Eastern Rosella - breeding

Eastern Rosella
Platycerus eximius (Shaw)

Description: head, upper breast and under tail-coverts red; cheeks white; lower breast yellow becoming yellowish-green on belly, dark edges on lower breast and abdomen feathers. Nape, back and shoulders black with yellowish green edging; inner median of wing-coverts black; blue on outer median and secondary-coverts; lower back and upper tail pale green with fine dark edges; outer tail feathers dark green with blue edging; bill light grey horn; eyes iris dark brown; feet grey.
Size: 12 inches (30 cms)

In The Wild Native to Australia, central and southern New South Wales across Victoria to southeast section of South Australia; it has now been introduced to the North Island of New Zealand.

As Domestic Birds
Breeding : These birds breed in captivity, but avoid housing other Platycerus species in an adjoining flight. Clutch size is normally 5-7 eggs, incubation taking 20-21 days; fledging around 35 days.

Diet: Mixed seed diet including various millets and some weed seeds (chickweed and dandelion), oats etc. Various fruit and vegetables especially apple, carrot, elderberry add a few sprouted sunflower seeds for rearing.

As Pets: They have to be handled a lot otherwise they quickly become flighty and even aggressive. Young birds which have been taken straight from fledging make the best pets, they must have lots of handling to become really tame. They are worth the effort as they make nice pets which are not noisy.