Distribution

Edwards' lorikeets were regularly available from about 1965 until the late 1970s, when the export of birds from Timor ceased.  Within a few years it was rare, indicating that despite being bred on many occasions, there were no serious efforts to establish it in aviculture.  This situation changed and a small minority made an effort to breed it.  In the U.K., the breeding register of the Parrot Society (to which a minority of members contribute) showed in 1977, three members reported breeding a total of five birds.  In 1991, five members reported breeding 25 and the following year four members bred 21.  This subspecies is also being reared in Europe and in the U.S.A.  R. T. Kyme of Lincs, U.K., received a pair in 1972.  Eggs were laid on June 29 and July 1, and the first hatched on July 21 (23-day incubation period).  The young bird left the nest at 74 days old, with nearly bare neck, breast and back, where it had been plucked by the parents.  Its beak was black; it otherwise resembled the adults.  Their diet consisted of nectar, spinach beet, apple, sowthistle and white sunflower seed.

Plumage

The head is green, forehead, cheeks and chin are dark blue with shaft streaks of violet-blue; throat and ear coverts are dark green, also a wide stripe above the eye which is shaft-streaked with lighter green.  The nuchal band is greenish yellow or yellow.  Upper breast feathers are yellow, narrowly edged with orange; the abdomen is dark green, and the sides and the thighs are dark green and yellow.

Forecrown and cheeks green streaked with violet-blue; yellow breast feathers (some with orange margins); yellow underwing coverts, sometimes marked with orange.  In some cases, the yellow feathers of the breast are narrowly margined with orange in the male and with green in the female.

Literature