Palm Lorikeet


Palm Lorikeet

Palm Lorikeet 15–17 cm. Green, with rather small red patch around bill from lores to chin; mantle washed pale brown; underwing-coverts greyish green; tail tipped yellow; bill and legs orange. Palm Lorikeet Female has red reduced or lacking, no brown. Immature like a female.

Forms a species group with C. rubrigularisC. meeki and C. toxopei. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Extreme E Solomon Is (Santa Cruz Is, Duff Is, Reef Is), Banks Is and Vanuatu; the range seems to be somewhat irregular and fluctuates with cycles of extinctions and recolonizations over decades.

Habitat

Montane and lowland forest, but seemingly intolerant of disturbed areas at lower levels.

Movement

Apparently nomadic, traveling widely between feeding areas and appearing unpredictably in coastal areas, sometimes in large numbers.

Diet and Foraging

Palm Lorikeet eat Nectar and pollen of various trees, palms, lianas, and shrubs, notably from flowers of sago palms (Metroxylon rumphii) and Erythrina; also take the fruit of figs (Ficus) and berries

Palm lorikeet (Vini palmarum) Tabwemasana bird survey 2021

SOURCE: Dominik Maximilián Ramík

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

The commonest vocalization of Palm Lorikeet is a high-pitched short “tseet”. When perched, also utters a high-pitched twittering and short chirruping notes.

Breeding

One nest on Vanuatu in Dec, was in a hollow limb of a tree c. 6 m up, in the cloud forest (at 1600 m), with two half-grown young.

Conservation Status

VULNERABLE. CITES II. Previously considered Near ­Threatened. A BirdLife “restricted-range” species. Commoner in hills above 1000 m than in lowlands.


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Amanda