Ornate Lorikeet Saudareos ornata Scientific name definitions

25 cm. Bill orange-red; crown and ear coverts purplish black; face and postocular stripe red; side of neck yellow; throat and breast red broadly barred deep blue; belly green with some yellow edges, becoming regular on thighs and below; hindneck to tail green, wings with yellow leading edge and underwing coverts yellow; tail below dull yellow. Immature has brownish bill and more yellow on belly.

Closely related to the Coconut Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) complex. Monotypic.

Sulawesi and adjacent offshore islands (Togian Islands, Banggai Islands, Muna, Butung, Kaledupa). Also recorded on Sangihe Islands and Talaud Islands (possibly escapes).

Peat and freshwater swamp forest, woodland, secondary forest and forest edge, bush, and near cultivation including coconut plantations, from sea-level to 1,000 m in northern and central Sulawesi, to 1,500 m in south.

In flight, a rather mellow screech, “krwee!” or “hrweet!”. When perched also utters short nasal notes and several variants of the just-described screeches.

Breeding-condition birds, September–October. In captivity: two eggs, size 23.7–27.5 mm × 21.5–21.9 mm (1 Harrison, C. J. O., and D. T. Holyoak (1970). Apparently undescribed parrot eggs in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 90(2):42–46. Close ); incubation 27 days; nestling period 80 days.