Endangered
Golden-shouldered Parrot
Psephotellus chrysopterygius
The golden-shouldered parrot, also known as the alwal, arrmorral, minpin, thaku, or antbed parrot, is a rare bird of the southern Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia.
Appearance
The adult male is mainly blue and has a characteristic yellow over the shoulder area. It has a black cap and pale yellow frontal band. It has a grey-brown lower back.
The golden-shouldered parrot is 25–27 cm (9.8–10.6 in) long and weighs 54–56 g (1.9–2.0 oz).
Published measurements include mass about 2.9.
Range and habitat
The golden-shouldered parrot lives in open forested grassland liberally populated by numerous termite species and their mounds. Often these mounds are found every few metres apart. An important habitat requirement is the presence of suitably sized terrestrial termite mounds, in that the birds nest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The golden-shouldered parrot breeding season occurs from March to August. The termite occupants of the mound use a natural form of air conditioning to preserve the climatic conditions of their colony and this process regulates the temperature of the parrot's nest chamber at around 28–30 °C (82–86 °F).
Found in around half of parrot nests, the moths seek out the newly dug nest tunnels and deposit their eggs in the entrance. The hatching moth larvae consume the faeces of the nestling parrots therefore helping to keep the nest chamber clean.
In crisis
A small parrot related to the more common hooded parrot (P. Dissimilis) of the Northern Territory and the extinct paradise parrot of Queensland and New South Wales. It is classified as endangered due mostly to an increase in mid-story vegetation, that increases predation. A major conservation project is underway on Artemis Station to save the species from extinction.
Golden-shouldered Parrot is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Golden-shouldered Parrot, Wikidata item Q27075027. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
