Princess Parrot

The Princess Parrot is an elegant, long-tailed parrot of Australia's remote interior, named in honor of Princess Alexandra of Denmark. It is one of the least frequently encountered Australian parrots due to its remote range and unpredictable, nomadic movements.

Its plumage is a soft blend of olive-green upperparts, a rose-pink throat and breast, a pale blue crown and rump, and long, slender tail feathers tipped with violet-blue. The bill is coral-red.

Plumage

• Crown pale blue
• Throat and upper breast rose-pink
• Back and wings olive-green with a blue shoulder patch
• Long, graduated tail with violet-blue central feathers
• Bill coral-red

Key field marks

• Slender build with an exceptionally long, thin tail
• Combination of pale blue crown, pink throat, and olive-green body is distinctive
• Coral-red bill
• Fast, direct flight with long tail streaming behind

Similar species

It can be confused with other long-tailed Polytelis parrots such as the Superb Parrot and Regal Parrot, but the Princess Parrot's pink throat/breast and pale blue crown combination, along with its longer tail, separate it from both.

Range

The Princess Parrot is found across the remote arid zone of central Australia, including parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and South Australia, in areas that receive very few observers.

Habitat

It inhabits desert woodland dominated by desert oak, mulga, and acacia, especially along dry watercourses lined with eucalypts. The species is highly nomadic, following erratic rainfall and seeding events, and can be locally common one year and absent the next.

Behavior

Princess Parrots are often seen in small flocks that fly fast and direct between feeding and roosting sites. They can be remarkably tame and approachable where encountered, a trait attributed to their isolation from frequent human contact.

Voice

The call is a distinctive rolling, musical warble, softer and more melodic than the harsher calls of many other Australian parrots.

Feeding

They forage both in trees and on the ground for seeds, fruits, blossoms, nectar, and insects, often feeding on spinifex and acacia seed.

Nesting

Nesting is opportunistic, timed to good rainfall, in hollows of eucalypts or desert oaks, with a clutch of around 4-6 eggs.