Purcell's wrote:
>
> 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
A few years back there was an article with I think colour photo of an
all-red form of Eastern Rosella, in the Bird Observers Club publication
'Australian Bird Watcher'. This variation is sex-linked and only occurs
in females. They appear occasionally in the Dargile area near Heathcote.
It is illustrated as a separate species in John Gould's 'Birds of
Australia'.
Some variation is always found in bird colouring here and there. Can you
determine the sex of your birds with extra red markings?
Anthea Fleming in Ivanhoe (Vic)
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
