Endangered
Red-and-blue Lory
Eos histrio
The red-and-blue lory (Trichoglossus histrio) is a small, strikingly-colored parrot endemic to Indonesia.
Appearance
The beak is short, sharply curved, and bright orange. The feathers nearest the cere (the area nearest the nostrils) are bright red. The bird's plumage is mostly bright red.
The red-and-blue lory is roughly 12 inches (30 cm) in length, among them the tail.
Range and habitat
The red-and-blue lory is now confined to the Talaud Islands off northern Sulawesi, Indonesia, where almost all individuals appear to inhabit a single island (Karakelang). The birds inhabit forests from sea level to about 1,500 meters above sea level. The population is only sustainable or viable on Karakelang, and their population on that island is fragmented into approximately four locations.
The species inhabits a single island, Karakelong, in the Indonesian archipelago, although it was formerly found on the Sangihe Islands and other parts of the Talaud Islands. Logging activities, even in their nature preserve home, also threaten the species.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The species eats a primarily nectar- and pollen-based diet, like most lories and lorikeets. It supplements its diet with occasional insects and fruit.
Outside of the breeding season, the species forms social flocks, that congregate in palm plantations. While the species is nonmigratory, they are said to fly between neighboring islands in search of food. Very rare in commercial aviculture, successful breeding has only been reported once in the scientific literature.
In crisis
The red-and-blue lory is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN. The species is also listed as CITES Appendix I, meaning that all commercial international trade in wild-caught individuals is prohibited. Illegal trade continues, even so, with 80% of the illegally taken or 'poached' specimens being shipped to the neighboring Philippines.
Threats to the population include illegal trapping for the pet trade, insecticide spraying on coconut plantations, logging or habitat degradation, and exotic Newcastle disease from escaped domestic poultry. Population-wise, one of the two subspecies, the nominate or definitive subspecies, is presumed extinct, and the only other remaining of the two subspecies is on the decline.
Red-and-blue Lory 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 Red-and-blue Lory, Wikidata item Q528256. 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.
