Chattering Lory

About the Chattering Lory

The chattering lory (Lorius garrulus) is a forest-dwelling parrot endemic to North Maluku, Indonesia. It is considered vulnerable, the main threat being from trapping for the cage-bird trade. The race L. g. flavopalliatus is known as the yellow-backed lory.

The chattering lory was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Psittacus garrulus. The specific epithet garrulus is Latin and means "chattering", "babbling" or "noisy". Linnaeus cited "The Scarlet Lory" that had been described and illustrated in 1751 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his book A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. The specimen had been brought to London from the East Indies and Edwards was able to make a drawing of the live bird at the home of the Whig politician Robert Walpole. Linnaeus designated the species locality as "Asia", but this is now taken to be the island of Halmahera in the Maluku Islands. The chattering lory is now placed in the genus Lorius that was introduced in 1825 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors.

Three subspecies are recognised: L. g. flavopalliatus Salvadori 1877... Wikipedia →