2010/03/09

The Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) or Rosellasittich

Finally I managed to take a decent picture of my favourite Australian parrot. At first glance this might be surprising as these guys are quite common, the various field-guides and websites even classify this species as abundant. However they are despite their apparently colourful plumage pretty well camouflaged and they are less chatty than the Rainbow Lorikeetes (see BOTW #2). That’s the reason why you’ll often notice this fellows only when they flutter off and often it’s too late to point the camera at them. Another difficulty to spot them is that they come in surprisingly numerous variations of their plumage. It’s actually disputed amongst taxonomists if the Easter Rosella and the closely related Pale-headed Rosella are species at all and not as some scientists argue a subspecies of the subordinate species the White-cheeked Rosella. As you can see this is getting a bit complicated. Even more so as the range of the two sub-species or not-sub-species overlap and they interbreed and you can find hybrids of these birds. Should I even mention that the Pale-head once was split into two species itself, only distinguished by a batch of blue on their belly? I wont take this any further, but bird nerd that I am, you can imagine how I spend my evenings contemplating bird matters like this poring over my bird books. Luckily is really troubled by my nerdy behaviour because the other members of the family have their own business in mind. Suki the cat executing her own field studies of the local wildlife outside the house and  Mrs. Schmitz playing Scrabble on my iPhone that is. 

Next week: The Masked Lapwing or now it’s getting really strange.