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Watching the Eastern Rosellas at our feeder
(Gisborne Vic), it is interesting to observe the extent of red on the breast. In
a number of birds, there is a small amount of bleeding of the red into the
yellow breast area. Often this is a line extending part way toward the vent. One
bird today, however, had a separate patch of red some 2x3 cm, below the
customary red throat area (in the yellow of the breast.)
I'll try to take a photo.
I could see that aviculturists would find it
relatively simple to selectively breed a fully red chested bird. Has this been
done?
I imagine that much has been written of this,
although some field guides don't highlight it. My "Australian Parrots" by
Forshaw doesn't mention it.
Rick Purcell
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