Eclectus with Dale Thompson

THE HISTORY OF ECLECTUS PART III

Since the Birds of Paradise were so revered by the European community when they first arrived as skins, it is from the history of this group of birds that the Eclectus Parrot can easily be followed. The German historian, Stresemann, set out an outline for the historical account of the Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds. But this outline can easily account for many other species of birds including the Eclectus Parrot. It was much easier to collect skins of the Eclectus Parrot as this parrot was well known as a pet bird among the New Guinea and Indonesian natives for centuries.

Stresemann laid out four historical periods of discovery--the period of speculation (1522-1599), the period of inexperienced objectivity (1599-1824), the period of first true knowledge (1824-1875) and the period of detailed investigation (after 1875). Ferdinand Magellan's ships were the first to come into contact with the birds of New Guinea and the surrounding islands. They were the first to bring back skins from the Birds of Paradise which took the European community by storm. But Magellan did not survive the trip as he was killed in a battle with the natives of the Philippines in 1521. The ship Victoria, captained by El Cano was the only ship to arrive back in Spain in 1522, thus being the first ship ever to circumnavigate the globe. On board were several bird skins that began the great push for discovery of new lands and new animals.

For several centuries, the myths and legends that came out of the East Indies never ended and it was a time for discovering many new plants and animals. The great fascination for the common person with these great discoveries, however, came in the early 1800's when several outstanding artists began reproducing these amazing discoveries on canvas. Before, only the aristocrats could have access to anything like a skin.

Several great artists, such as John Gould ("Synopsis of Birds of Australia", 1840) and ("Birds of New Guinea", mid 1870's) and Dr. Bowdler-Sharp who was a good friend of Gould and who finished the last half of "The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Island including many new species recently discovered in Australia" after John Gould had passed away, and Edward Lear ("Illustrations of the family Psittacidae", appeared in parts between 1830-32). There were many other notable artists including Wolf, Keulemans and Smit that kept the excitement of discovery alive during the early 1800's.

It was during this time that there was a great competition in finding new species and all of these artists commissioned ships (through the Royal Geographic Society or other backers) and sailed around the world to find the next beautiful bird or animal. This was truly the great age of discovery.

The Beginnings of Eclectus Classification

Early recordings of the subspecies or races of the Eclectus Parrot were described only from the female of the species. The males were determined to be too closely alike in the early days. It was from the size variation and color of the females that determined the early races of the Eclectus Parrot.

This is an early example:

Eclectus roratus roratus (Muller)
Eclectus roratus cornelia (Bonaparte)
Eclectus roratus riedeli (A. B. Meyer)
Eclectus roratus vosmaeri (Rothschild)
Eclectus roratus pectoralis (Muller)
Eclectus roratus maforensis (Rothschild)
Eclectus roratus biaki (Hartert)
Eclectus roratus aurensis (G. R. Gray)
Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi (Mathews)
Eclectus roratus goodsoni (Hartert)
Eclectus roratus solomonensis (Rothschild and Hartert)

This gives us eleven races of the Eclectus Parrot. But this was in the past. One of the very first things one will question within this list is "Where is the Red-sided Eclectus, Eclectus roratus polychloros?" It is there, but was then known as E. r. pectoralis. Ornithologists have a great habit of changing names on many species of birds. In layman's terms there are two distinct divisions within the taxonomists--the lumpers and the dividers. The lumpers keep combining races and making a shorter list while the dividers keep separating out the individual differences of the races and make a longer list. This is why there were approximately 8600 species of birds in the world when I was in high school in the 1950's and now there are 9600 species. Wow! What an increase especially when there are avian species that are going extinct at an ever increasing rate. Well the Red-sided Eclectus was given a new scientific name and is now known as E. r. polychloros.

In 1913 when the Magillvray's Eclectus was first discovered in the Cape York Peninsula of Australia, it was given a scientific name of Eclectus pectoralis macgillvrayi. This new subspecies was certainly very similar to the New Guinea subspecies (then called pectoralis) except being larger is size. It was decided to use the pectoralis species followed by the subspecies name macgillvrayi. The genus name was later changed to roratus.

When the Eclectus was first discovered it had the same vivid colors as do some of the lories. The Eclectus species and many of the lories also have the same range. Eclectus was given the generic name of Lorius by the early taxonomists. The genus Lorius is now given to a group of large lories of which the Black-capped and Chattering Lory belong. There are so many similarities between these two groups of psittacines that I wrote an article for the Watchbird Magazine in 1996 called "The Grandest Lory of Them All." This article is reproduced on this web site. This article may have begun with a tongue-in-cheek, but it did not end so. There are so many similarities that the Univesity at Berkley (human DNA lab) has done a DNA analysis on both the Eclectus and the Black-capped Lory to see if there is a close relationship. When this is known, I will place the results on this site. Except for the brush-tongued character in the family of the lories and lorikeets (Loriidae or Loriinae) and the difference in having a feathered cere, the Eclectus could easily be a big lory. In past years, we even fed nectar to our wild-caught Eclectus and they really loved it.

Taxonomically, the Eclectus in the present day are suggested to be related to the Geoffroyus (Red-cheeked, Blue-collared and Singing Parrots) genus and the Tanygnathus (Great-billed, Muller's and Blue-naped Parrots) genus. This is because of the similarities in cranial structure. Colorations are also similar in all three groups (green, red and blue/purple) along with the tight interlocking hair-like structure. These are all speculations, however, and DNA studies will probably be the best way to guarantee any true similarities.

It is my personal belief after observing all the Eclectus races that there are only nine subspecies in this group. This is not to make a claim, only an observation. I have been blessed to be able to observe all of these subspecies and I feel that there are unique differences.

There are several observations that I would like to make at this time. Of interest is that the Island furthest away from the Eclectus group is the large Island of Sumba which is part of the extension of the Malayan Peninsula. This distant island from all of the islands which are inhabited by the Eclectus Parrot is one where the female has an all red chest. Possibly an adaptation of being so isolated from the rest of the group. The only other red female is the Riedeli's Eclectus which is from the Tanimbar Island group. It is the closest of all the Eclectus isles to the Island of Sumba. Obviously when one observes both of these red female races, they are very easy to tell apart. The Reidel's Eclectus is much smaller and the female has a wonderful yellow tail. Of interest to cockatoo enthusiasts, the Citron-crested Cockatoo also inhabits the island of Sumba and it has become so scarce that it is now endangered. And the Cornelia Eclectus is even more scarce than it is.

Another observation that few people are aware of is the distribution of the Grand and Vosmaeri Eclectus. The Grand inhabits the islands of Buru, Ceram and Amboina. It also inhabits two islands of the southern Moluccas, Saparua and Haruku. The Vosmaeri inhabits the larger islands of northern and central Moluccas. Those specimens of Grand Eclectus inhabiting the Island of Ceram (a neighboring island of the Moluccas) have taken on some of the yellow coloration and size of the Vosmaeri Eclectus.

Obviously when it comes to island species, whether in the Amazon group in the West Indies or the Eclectus in the East Indies, individual traits over the years are accentuated or diminished. Depending upon the gene pool, size can either become larger (as macgillvrayi) or smaller (as solomonensis). Color can change (as red in cornelia) or (as yellow in the tail of vosmaeri and reidel).

Very few people know that there are Eclectus on the Palau Islands in the Pacific. Yes, the Red-sided Eclectus was introduced to this Archipelago. This isolated group of Eclectus (most prominent in the males) are very large and lanky but they are Red-sided in coloration.

Early Reproduction of the Eclectus Parrot

The first published record of a successful reproduction of the Eclectus Parrot is in Germany in 1881 by Frenzel of Freiburg. This first bird was a male. A gentleman by the name of Hieronymus had several early successes in 1884 and '85. The earliest recorded reproduction in England was by Mrs. Drummond, in Scotland, in 1912. Remember that these birds were parent reared. It was from these early trials of Eclectus reproduction that many of the offspring had weakened legs and were riddled with rickets. Vitamin A was severely lacking in the early days. The other great problem was infection of candidiasis or monilliasis where the birds were not given enough green food. The birds would vomit and refuse food and when one inspected the bird's mouth a yellowish-white substance often covered the complete mouth including the tongue and windpipe. Even to this day, early detection of candidiasis can be observed by looking into your bird's mouth for tiny white spots. This could be an early sign of candidiasis and your bird should be seen by an avian veterinarian.

Most of the early live Eclectus Parrots that were first brought into captivity in the late 1800's and early 1900's were not wild-caught birds. They were tame pet birds purchased from the natives of New Guinea and surrounding islands. Wild Eclectus were very hard to get to eat foreign foods on a sailing ship that often took months to return to England or the European mainland. A well adjusted pet bird whether tamed out of the nest by a native or mouth-fed as a youngster was a much better bird to survive the rigors of a long trip into a very different climate.

There has been no hoopla on the observations of Eclectus in the wild having a single nest being attended to by several males and females. This type of behavior needs to be studied as it may turn out to be very useful for our captive birds. Why are we having so many infertile pairings with domestic Eclectus. They just do not know what to do. They are possibly not taught by the parent birds as in the wild. Sir Edward Hallstrom bred the Eclectus Parrot very successfully in very large colonies. I did a small version of Eclectus colony breeding in the mid-1980's and this was with non-fertile egglayers. It was 50% successful. This may be one of the keys to increasing the numbers of fertile domestic pairs in captivity.