Distribution

Tanimbar (Tenimber) Islands, Indonesia, of which Yamdena is the principal island and is said to account for 55 percent of the range of this species.  It was introduced to the Kai Islands to the north of Tanimbar, where it probably no longer occurs, and to the island of Damar in the Southwest Islands.  Finsch (1900) recorded it from the island of Babar in the same group.  This is the most southerly representative of the genus.

Plumage

The distinguishing feature is the narrow blue feathering of the hind neck and mantle, creating a streaked effect not unlike that of the yellow-streaked lory.  the blue streaks are almost luminous in their intensity.  There is also streaking on the ear coverts, which are a darker shade of blue; the rest of the head is red, as are the underparts.  The wings are red marked with black, the greater wing coverts, primaries and secondaries being partly black-the primaries appearing almost wholly black.  the thighs are red and black.  Upper and lower tail coverts are red and the tail, which is slightly longer than in other Eos species, is black above and red below.  the rump is inconspicuously marked with dull blue.  the beak is orange; cere, eye skin and feet are gray and the iris is orange.

Trade

Commercial export commenced about 1970 and continued for nearly two decades.  However, in 1988 this species was listed among those which were not permitted to be imported into countries of the European Union.  this was because it was endangered by trade.  Even if Indonesia had been a member of CITES at that time, that country would almost certainly not have favored adding this and other lories threatened by trade to Appendix I, because valuable income was gained from their export.  Some figures are available from PHPA (Indonesian) government statistics to show numbers of blue-streaked lories exported legally from 1981 to 1984; however, it is well known that huge numbers of parrots are exported from Indonesia illegally, due in part to the impossibility of controlling all the ports from which they might leave.  

General Information

As long ago as 1822, Lord Stanley (afterward Earl of Derby) had a live specimen in his collection in England.  But it was another 150 years before this species was exported on a commercial and regular basis.  Since the mid-1970s it has been bred regularly in Europe and in the USA.  In California, Jay Kapac has been breeding this species for nearly 20 years.  All his lory chicks have been incubator hatches and hand-reared from the egg since 1976.  In the U.K., the first-recorded success was achieved in 1972, by R. Phipps.  The pair had been imported the previous year by Jim Hayward-who observed, to his surprise, that they were mating a few hours after he collected them from Heathrow Airport.  They had just been imported from Singapore!  With Mr. Phipps they reared a single chick on a diet which included maggot pupae, corn on the cob and nectar with wholemeal breadcrumbs.  This pair was then sent to a breeder in South Africa, and thence to Rhodesia where they continued to breed for Mr. D. Edwards, in 1973.  these much traveled birds then went back to South Africa.

Breeding data

The clutch size is two.  The incubation period is 25 to 27 days.  Gibson (1984) kept records of three clutches; the eggs hatched after 28 days except the second egg in the first clutch which hatched after 27 days.    A newly laid egg placed in an incubator hatched after 25 days.

Immature birds

Age at independence of hand-reared young:  56 days for one hand-reared by the author.  Chick growth shows the weight of one chick hand-reared from the age of eight days by the author in 1986.  Rearing food consisted of Milupa baby cereal, wheatgerm cereal and tinned Heintz Fruit Dessert baby food.  

Status in aviculture

After the 1993 survey on Yamdena it was described as a "common forest bird"; previously it was described as vulnerable/endangered by Lambert, Wirth et al. (undated) after heavy trapping for export during the 1970s and 1980s.  In 1992, they suggested that the population was in the region of 10,000 to 50,000 birds.  However, after the 1993 survey, its population on Yamdena was estimated at 220,000 birds, plus or minus 52,000.  In 1982, a comprehensive system of protected areas was proposed for Maluku Province, of which the Tanimbar and Kai islands are a part.  However, up until 1992 nothing had been done.  One proposed reserve on Yamdena would protect a large part of the island and would be of great importance for the endemic avifauna.  The single reserve proposed for the Kai Islands comprises about 37,000 hectares of forested hills in the north of Kai Besar.