Male: Upper parts, including crown, bright grass-green. Band on forehead, dark blue, edged above and below with light blue. Sides of head, throat, breast and flanks, mid-green. Belly, yellow grading to bright orange in center. Under tail-coverts, and underside of tail, bright yellow. Underwing coverts, greater coverts and outer webs of dusky flight feathers, deep blue. Central tail feathers, green, washed with blue. Outer tail feathers, blue broadly tipped with yellow. Feet and toes, buff-grey.
Female: As male, but upper parts are duller and band on forehead is vague and black.
Immatures: Duller than adult female. Well-marked but smaller orange belly patch. Yellow underwing stripe.
Habitat
In south-west Tasmania, button-grass. Sedges on wet peat plains. Breeds in eucalypt woodland on margins of coastal plains. On mainland, dispersal favours small islands, peninsulas in coastal areas. Saltmarsh. Coastal pastures, golf-courses. Crops of millet and sunflowers. Dunes, beaches.
Coastal strip from south-eastern South Australia to south-central Victoria; Tasmania (all breeding now occurs on south-western coast). Recorded near Sydney from late 1880's to 1907, with breeding reported.
Tasmania, southern Victoria, and coastal south-eastern South Australia. Casual in NSW to Sydney.
Food
Seeds of grasses, shrubs and salt-adapted plants and fruit. They are ground feeders. They have also been observed eating decaying kelp.
Voice
Contact call, generally in flight, of soft 'tinkling' notes, like the call of the Blue-winged Parrot (Neophema chrysostoma). Alarm call is a buzzing 'chitter-chitter' or a buzzing, metallic, explosive 'zizizizizizizi'.
Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) [XC98309]
by Pieter de Groot Boersma from , Australia (call)
Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) [XC326941]
by Andrew Spencer from , Australia (call, flight call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Breeds in south-western Tasmania, November - January. Migrates northward via King Island in the non-breeding season (March - April), returning south in mid-October.
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Nest
A bed of rotten wood chips in a hollow tree or stump, usually in eucalypts.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 6; white; rounded; about 22 x 18 mm. Incubation: 20 - 21 days; by female.
Young
Semi-altricial, nidicolous. Initially fed by female. After about 10 days they are fed by both parents. Fledge in four to five weeks.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Blue-winged Parrot (Neophema chrysostoma)
Similar size. Has much more blue on the wings. Dark blue forehead band stops at the eye. Face yellowish. Has yellow patch behind eye.
Elegant Parrot (Neophema elegans)
Similar size. Some show orange on lower belly. Dark blue forehead band narrowly edged pale-blue, extending just past the eye. Face yellowish.
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Notes
They are migratory, moving north in winter to take up residence on the Australian coastal mainland, from the Coorang, SA, in the west, to Port Phillip Bay, Vic, in the east. Casually north in NSW to about Sydney.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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