Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot and Hanging Parrot Philippine

Hanging Parrot, Philippine Hanging Parrot, Loriculus Philippensis, Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot

In 2004 I learnt that ornithologists from the Field Museum in Chicago were going to describe a new form of the Philippine Hanging Parrot Loriculus philippensis. They had noticed that specimens from the small island of Camiguin taken in the 1960s were apparently different from nearby Mindanao’s race apicalis to which they had hitherto been assigned. Male specimens from Camiguin lack the red throat-spot typical of these hanging-parrots. Moreover, Camiguin birds have distinctly longer tails and wings, the blue part of the cheek is more extensive, the red on the top of the head goes less far down the neck, and the green body plumage is darker, less yellowish, than in apicalis.

Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot

All in all the Field Museum team had 23 specimens at their disposal, of which only four were female. Of course, theoretically there was the possibility that the 19 males were wrongly sexed or were young birds, but this seemed rather improbable. According to the team’s analyses, the Camiguin birds were, in fact, a new species. Their main argument was that the geographical location of the island and its proximity to Mindanao could not have generated such distinct morphological differences unless the population had been isolated for a very long time. If it had been just a normal subspecies, its coloration would have to have been between L. p. worcesteri on Bohol and Leyte and L. p. apicalis on Mindanao, which are the neighbouring populations to the north and south of Camiguin.

 I was not entirely sure whether the males really did not differ from the females, since on a trip to the Philippine islands of Luzon, Leyte and Samar in December–January 2004–2005 I had indeed seen males which could be identified by the red throatspot but, strangely, with the locals I had only seen females and males that had no full colouring. In one of the bird markets in Manila I even discovered a cage with about 50 Philippine Hanging Parrots, among which there was not a single full-coloured male. So I quickly decided that on my next trip to
the Philippines, on which I was planning to search for racquet-tails Prioniturus, I would have to make a trip to Camiguin. This I did in January this year. Before I left the Chicago team sent me a first draft of their planned description and a request to check their data in the field, and if possible to check out the current status of the population.

After arriving at Benoni harbour I found a place at the Highland Resort, one of the few hotels not directly on the beach. Hanging parrots were unknown there, however, but the manager immediately found me a local security guard who knew every corner of the island. Over the next five days we visited even the last village in the interior of the island, questioned hundreds of people, and followed up every mention or indication of
hanging-parrot. The species was certainly well known on the island: I tracked down no fewer than 35 captive birds, practically all of them chained to a wooden perch in the Asian tradition a sad sight because although the chains were relatively thin their weight must have been a torment for the delicate parrots.

The trappers said that the parrots were mostly to be seen singly, in pairs or little family groups, and occasionally in flocks. Most of the time they perch in trees and bushes in search of food, greatly camouflaged by their plumage. They are shy birds, mostly only noticed when they give their highpitched call, a quickly repeated tziit-tziit-tziit. Their food consists of nectar, seeds (particularly wild bananas), soft fruit, berries and blossoms. As for breeding, I could only discover that it takes place from September to November. A native told me that he had repeatedly found nests in holes in dead tree-ferns.

Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrot

Population size
By looking at the contours on a map of Camiguin and subtracting the areas in which the parrot does
not occur, it quickly emerges that the species is confined to just 40 km², indeed possibly only 20 km². We know from experience that areas of this size can accommodate a few hundred up to a maximum of 2,000 individuals only. Research to establish the true situation is urgently needed because the parrots are being
caught in rather large quantities. In Itum village alone there are around 10 people who occasionally catch parrots, each of them taking around five animals a year, which altogether makes 50 birds.

But this figure is reached by one single catcher on the east coast of the island who specialises in Blue-Crowned hanging parrots and who had 14 animals when I met him. There are other catchers in Kabadiangan where I could have chosen from six birds on offer. Thus well over 100 hanging parrots per year must be caught. They are taken with decoys which they attach to a 3–4 m high pole. Below the top of the pole there are limed perches on which the wild birds are snared. The birds are mainly sold to Filipino tourists for whom Camiguin is a favourite destination.

One indication that the population has possibly already reached a critical limit is the appearance of a wild blue mutation. This was shown me by a dealer who gets his birds mainly from one of the trappers I met. The bird could possibly be a product of inbreeding depression to which the population is exposed.