Blue-crowned Lory
Vini australis
By Matt Schmit

Found over a comparatively large geographic range, the Blue-crowned Lory inhabits any area where flowering trees can be found in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and one of the Cook Islands, Niue.   It is still fairly common throughout its range, but has gone extinct on several islands and is declining in Tonga (most likely due to rats).  The Blue-crowned is listed on CITES II and is a Birdlife International “restricted-range species.”

It is primarily a green bird with blue and red marking on the face and belly. The beak and feet are both orange.  It measures 7 ½ inches (19 cm) and weighs 40 to 55 grams. 

The feeding habits of the Blue-crowned Lory are the most diverse of the Vini genus.  They feed on a wide variety of food items, such as nectar, pollen and soft fruit of coconut palms, thatching palms, mango, Erythrina, Elaeocarpus angustifolius, Calophyllum inophyllum and Casuarinas. 

Blue-crowned Lories are far from picky about their enclosures and most pairs will breed in any reasonably sized cage or aviary.  Birds have successfully bred in enclosures with a variety of size and styles ranging from small suspended cages to large planted exhibits.   

The diet that is offered to the Blue-crowned Lories varies from collection to collection.  However, the basis of all successful Blue-crowned diets is a commercial lory nectar and fruit.  I feed a bowl of chopped produce in the morning and a bowl of nectar in the afternoon.  I have found Blue-crowned Lories to have voracious appetites and will easily become obese if allowed. 

Read my paper on Vini Lories and Breeding the Blue-crowned Lory (Vini australis) that was presented at the American Federation of Aviculture's 2003 annual convention in San Antonio, TX.

Select a Species... Blue-crowned Lory Cardinal Lory Forsten's Lorikeet Green-naped Lorikeet Goldie's Lorikeet Rosenberg's Lorikeet Yellow-bibbed Lory Yellow-streaked Lory Weber's Lorikeet ------------------------------ Salvadori's Fig Parrot

 

References:

Collar, N.J. (1997).  Family Psittacidae (Parrots).  Pp. 280-477 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. (1997).  Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol 4. Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona

Low, R. (1998).  Hancock House Encyclopedia of the Lories. Hancock House: Blaine, WA