Unusually for parrots, the male and female Eclectus look totally different, so much so that people used to think
(and some still do) that they are different species. Moreover, unusually for birds, the female is more colourful than the male, in her intense red
and purple plumage with orange tail compared to his equally intense green (with red and blue under-wing patches).
Male Eclectus in flight
Adult male Eclectus - Red-sided subspecies
Female Eclectus with her intense red, blue and purple plumage . . .
. . . her violet blue eye shadow (on this subspecies - the Red-sided)
. . . and her orange and yellow tail (depends on subspecies, see below)
Young male Eclectus
Adult male
Adult female. Eclectus parrots come from various Pacific islands around New Guinea and Indonesia and from northeast Australia
with several regional subspecies.
Above is the Tanimbar Island or Riedel's subspecies of Eclectus. The male has no red sides and a yellow tip to his tail.
Other subspecies include the Grand (Seram/Ambon races), nominate (roratus), Vosmaeri, Cornelia (Sumba Is.), New Guinea Red-sided, Aru Is. Red-sided, Baik Is.
Red-sided, Solomon Is. and, from the Australian mainland, Macgillivray.
The female Tanimbar/Riedel's Eclectus also has a yellow tail tip, has dark blue wingtips and a wholly red body
without the purple pinafore (nape and front) seen on the nominal Roratus (which has a light red tail tip), and other female subspecies.
She has a red vent, whereas the other yellow-tipped tail - Vosmaeri - has a yellow vent). Other subspecies vary in area and plumage.
To untangle details of the different
subspecies of Eclectus Parrot, click icon above.