Crimson Rosella

Overview

The Crimson Rosella is found in forests, woodlands, and parks across southeastern Australia, often in cooler, wetter forest types than some other rosellas. It is notable for retaining a green juvenile plumage phase before molting into the deep red adult coloring.

• Long, graduated tail typical of rosellas
• Blue cheek patch rather than white
• Juveniles show a markedly different green-and-red plumage

Feather Identification

Adult body feathers are a deep crimson red across the head, neck, and underparts, with blue on the cheeks, wing coverts, flight feathers, and tail. Back feathers are black, broadly edged in red, giving a scalloped pattern similar in structure to the Eastern Rosella but in red-and-black rather than yellow-green-and-black.

• Flight feathers: Blue primaries and secondaries
• Tail feathers: Long, blue, and graduated
• Cheek patch: Blue, not white, separating it from the Eastern Rosella

The deep crimson body combined with blue (rather than white) cheeks is the clearest way to identify adult feathers of this species; juveniles present a very different mostly-green plumage that gradually converts to red with successive molts.

Sexes look alike in adult plumage. Juveniles are strikingly different, showing mostly green body plumage with patches of red beginning to appear, and this green-to-red transition continues over one to several molts before full adult crimson coloring is reached. This extended immature plumage phase is unusual among rosellas.

This species favors wetter forest types, including eucalypt forest, woodland, and adjacent parks and gardens, across southeastern Australia. It is largely resident, with some altitudinal movement in mountainous parts of its range during colder months.

Crimson Rosellas forage both on the ground and in trees for seeds, fruit, and blossoms. They nest in tree hollows, with the female incubating and both parents feeding the young. Calls include a distinctive ringing, bell-like whistle as well as more chattering contact notes, often heard from pairs moving through forest canopy.