- Platycercus elegans
Includes: Yellow Rosella, Adelaide Rosella
Identification
32-36cm
- Crimson plumage
- Blue cheeks
- Black back and wing coverts, edged with red
- Blue edged flight feathers
- Tail blue above, pale blue undertail
Adelaide Rosella
Photo by Rose Fletcher
Nangawooka Flora Reserve, Victor Harbor, South Australia, December 2008
Photo by Rose Fletcher
Nangawooka Flora Reserve, Victor Harbor, South Australia, December 2008
Juvenile
- Blue cheeks
- Green-olive to yellow olive plumage
Yellow Rosella is pale yellow-green mottled with black backs, which are olive green in juveniles.
Distribution
Australia, introduced to New Zealand.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Six subspecies are recognised by Clements[1]:
- P. e. nigrescens in eastern Australia (coastal north-eastern Queensland)
- P. e. elegans in eastern Australia (south-eastern Queensland to south-eastern South Australia)
- P. e. melanopterus on Kangaroo Island
- P. e. flaveolus Yellow Rosella in interior south-eastern Australia
Adelaide Rosella
- P. e. subadelaidae in southern South Australia
- P. e. adelaidae in southern South Australia
flaveolus, subadelaidae and adelaidae were sometimes considered to be separate species but are now commonly lumped in this species.
Habitat
Euclypt and wet forest.
Behaviour
Breeding
They nest in a tree hollow, lined with wood shavings and dust. The 4-8 white eggs are incubated by the female for about 20 days; both sexes care for the young. The young fledge after about 35 days, but depend on their parents for a further 35 days.
References
- Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
- austmus.gov
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Crimson Rosella. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Crimson_Rosella
