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Blue-winged Parrot (Neophema chrysostoma) Alternate name(s): "Blue-banded Grass-parrot", "Blue-banded Parakeet" Size: 20-23 cm Weight: 45-60 g

Australia: Family Group 12 Family Group 12 Table Palm Cockatoo Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Glossy Black-Cockatoo Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo Short-billed Black-Cockatoo Long-billed Black-Cockatoo Gang-gang Cockatoo Long-billed Corella Western Corella Little Corella Cockatiel Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Major Mitchell's Cockatoo Galah Eclectus Parrot Rainbow Lorikeet Red-collared Lorikeet Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Purple-crowned Lorikeet Varied Lorikeet Musk Lorikeet Little Lorikeet Double-eyed Fig-Parrot Australian King-Parrot Red-winged Parrot Princess Parrot Superb Parrot Regent Parrot Green Rosella Crimson Rosella Western Rosella Eastern Rosella Pale-headed Rosella Northern Rosella Red-capped Parrot Australian Ringneck Red-rumped Parrot Mulga Parrot Hooded Parrot Blue Bonnet Bourke's Parrot Budgerigar Swift Parrot Eastern Ground Parrot Night Parrot Blue-winged Parrot Scarlet-chested Parrot Rock Parrot Turquoise Parrot Elegant Parrot Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Thumbnails page Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Blue-winged Parrots are small parrots. They have a yellow gape and small facial mask, a narrow blue supercilium and an otherwise olive-green head, chest and back. The belly, vent and undertail coverts are yellow. The uppertail is dark bluish-green, the undertail is yellow. The wings have almost all-blue coverts, with some turquoise on them, and near-black flight feathers. The irises are dark, the bill is dark-grey and the legs and feet are grey.

Taxonomy, classification See Blue-winged Parrot at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Blue-winged Parrot is available HERE . NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species. Blue-winged Parrots are endemic to Australia. Their core breeding range is the northern half of Tasmania and the southern coastal fringe of VIC on the Australian continent. They are also present on both Flinders Island and King Island. Outside the breeding season they disperse from there, with many Blue-winged Parrots crossing Bass Strait to the continent. Their dispersal goes into the lower and central Murray-Darling Basin, encompassing all of VIC and much of western NSW up to the Darling River and the lower Paroo River and also Broken Hill, NSW. They also enter SA, reaching far to the North of Adelaide, SA. On rare occasions the dispersal can go as far as Sydney, NSW, to Walgett, NSW, into far south-western QLD and the entire eastern half of SA, including the Lake Eyre Basin. Blue-winged Parrots are found in a variety of habitats, ranging from open forest and woodland to grassland, coastal heath and even saltmarsh.

Sightings Click here for sighting information B. Hensen reports spotting a small group of Blue-winged Parrots on Bruny Island, TAS, in March 2016. R. Plumtree reports finding a Blue-winged Parrot at the Mulga Dam Camping Area, Kamarooka State Park, near Bendigo, VIC, in October 2018. Both M. Eaton and ourselves found Blue-winged Parrots at Lake Bindegolly NP, QLD, in June 2019.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Lateral view of a male Blue-winged Parrot (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Mulga Dam Camping Area, Kamarooka State Park, near Bendigo, VIC, October 2018]

Lateral view of a male Blue-winged Parrot (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Mulga Dam Camping Area, Kamarooka State Park, near Bendigo, VIC, October 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a male Blue-winged Parrot (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Mulga Dam Camping Area, Kamarooka State Park, near Bendigo, VIC, October 2018]

Blue-winged Parrots on a fence; here a male can be seen prominently on a strainer post (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Bruny Island, TAS, March 2016]

Blue-winged Parrots on a fence; here the male can be seen in flight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Bruny Island, TAS, March 2016]

Near-dorsal view of a pair of Blue-winged Parrots in a dead tree, male on the left
[Lake Bindegolly NP, QLD, June 2019]

Near-dorsal view of one of four Blue-winged Parrots in flight; click on image to see all four
[Lake Bindegolly NP, QLD, June 2019]

FEMALE

Blue-winged Parrots on a fence; the bird on the right is a female (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Bruny Island, TAS, March 2016]

Blue-winged Parrots preening on a fence (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Bruny Island, TAS, March 2016]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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