Animal Diaries Archive

Little bird, big shoes

24 November 2006

Most of the birds that are easily seen in the aviary happen to be the largest; truth be told I think they like the attention. But if you take your time in the aviary you will notice that most of the small parrots, even though they are quiet and are a little harder to see, happen to be some of the most colorful. Take the Golden-shouldered Parrot, for example. Gus, the little male that we have, even though he has not reached maturity looks like someone painted him with all the colors of the rainbow.

When Gus reaches maturity he can then boast that he is one of the most vibrant birds in the aviary. With colors of lemon yellow, sea green, oranges, reds and turquoise blue, there is no chance that this little guy missed out in the colour department. Gus is definitely the boss in the aviary and even though he is only slightly larger then a budgie, he likes to run the show, and you can see him strutting his stuff in the Rainforest Aviary.

Golden-shouldered Parrots are listed as endangered, with only 1600 pairs left in the wild. It is also believed that they form lifelong bonds with their partners. These little birds first started to have problems due to large-scale trapping and nest-robbing from as far back as the 1960s and further; since then it has been a struggle for them to rebuild their numbers. This species is restricted to the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland, so we are very privileged to have Gus with us and hope to give him a girlfriend in the near future.