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A brief introduction to Eclectus Parrots
Part 1: Classification
by Scott Lewis
Note: This article is copyrighted by Scott Lewis. This article nor any part may not be used without prior written permission of the author.
Eclectus Parrots are perhaps the most misunderstood of any species of commonly available medium-sized parrots. Many people do not understand the types of Eclectus. Many do not understand their positive and negative traits as pets. Many buy Eclectus because of their beauty with no concern for Eclectus as companions. In this series of articles, I will try to shed some light on genus Eclectus.
Eclectus Parrots are all of the genus Eclectus and the species roratus. All Eclectus are native to the Moluccan Islands, the Lesser Sundra Islands, the Tanimbar Islands, the Papuan Islands, New Guinea, other islands in the region, and the coastal area of the eastern Cape York Peninsula in Australia.
So, the different Eclectus of which you may have heard are not different species, but different subspecies. What does this mean? Basically that any Eclectus can breed with any other Eclectus of the opposite sex and yield fertile offspring that are in turn capable of breeding. For example, a Solomon Island Eclectus and a Red-sided Eclectus can breed and produce fertile offspring. Because the two subspecies are virtually identical except for size, the result is a bird that is intermediate in size.
So, what are the subspecies of Eclectus. In Parrots of the World , Forshaw recognizes 10 subspecies. These are:
- Grand: E. r. roratus
- Vosmaer s: E. r. vosmaer
- Westerman s: E. r. westermani
- Cornelia s: E. r. cornelia
- Riedel s or Tanimbar: E. r. riedeli
- Red-sided: E. r. polychloros
- Biaki: E. r. biaki
- Aruensis: E. r. aruensis
- Macgillivray's or Australian: E. r. macgillivrayi
- Solomon Island: E. r. solomonensis.
Sweeney provides the most recent treatment of Eclectus subspecies in The Eclectus A Complete Guide. He recognizes seven subspecies. Of the list above, he says that E. r. biaki and E. r. aruensis are not distinct form E. r. polychloros and that E. r. westermani is an invalid subspecies without saying with which other subspecies westermani should be placed. Whether Sweeney s classification is valid is open to argument. Some, including those aviculturists who breed Biaki Eclectus, typically assert that the Biaki is a separate subspecies. It should be noted that Sweeney, in my opinion, misinterprets Forshaw when Sweeney states that "Forshaw himself questions the validity of this subspecies. " Forshaw, in his description of westermani, states that, "This subspecies is known only from aviary specimens; if it is an aberrant form due to captivity, and I doubt this, [my emphasis] then it must be of roratus, not riedeli as claimed by Myer " It seems to me that Forshaw is asserting that westermani is not an aberrant form of another subspecies. However, because westermani is known only from aviary specimens, we will probably never know the answer to westermani's status unless a natural population is discovered.
I would not presume to be able to tell the subspecies of the male Eclectus. To me, they are all beautiful green parrots with candy-corn beaks, a little blue on the shoulders, and red under the wings. Although males do display differences, these mainly deal with size and subtle colors. For example, would you want to try to identify a bird based on whether it was "mainly green suffused with blue" or "mainly blue with some green suffused in"? This trait is one that Sweeney uses subspeciate male Eclectus. Fortunately, determining the subspecies of hens is a bit easier, although not a slam dunk. The first criterion is whether the hen has a blue eye ring. If so, she is either a Macgillivray's, Red-sided, or Solomon Island. Unfortunately, from here the only distinction is size. Solomon Islands are the smallest, Red-sided's are next, and Macgillivray's are the largest. If the hen does not have a blue eye ring, she is either a Cornelia's, Riedel's, Grand, or Vosmaeri's. Now, if the hen is almost entirely red with no purple or blue, she is Cornelia's or Riedel's. Cornelia ' have red under tail coverts while Riedel's have yellow. If the hen has purple or blue, she is a Grand or Vosmaer's. The distinctions between these two are clear when taken as a whole, but difficult to describe in a way that makes positive identification possible. Grands are slightly smaller and their tail feathers and under tail coverts are red with yellow tips. Vosmaer's have tail feathers with wide yellow bands at the tips and more yellow on the under tail coverts. ©
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