At 09:04 PM 10/13/97 +1000, you wrote:
>Dear birding-aussers
>I was at a private residence this afternoon and was asked if I could
>identify a caged parrot which the owners (non-bird-watchers) had bought as a
>"Queensland grass parrot" from a local pet shop.
>The bird was a beautiful, healthy male (they originally had a pair but the
>female died) Neophema sp. with what appeared to be all the features of a
>Scarlet-chested Parrot, BUT with the addition of chestnut shoulder patches
>(as in Turquoise Parrot).
>Question: Do male S-C.P's ever have chestnut shoulder patches or was this a
>S-C.P/T.P. hybrid bred for the cage-bird market?? Either way, are they a
>relatively common bird on the market?? Any ideas?
The red shoulder patch is more likely to belong to the torquoisine than the
scarlet-chested. These two species are very common in aviculture (about
$25 ea) and there are numerous mutations bred including a red-breasted
turquoisine. However, it does not have as deep a red or a clear
demarcation between red breast and yellow abdomen. It could also have been
a SCP-TP cross-bred.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shane Raidal BVSc PhD MACVSc Avian Health
Lecturer in Veterinary Pathology
Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
Murdoch University phone: +61 8 9360 2418
Perth,WA, 6150 fax: +61 8 9310 4144
Australia
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