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The Sri Lanka hanging parrot (''Loriculus beryllinus'') is a small
parrot
Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...
which is a resident endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
breeder in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
.
Description
The Sri Lanka hanging parrot is a smallhanging parrot
Hanging parrots are birds in the genus ''Loriculus'', a group of small parrots from tropical southern Asia.
About long, hanging parrots are mostly green plumaged and short-tailed. Often head coloring helps to identify individual species. They a ...
that is 13 cm long with a short tail. The adult has a red crown and rump. The nape and back have on orange tint. The chin and throat are pale blue. The beak is red and the irises are white.Forshaw (2006). plate 46.
Immature birds lack the orange hue to the back, have a duller rump, and have only a hint of orange on the crown. They have a faint blue throat. They have orange beaks and brown irises.
Behaviour
Sri Lanka hanging parrot is less gregarious than some of its relatives, and is usually alone or in small groups outside the breeding season. Its flight is swift and direct, and the call is a sharp whistled ''twiwittwit..twitwitwit''. It undergoes local movements, driven mainly by the availability of the fruit, seeds, buds and blossoms that make up its diet. Sri Lanka hanging parrot is a bird of open forest. It is strictly arboreal, never descending to the ground. It nests in holes in trees, laying 2–3 eggs.Females are involved in building the nest while males mostly remain close, observing the females.Breeding season includes the first part of the year and sometimes July-september.In culture
InSri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, this bird is known as ''Gira Maliththa'' - ගිරාමලිත්තා or ''Pol Girwa'' - පොල් ගිරවා in Sinhala language
Sinhala ( ; Sinhala: , , ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. It is also the first ...
. The hanging parrot appears in a 15 cent Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
n postage stamp. This bird also appears on the 1000 Sri Lankan rupee
The Sri Lankan rupee (, ; Currency symbol, symbol: ₨ in English, රු in Sinhala, ௹ in Tamil; ISO 4217, ISO code: LKR), known until 1972 as the Ceylon rupee, is the currency of Sri Lanka. It is subdivided into 100 cent (currency), cents (, ...
bank note ( 2010 series).References
Cited texts
* * ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, {{Taxonbar, from=Q337797 Loriculus, Sri Lanka hanging parrot Endemic birds of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka hanging parrot Taxa named by Thomas Pennant