The Eastern Rosella
Platycercus eximius
Anne Bowman
Print of original artwork - Anne works in pastel, watercolour & pencil.
21cm x 29.5cm (image 26cm x 20cm)
The Eastern Rosela, Platycercus eximius, is one of Australia's most colourful parrots, and averages around 30cm in length.
There are three sub-species, identifiable by variations in the basic colour theme, but all have white cheek patches and a red head and upper breast. The lower breast is yellow, which fades over the abdomen, to green with a red under tail. The wings and tail feather are bluish. The middle tail-feathers are dark green with narrow dark blue edging, while the outer ones are pale blue. The nape, back and shoulder feathers are black with yellowish-green margins. The female is duller in colouration than the male, and has a whitish underwing stripe, as do juveniles, in which the back of the crown and nape are green. The eyes are brown and the bill pale grey. The bills of the males are larger overall and proportionally wider than those of the females.
The Eastern Rosella is found in open woodlands, grasslands, remnant bushland and farmland and many urban settings in southeast Australia and Tasmania, and was introduced to New Zealand in 1910. It mainly feeds on the ground, having a diet of seeds, grasses, berries, nectar and nuts, as well as insects, insect larvae and some blossoms.
The breeding season is from August to February.
Eastern Rosellas are monogamous and nest in tree trunks stumps and limbs. The female selects a hollow, up to 30 metres above the ground, and around a metre deep, laying between 4 to 8 eggs on a bed of decayed wood. The eggs are incubated for around 19 days. The young leave the nest at 5 weeks of age, and are mature at 12 to 16 months.
The Eastern Rosella is currently listed as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN, but competition with feral birds for nest hollows, cats, foxes as well as continued land clearing, represent significant ongoing threats.
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