Articles

The Princess Parrot

(Polytelis alexandrae)

General:

The Princess parrot is a member of the Polytelis family and its relatives are the Superb parrot and the Regent parrot. It is found the arid areas of Northwest Australia to Alice Springs. They are relatively rare in the wild with only a few sightings. They are long and slender birds measuring up to 46cm in males and 35cm in Females. The difference in size is caused by some males having extremely long tail feather. The male is brighter than the female especially around the head and rump. His beak might also be redder in colour than the female. They have a light blue head with a pink patch under the beak. Their wings are green and have a yellowy green patch on the side. The rest of the bird is Grey/green except for a bright violet blue rump.

Mutations:

The most popular mutation is the Blue princess. This is one of the few mutations that is equal or better than the original bird. The bird is a deep blue colour all over. Other mutations are the albino, yellow and the lutino.

Housing:

I keep my Princess in a Aviary measuring 4.5m x 1.35m x 2.1. They are housed next to a pair of Regents in a aviary with the same dimensions. The extra length gives these birds plenty of room to fly as they are active birds (at least mine are) and the height gives them room to take off from the ground and land on the high perches in the shelter. My birds seem to spend a lot of the time on the ground so I wouldn’t keep them in suspends. I have never met or read of anyone keeping them in suspends but talk to some one else who has them if you are thinking of suspendeds. The floor of my aviary is dirt with a thick layer of eucalypt mulch. They seem to like foraging for any seeds that have fallen down and eating any grasses that grow in their.

I have kept my Princess with Cockateils and Bourkes in a

5 x 2.4 x 2m. This was fine until the breeding season when the male princess start harassing the Cockateils and Bourkes. Both birds lost feathers on their backs so I moved them to separate aviaries. Everyone I talk to say they are usually perfectly fine with other birds. Maybe I just have 2 very bossy birds. Other people breed them in colonies of 3 pair in a bigger aviary. They have had success in this.

Feeding:

I feed my Princess a mixture of mostly parrot mix with extra Grey sunflower and a little finch mix. Also a lot of greenery is provided. This is usually thistles from the garden, seedy grass, spinach and apple. Cuttlebone and grit should also be provided. I have PVC pipe pieces attached to the corner of the aviary which I keep branches of wattle, grevilia, eucalypt and bottlebrush. The birds especially love the buds from the yellow box eucalypt. I also have branches up in the shelter as the birds seem to love sleeping on or in them.

Breeding:

Princesses have a clutch of between 3 and 6 eggs. These take around 18 days to hatch and leave the nest at around 5-6 weeks. I use a hollow log for nesting, which is 50cm deep, and about 30 cm in diameter. It is hung at a slight angle so it is easier for the birds to get in and out. The season starts around September/November in Southern Victoria and I put my boxes in early August.

Conclusion:

I think the Princess parrot is a very good aviary bird. They are not hard to care for as I am only an amateur. They are hardy except for some females that get very stressed in moving and go into shock. I lost my first female like that so the next one I kept in an carry box for a day and a half before letting it into an aviary early in the morning. I recommend these relatively cheap Australian parrots.

By Jeremy Reiger

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