EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Red-winged Parrot Green on Green

Red-winged Parrot (Aprosmictus erythropterus), Family Psittaculidae
Northern Territory, Australia

Explanation:  Green on green!  This week's story is about a pair of Red-winged Parrots, so-named for their prominent patch of bright red on the leading edge of their wings.  Until it's not so prominent, as viewed from below.  

This week we are in Tabletop Swamp in Litchfield National Park, in tropical Northern Territory of northern Australia.  Here, they inhabit various mixed woodlands, mangroves, and riparian forests, where the trees grow wild and dense with full-summer foliage ... and very green.

Red-winged Parrots are mostly arboreal, feeding on berries, seeds, and blossoms.  They are known to be noisy but also wary if approaches.  

So ... the lesson here is, "green on green."  Viewed from below, their green plumage seems to blend beautifully into the green foliage of the tree canopy.  Even in shade, they appear darker green that blends well with the darker green of tree foliage that is also in shade.

What struck me is the cryptic blending of green on green, as perhaps another version of countershading that I had encountered previously in another Australian bird species, the Little Bronze-Cuckoo.  That species, which I also found here in Northern Territory, was white below with some dark barring that broke up the body outline, so when viewed from below against the light sky, it seemed to blend in well.

But here, the Red-winged Parrots are green below, so when viewed from below against their tree canopy habitat, they also blend in well.  

And all this blending is likely local adaptations for predator avoidance.  

Green on green seems to work well here, for this species, in this environment!