Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species has a very small and declining range, but its population is not severely fragmented or restricted to a few locations. Its population trends are poorly known; however, it may undergo a population decline owing to the twin ravages of trapping and deforestation. For these reasons it is classified as Near Threatened.
Population justification
A field survey in 1993 on Yamdena Island, which represents c.55% of the species’s global range, revealed an estimated 220,000 ± 52,000 individuals (Jepsen et al. 2001). This roughly equates to 112,000-181,333 mature individuals, rounded here to 112,000-182,000 mature individuals.
Trend justification
The population is tentatively suspected to be in decline due to loss and degradation of its habitat and trapping for the cagebird trade, but the trend has not been estimated directly. Tracewski et al. (2016) measured the forest loss within the species’s range between 2000 and 2012 as c. 58 km2. This roughly equates to a rate of forest loss of 4.5% over three generations (21 years) for the species. Blue-streaked Lory seems to prefer secondary forest and plantations over primary forest (Collar and Boesman 2019), so forest loss alone may not drive a significant population decline. The species is caught for the cagebird trade, albeit at low numbers (Shepherd et al. 2004, Shepherd 2006, Chng et al. 2016). At the moment, there is no strong quantification of the extent to which capture for trade is driving declines in this species. Overall, it is currently not possible to estimate a population trend, although the species is tentatively considered to be undergoing a decline.
Eos reticulata is restricted to the Banda Sea Islands Endemic Bird Area, Indonesia, where it is occurs on the eastern Lesser Sundas. The majority of the population is found on the Tanimbar Islands of Yamdena, Larat and possibly Babar (BirdLife International 2001, Trainor and Verbelen 2013). A small number of records from Damar, Kai Kecil and Kai Kesar islands are attributed to introduced individuals (Collar and Boesman 2019).
Blue-streaked Lory is locally common, particularly on the coast where it favours secondary forest, coconut plantations and mangroves (Juniper and Parr 1998, Collar and Boesman 2019). The species is apparently less common in primary forest further inland (Collar and Boesman 2019). Little else is known about the species’s ecology (Juniper and Parr 1998).
The species is threatened by trapping for the cagebird trade and habitat destruction. In the period 1983-1989, over 3,000 individuals were recorded in trade per year. However, field surveys found the species to be still common, and past catch-rates were deemed unlikely to have caused population declines. Tracewski et al. (2016) measured the forest loss within the species’s range between 2000 and 2012 as c. 58 km2. This roughly equates to a rate of forest loss of 4.5% over three generations (21 years) for the species. Blue-streaked Lory seems to prefer secondary forest and plantations over primary forest (Collar and Boesman 2019), so forest loss alone may not drive a significant population decline.
Conservation Actions Underway
CITES Appendix II.
Text account compilers
Taylor, J., Elliott, N., Westrip, J., Benstead, P., Hermes, C., Mahood, S.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Blue-streaked Lory Eos reticulata. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/blue-streaked-lory-eos-reticulata on 26/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 26/12/2024.