Australian King-Parrot

Alisterus scapularis

Family: Psittacidae (Parrots, 40 species in Australia)
Size: 42 cm
Distribution: Within about 300 km of the coast of NSW and most of VIC and Southern QLD
Status: Common
Habitat: Moist, tall forests, and adjacent farmlands. Orchards, parks and gardens in autumn and winter
References: Simpson and Day, Reader's Digest

The Australian King-Parrot is a fairly common bird in some parts of the Blue Mountains, but not seen nearly as often as the Crimson Rosella. They are larger than rosellas and the sexes are obviously different.

The male (pictured below) has a red head while the female has a green head and does not have the "fluoro" bright green stripe on the side like the male does.

Australian King-Parrot - Alisterus scapularis
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (1750 x 2735)

Australian King-Parrot - Alisterus scapularis
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (2000 x 2967)

Australian King-Parrot - Alisterus scapularis
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (1899 x 1488)

Some Birdwatching Resources

Know Your Birds, by Louise Egerton - Australian King-Parrot - Alisterus scapularis NEW: Know Your Birds, by Louise Egerton.

Revised edition 3 July 2019. Paperback / softback, 176 pages. It has an orange cover. The original edition was 2005 and has a blue cover. Some of the book sellers listed here show the photo from the original/older blue cover edition, but the rest of the info (including the publication date and ISBN) are from the newer revised 2019 edition, so presumably that's the one you'll get.

This book has very high quality large photographs of the birds (as in actual photographs). Most of the photos take up a whole page for each bird photograph. "Know Your Birds" only has a selection of the most common birds, and not all the birds that are found in Australia. This makes it very good for beginners — since most of the field guides have all the birds — and it can be confusing looking at six almost identical species of birds, not knowing that five of them are rare and it's probably the common one that you're looking for. Which would be the only one listed in this book.

Purchase from Australia (The Nile)

Purchase from Australia (Fishpond)

Purchase from Amazon.com.au (Australian Site)

See Also

Australian Bird Field Guides

Return to Australian Birds
Return to Site Map


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Australian King-Parrot - Alisterus scapularis

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