tags: lories, loriinae, yellow-bibbed lory, Lorius chlorocercus, parrots, birds, photograph
Odysseus.
Male yellow-bibbed lory, Lorius chlorocercus, April 2008.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].
This parrot is a lory. Lories are a group of nectar-feeding parrots that are from islands in the south Pacific Ocean. This particular species originates on the Solomon Islands. When I lived in Seattle, I had a flock of 8 species (30 individuals) of lories that I bred, raised and trained for most of my life, and I studied the evolution of the lories for my postdoctoral work. When I left Seattle to pursue my postdoctoral work, I gave up all of my lories, except for a few birds, like this one, which I brought with me to NYC.
I hand-raised this particular bird from a fluffy, blind chick that was so small he could sit on top of a quarter. Now he is a little larger than an American robin, and weighs roughly 130 grams.
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Very cute!
So that's the red lory. Do you have a yellow one to go with it?
Last night I was thinking that we hadn't had any updates on your parrots, and here we go. This may not be entirely coincidental.
That's a very, very pretty bird. What do you feed nectar feeders? (Waiting for the 'duh, nectar' :P)
Whew...
I was scanning over article headlines in my RSS feed reader, and clicked on through to this article when I thought the hed said "Meet One of My Parents."
Imagine my surprise.
Nice looking bird, BTW -- sure knows how to pose for the camera!
Do you name all your birds? Is this the famous movie star Peter Lorry we've heard so much about?
Ouch!
actually, this is the yellow-bibbed lory. there is a red lory as well, but this bird ain't it. there are no yellow lories, though.
i added the bird's name .. odysseus. the female (who is a little more camera-shy) is named calypso.
i feed my lories on a diet of Nekton-Lori (a special diet for lories and other nectar-feeding birds), and chopped fruits in season and vegetables with real fruit juice (mango, guava, or passion fruit) mixed in, with a little ornabac sprinkled over everything (ornabac is beneficial bacteria in powdered form -- they revive quickly enough when sprinkled over sweet foods).
What a handsome fellow! I was wondering when I was going to get to see some pix of your feathered housemates!
SOooooooooooooooooo cute