The Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot (Loriculus galgulus) is a small parrot found in South-east Asia from southern Thailand to Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
It Singapore they are more commonly found in the forest reserves, Singapore Botanical Gardens, and gardens where fruiting trees are present. There have been reports of sightings in the city centre but one is not likely to find them all that often there.
In my early days of birding, this was one of the harder to find species, and it took me quite some time before finally photographing a few of them at Malcolm Park. They were fond of the oil palm fruits and the African Tulip flowers that were abundant there. The problem with finding the birds are two-fold. They are small in size (13cm in length) and they are green, which meant that they are well camouflaged.
There are of course easy ways to find them if you know their behaviour. They are fond of ripe fruits. A fruiting rambutan tree, or oil palm or a myriad others ripe fruits in the garden tend to attract them. So houses with ripening fruit trees near the forest reserves are likely to have them around. The other give-away of their presence is the sound they make while flying. A very shrill and high pitch “tsi” that once you recognise, will indicate their presence nearby.
A very good place to see them flying about is Jelutong Tower at the Central Catchment Nature Reserves. Every morning, there will be little torpedo-like little green birds flying straight and rather low, with their calls emanating loudly. If you are lucky, they will perch on a nearby tree, giving you better views.
Below are some pictures in the gallery with more information on separating the sexes and also a video of a juvenile feeding on a bunch of African Tulip flowers.
Photo Gallery
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- A frontal view of the male. Very vivid green plumage, with a blue crown patch and red throat/breast area. In any patch of greenery where these parrots are found, it is always easier to find the more conspicuous male.
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- A side view of the male. Notice the bright yellow band across lower back.
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- A female in comparison has less vivid green plumage. The blue in the crown is weaker and lack the red patch on the throat/breast area.
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- It is amazing how its shape changes once it decides to stretch a bit.
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- A male at Malcolm Park perched on a thorn of the bunch of ripe oil palm fruits. My first sighting of this species.
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- A juvenile. Even duller than the female and the bill is horn coloured. Seen here eating an oil palm fruit.
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- This juvenile shows why it is called a Hanging Parrot. The bill is horn coloured and the legs are dullish yellow.
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- A composite flight shot of a single female and an out of focus male. You can see side by side the difference in vividness of their green plumage. They are remarkably difficult to photograph in flight.