Scientific Classification

Common Name

dusky lory, white-rumped lory

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Psittaciformes

Family

Psittacidae

Genus Species

Pseudeos fuscata

Fast Facts

Description

The dusky lory has two color phases. The orange and yellow variants both have a golden-brown crown, an orange collar, and a white rump. The upper breast is black-barred. The ventral side their wings are orange and the tail is dark blue. The wings are black and tipped with orange. This color phase also has orange skin near the lower mandible. The yellow phase birds replace most of the orange areas with yellow.

Size

Adults can reach 24 cm (9.5 in.) in length

Weight

30 to 300 g (1.05 to 10.5 oz.)

Diet

They feed on fruit, seeds, buds, nectar, grain, and pollen.

Incubation

24 to 25 days

Clutch Size

2 to 3 eggs

Fledging Duration

10 weeks

Sexual Maturity

2 to 3 years

Life Span

28 to 32 years

Range

Lories can be found in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia at elevations up to 2,400 m (7,875 ft.).

Habitat

These birds can be found in subtropical and tropical rain forests, mangrove forests, montane forests, savannas, and shrublands.

Population

The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be common and highly gregarious. The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.

Status 

IUCN: Least Concern
CITES: Appendix II
USFWS: Not listed

Fun Facts

Lories have very specialized tongues for feeding on nectar. Tiny hair-like structures called 'papillae' line the end of the tongue in the shape of an "U." When they extend their tongue to feed, the papillae stand on end, allowing nectar and pollen to be easily soaked up. This trait has earned them the nickname "Brush-Tongued Parrots."

The upper mandible of the bill has a long, pointed tip and is much narrower in structure than other parrots. This serves to easily extract hard-to-reach seeds from cones and other hard vegetation.

The birds will scrape the fruit on the inside of their bill and remove the sweet juices with their specialized tongues.

Approximately 70% of their day is spent foraging, and they will travel more than 30 miles a day to find food. Some individuals may feed on as many as 650 flowers each day.

Lories are active and noisy, feeding in large groups and even in the company of other parrots.

These birds will 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 those same paths back to their communal roosts.

They will travel long distances in order to locate a suitable nesting site. They may nest in tree cavities as high as 24 m (80 feet) off the ground.

Ecology and Conservation

There are over 50 species of Lories and Lorikeets. Lories tend to be larger and have a short tail, while Lorikeets have a long tail. In Australasia, all species are referred to commonly as “Lorikeets”.

These birds play an important role in seed dispersal and help to regenerate the forest.

In some areas, these birds are considered agricultural pests because they are destructive to crops.

The U.S. Wild Bird Act forbids the commercial import of any bird listed by CITES which includes most parrots

Bibliography

Forshaw, J.M. Parrots of the World. New Jersey. T.F.H. Publications Inc. 1978.

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.

BirdLife International 2016. Pseudeos fuscata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22684528A93034403. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22684528A93034403.en. Downloaded on 26 November 2019.