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Blue-winged Parrot
(Neophema chrysostoma)
: "Blue-banded Grass-parrot", "Blue-banded Parakeet"
Size: 20-23 cm
Weight: 45-60 g
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Similar species |
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Physical description |
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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.
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Taxonomy, classification |
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See
Blue-winged Parrot at Wikipedia .
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Range, habitat, finding this species |
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Click here for information on habitat
and range
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual 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.
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Sightings |
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Click here for sighting information
B. Hensen reports spotting a small group of Blue-winged Parrots
on Bruny Island, TAS, in March 2016.
R. Plumtreereports 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.
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Photos |
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ADULT |
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MALE |
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Frontal view of a male Blue-winged Parrot; note the orange
belly (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP,
near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]
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]
Lateral view of a male(?) Blue-winged Parrot
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP,
near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]
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]
Near-dorsal view of a male Blue-winged Parrot
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP,
near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]
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]
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FEMALE |
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Frontal view of a female Blue-winged Parrot
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP,
near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]
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]
Lateral view of a Blue-winged Parrot
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Lake Bindegolly NP,
near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2019]
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.