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Turquoise Parrot

Neophema pulchella

Conservation Status

Vulnerable species in New South Wales (Threatened Species Conservation Act).

Turquoise Parrot

What does it look like?

The male Turquoise Parrot is highly distinctive with bright green upperparts and a turquoise-blue crown and face. Its shoulders are turquoise-blue, moving to a deep blue at the flight-feathers. It has a chestnut-red patch on the upper-wing. The upper-breast of the Parrot has an orange tint, while the yellow abdomen may have an orange centre. Females and immature individuals are generally duller, have whitish lores, a green, rather than yellow throat and breast and no red on the shoulder and upper-wing area. (from DEC – NSW Threatened Species Profile)

Where does it live?

It inhabits open forest, woodland and open grassland. They require a healthy ground cover of grasses and low understorey of shrubs and will inhabit areas with mixed callitris and a variety of eucalypts (e.g. box, ironbark and stringy). The Parrot has also been recorded in savannah woodland and riparian woodland and forest, as well as in farmland with remnant trees, adjacent to forest/woodland and occasionally in heath or remnant roadside vegetation. They occur within the eastern two thirds of New South Wales, stretching into Queensland and Victoria. Many records exist for the species in suburban Sydney up to the 1880’s and between 1937 and 1945. No other records exist except for one at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in 1983.

What does it eat and what is its life cycle?

They feed on grass seeds, herbaceous plants and shrubs, also flowers, nectar, fruits, leaves and scale-insects. Foraging is in pairs or small parties on or near to the ground, among seeding grasses or weeds, usually beneath trees. The Turquoise Parrot is considered to be resident, sedentary and not migrational. They breed from August to December, laying a clutch size of 2 to 6 eggs in a low hollow, such as in a stump, fence post, fallen log or lower branch of a living or dead tree. Outside of breeding season this parrot will roost in dense foliage of trees or shrubs.

This parrot was formerly caught in large numbers for aviculture and is sometimes still illegally trapped.

Updated: 22 Jun 2011