides) to offer
some protection from the elements.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are generally intolerant of other birds and it is
therefore best to house them in separate pairs. They will however, share an
aviary quite peacefully with other larger lorikeets such as the Rainbow and
Musk, but it is unlikely that they will breed under these conditions. The best
breeding results are obtained when these birds are housed in breeding pairs.
Species Specific Problems:
Because lorikeets have specialised diets (part of which is liquid) and a very
short gut-passage rate (and hence produce large volumes of liquid faeces) they are very susceptible indeed to bacterial and
fungal infections of the digestive tract. This means that in order to avoid
disease a high standard of hygiene is essential. Similarly, aviaries and
feeding stations should be constructed in such a way as to minimise
the opportunity for birds to foul their foods.
Fungal infections tend to manifest themselves as slimy or cheesy blobs inside
the beak, throat and crop although milder cases may not be as easily detected.
Bacterial infections, on the other hand, are usually detected by means of
examining the faeces. Faeces
of an infected bird may have either a (too) large liquid component or (more
commonly) is discoloured and tends to be green. In
less virulent infections the bird may just seem lethargic and disinterested in
foods or toys etc.
Other problems
encountered in lorkeets include feather plucking of
nestlings by their parents (unavoidable when encountered except by removing
chicks for hand rearing)and psittacine
beak and feather disease. The latter is an incurable condition which is
transmitted through the faeces. The disease prevents
proper feather formation and feather loss and causes the beak to become weak
and crumble. Birds carrying this disease are best destroyed as it is
debilitating and inevitably leads to death.