Jan Feb 2011, Volume 21 Issue 1

Natural History. Found in lowland forests, savanna,montane forest, mangroves and coconut plantations of southern New Guinea and the Aru Islands, the Yellow-streaked Lory is fairly common in the wild and abundant throughout its range. The Yellow-streaked Lory is one of the largest of all the lories.

The Hooded Parrot is one of Australia’s most beautiful birds. It is a bird from the top of Australia where the days are long and the sun has opportunity to show off the contrasting black hood against a predominantly iridescent turquoise blue body capped with golden yellow wing patches against a dark brown back. For me it is a picture perfect bird with a sleek profile and beautiful feathering.

The World Parrot Congress, held only every four years, is the largest parrot conference in the world and attracts a wide variety of delegates who speak many different languages and come from many different countries. This year in September 2010, about 650 parrot lovers descended on Tenerife in the Canary Islands to attend this prestigious conference with many highly respected “parrot people” lecturing on conservation, breeding, health and behaviour. The conference had been intended to be even larger with the first ever International Convention on the Conservation of Psittacidae: Science, Policy and Practice taking place over three days before the main congress began but unfortunately it was cancelled due to lack of registrations.