Australian King Parrot

The female Australian King Parrot is camouflaged in a dull green while the male struts around in brilliant red, bright green and a contrasting deep green.

Australian King Parrots are also called the Southern King Parrot or King Lory. Their scientific name is Alisterus scapularis.

King Parrots are shy and live in the forests along the coastal areas of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. The will enter gardens when they feel safe, which is usually after all the noisy aggressive birds have moved on.

The birds eat insects for protein, fruit for vitamin C and energy, and seeds for the other nutrients and essential fatty acids. When they visit your garden and munch on food scraps, give them the healthy stuff, not sugar, white bread, or fried food as refined food makes them fat without providing nutrition.

You might be able to attract a King Parrot down to feed close to you but they will be the last bird in your garden to trust you and the female may take a lot longer than the male. They will fly away when any other bird approaches, which means you have to feed all the other birds first.

The King Parrots breed from Spring, September, through to late Summer, January. In autumn you will see the young kids out eating with mum and dad. The baby parrots start off in the same green as the mother so they will be hard to see when in the nest among the leaves. Late in Autumn or in winter, you see the young males gradually developing the bright colouring of the adult males.

If you find an injured King Parrot then call a wildlife specialist to save the bird because the birds are becoming less common as we clear away trees. They need a big cluster of big mature trees for their nest, which means they are not surviving in areas of high density housing where there are only token small trees and shrubs.