Scientific Classification
- Common Name
- Duivenbode's lory, brown lory
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Loriidae (parrot)
- Genus Species
- Chalcopsitta (copper or bronze colored) duivenbodei
Fast Facts
- Description
- The Duivenbode's lory is dark brown with a yellow ring around the head and a hooked, blackish beak. The wing converts are bright yellow as are the legs, nape, and neck.
- Size
- Approximately 26 cm (10.4 in.); wingspan 135 to 150 mm (5.4 to 6 in.)
- Weight
- Approximately 133 g (5 oz)
- Diet
- Feeds on fruit, seeds, buds, nectar, unripe grain, and pollen
- Incubation
- 24 to 25 days
- Fledging Duration
- The chicks leave the nest for the first time at 7to 8 weeks of age but return to the nest to roost for a short time. Fledglings may remain with the parents over the summer before moving into the communal roost.
- Sexual Maturity
- About 2 years
- Life Span
- 28 to 32 years
- Range
- This species has a patchy distribution along the northern coastal lowlands of New Guinea, from Indonesian to Papua New Guinea.
- Habitat
- These birds seem to favor primary and tall secondary forest below 150 m.
- Population
- Although they have a restricted range, this species has a large population estimated to be greater than 50,000 individuals. The population appears to be decreasing due to habitat destruction but is not severely fragmented
- Status
- IUCN: Least Concern
CITES: Appendix II
USFWS: Not listed
Fun Facts
Duivenbode's Lory is named after a well-known merchant of Ternate, sometimes referred to as the "King of Ternate", which is an island located in Indonesia.
Lories are highly active and noisy, feeding in large groups and even in the company of other parrots or other honey-eating birds.
These birds may establish daily flight paths connecting their feeding sites, which tend to follow the natural contours of the landscape, such as hills, valleys, and rivers. At night, they retreat along these paths back to their communal roosts.
During the courtship dance the male hops around the female and then dazzles her by revealing his bright yellow converts.
Ecology and Conservation
Lories are very important to the ecosystem because of their eating habits. Not all of the seeds they consume are digested. Many are passed in the bird's guano over new areas of the forest. Some species eat nectar and are important in the pollination of many tropical plants.
Forests throughout its range are threatened by commercial logging but their abundance in secondary forest suggests that it is not threatened.
The U.S. Wild Bird Act forbids the commercial import of any bird listed by CITES which includes most parrots.
Bibliography
Low, R. Lories and Lorikeets. New York. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. 1977.
Parker, S. P. (ed.). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Birds II. Vol. 8. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1972.
Perrins, C. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Birds. New York: Facts on File Publications. 1985.
The On-line Monograph of the Lories and Lorikeets. students.washington.edu/~nyneve/rare-lories.html
BirdLife International. 2018. Chalcopsitta duivenbodei. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22684491A130098893. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22684491A130098893.en. Downloaded on 28 February 2019.
Photo Credit: Brown_Lory_(Chalcopsitta_duivenbodei)_-2.jpg. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Image by: yvonne n. Year Created: 9 June 2007. Website: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_Lory_(Chalcopsitta_duivenbodei)_-2.jpg. License: CC by SA 2.0.
