The pygmy lorikeet (''Charminetta wilhelminae'') is a species of

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittaco ...

in the family

Psittaculidae Psittaculidae is a family containing Old World parrots. It consists of five subfamilies: Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae Platycercinae is a subfamily of birds belonging to the family Psittaculidae that inhabit Oceania. It consists of ...

. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Charminetta''. It is found in the highlands of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

; its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucia ...

s. The world population of pygmy lorikeets is thought to be less than 50,000 individuals, but stable. They live at altitudes of 1000–2200m.

Taxonomy

The pigmy lorikeet was previously placed in the genus ''

Charmosyna ''Charmosyna'' is a genus of parrots in the family Psittaculidae. Taxonomy ''Charmosyna'' contains the following three species: * Josephine's lorikeet (''Charmosyna josefinae'') * Papuan lorikeet (''Charmosyna papou'') * Stella's lorikeet ( ...

''. It was moved to its own genus ''Charminetta'' based on phylogenetic studies published in 2020.

Description

The pygmy lorikeet averages in length (including tail) and in mass. It is the smallest of the lorikeets. The male has a dark purple rump and a streaked yellow breast, with red stripes under its wings. His tail is green tipped with yellow, and his eyes and beak are orange. The female lacks the red underwing stripe of the male, and has a green (rather than purple) rump. Immature birds are similar to adults in appearance but lack yellow streaking on their breasts and have brown bills and eyes.

Behaviour

They have high pitched, coarse, relatively weak flight calls. Pairs make quiet contact calls.

References

pygmy lorikeet Birds of New Guinea pygmy lorikeet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{parrot-stub