Current view: Data table and detailed info
Taxonomic note
Trichoglossus iris (Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International 2020) was previously listed as Psitteteules iris (del Hoyo et al. 2014).
Schweizer et al. (2015) demonstrate that iris belongs in Trichoglossus, as Rosemary Low has always judged (‘Iris… is clearly a Trichoglossus in behaviour’: Low 2016: 99).
If there was a reason for grouping the three species together under the name Psitteuteles, it appears to be because they exclusively possess a bright red crown. No member of Trichoglossus does so, although Pohnpei Lorikeet T. rubiginosus has a dark red base colour that includes the crown. Apart from this, however, all three Psitteuteles are rather divergent from each other:
· P. versicolor has an orange bill, broad white eye-ring and nares, yellow ear-coverts, green rest of body covered in bold yellow streaks and with a continuous pale dull blue around the throat, postocular area, necksides and hindcollar and a vague reddish wash to the upper breast and lower collar;
· P. goldiei has a black bill, purplish-red ear-coverts, lower face and throat, blackish-blue postocular line forming a band across the nape, green-streaked pale yellowish-green underparts, necksides and broad hindcollar, and darkish-green rest of plumage;
· P. iris has an orange bill, continuous purplish-blue postocular line and ear-coverts, greenish-yellow hindcollar bordered below by pale bright green lower hindcollar continuous with necksides, lower face and throat, yellowish-green underparts with vague dark narrow dark green bars across the breast, and green upperparts.
Apart from the red crown and the green base plumage colour, the only character that P. versicolor has in common with P. iris is the orange bill, and the only character that P. goldiei has with P. iris is the postocular darkish blue (although this continues to different areas) and, perhaps, the reddish throat that is vaguely present in P. r. rubropileum and P. i. wetterensis.
Notably, whereas P. versicolor and P. goldiei are both heavily streaked (albeit very different colours), P. iris has a muted pattern of transverse bars on the breast, and this character allies it with all species of Trichoglossus, even Olive-headed Lorikeet T. euteles, the underparts of which are plain yellowish-green but show (at least in some specimens) an extremely vague broad barring involving slightly more olive colour. Moreover, P. iris has the pale greenish-yellow hindcollar shown by most members of the Rainbow Lorikeet T. haematodus complex. The continuous purplish-blue postocular line and ear-coverts is shared with T. ornatus while, viewed ventrally, P. iris is most similar, among all species of Psitteuteles and Trichoglossus, to P. euteles, with which it co-occurs on Timor (elevationally separate). Schweizer et al. (2015) find a close link between T. iris and T. ornatus.
Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2020. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
not a migrant |
Forest dependency |
medium |
| Land-mass type |
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification: Described by Eaton et al. (2021) as 'uncommon'. Although mapped as occurring over a large area, its abundance is locally highly varied, being reported in numbers of 25-200 at some sites, but nearly absent in others (e.g. the species is evidently rare in the far east of Timor-Leste, with C. Trainor (in litt. 2024) reporting only 1-2 records over c. 200 days), especially areas without Eucalyptus. Numbers at least locally may be suppressed by trapping pressure, but this does not appear to be a large threat to this species. The area of suitable habitat across its range is between 6,000-8,000 km2, depending on the habitat classes included in the calculation (Jung et al. 2020), but it is suspected that birds are somewhat nomadic in response to the availability of flowering trees. Based on surveys in the 1990s, Juniper and Parr (1998) estimated a population of 'around 10,000 birds'. Out of an abundance of caution, a population size of 7,500-20,000 mature individuals is estimated here to incorporate the suggestion of Juniper and Parr (1998), but also to allow for the possibility (considered likely) that their suggestion was overly pessimistic.
Trend justification: No direct population trend is available for this species, but it is precautionarily thought to be declining in response to habitat loss and perhaps some trapping pressure. Remote sensing data indicate that forest cover loss within this species' range reduced by c. 5-7% over the past three generations (16.2 years), which increases to 7-9% if higher elevations (where this species appears scarce) are removed from the calculations (Global Forest Watch 2024, based on data from Hansen et al. 2013 and methods therein). The impact on this species is not well understood, however it is precautionarily suspected to have a near-equal impact; notwithstanding this species' use of flowering trees in heavily degraded environments, the loss of potential nesting trees is likely to reduce carrying capacity over time. It bears mention that almost all these losses have come from Timor, with Wetar's largely impenetrable forests remaining almost entirely intact over the past three generations. Trapping is plausibly compounding these declines, with birds observed for sale in West Timor and Dili (C. Trainor in litt. 2024) and there is emerging evidence of international trade in the species (Emerson et al. 2022, Donald et al. 2024). Precautionarily, declines over the past three generations are suspected to fall in the range of 5-19%. In the absence of suitable conservation measures, rates of population decline are suspected to be the same in the future.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Iris Lorikeet Trichoglossus iris. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/iris-lorikeet-trichoglossus-iris on 23/11/2024.
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 23/11/2024.
