Moluccan eclectus
Eclectus roratus
— Where the name comes from
Eclectus is the Greek eklektós, “chosen, select”, a name of admiration for a parrot of splendid colours. Roratus is Latin for “bedewed”, perhaps for the sheen of the plumage. The word eclectic comes from the same Greek, but by another road: it describes someone who picks the best from different sources.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Parrots
- Habitat
- Lowland and hill rainforest, the edges of clearings
- Range
- The Moluccas; related species in New Guinea and northern Australia
- Size
- 35–42 cm, 350–550 g
- Diet
- Fruit, seeds, nuts, flowers, nectar
- Lifespan
- 25–30 years in captivity
— Characteristics
- 01
The male is bright green, the female red and blue.
- 02
The female guards the nest hole for months and hardly leaves it.
- 03
Several males may feed the same female.
— What sets it apart
Male and female are so different that for about a century they were described as two separate species. The reason for such a difference was understood only in the 2000s: suitable nest holes are very rare, and females fight to own them and then guard them for months on end, displaying at the entrance the vivid red that makes them recognisable from afar. The males, meanwhile, spend the day foraging in the canopy, where green hides them from birds of prey. Two colours for two jobs: she keeps the door, he does the shopping.
