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Everything Else Bonaire: Loras Loras Everywhere...Even Blue Ones!
Bonaire Talk: Everything Else Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999 - 2004: Archives - 2002-12-02 to 2003-04-29: Loras Loras Everywhere...Even Blue Ones!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter (Moderator - Post #4173) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 4:50 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Linda and I found our conversation nearly drowned out by bird squawks and coos yesterday evening thanks to a large flock of Loras positioned across the street. Loras are Bonaire's resident parrot - Amazonis Lorensis, I believe - the red shouldered amazon parrot (I may be wrong on the details - don't have my Bonaire bird book handy).

As we were leaving for a BBQ at a friend's house in a few minutes anyhow, we grabbed a camera and detoured our drive past the loras. Here's what we saw:

Lora sub-flock
These were in a tree/shrub right next to the road. There are at least four that I can see in this picture.

The whole Lora flock
In the full resolution version of this picture (2560x1920) I counted over 15 loras, including one oddly colored one.

See the blue Lora?
Here's a close-up of the so-called fabled "blue lora".

Kibrahacha
We also found the Kibrahacha in bloom once we made our way up to our friends (the Orlovskys, visiting from Milwaukee - Mark O. is an occasional BT poster), who are staying at a rented house in Sabadeco.

Lizard Eye
And while not a bird, here's another cool shot from yesterday evening.
Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter (Moderator - Post #4174) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 4:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sorry for the larger picture sizes but I wanted to make sure to provide as much detail as possible (You may notice some of the images are also larger than 50KB - good to be a moderator sometimes :-) ).

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Martin de Weger (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2353) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 4:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Nice Pictures Jake. In the first picture I count 5 birds...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3190) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 7:33 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jake..great pictures! You know I love them! A Blue Lora! got to research that one!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susan Taft (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #158) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 8:34 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Beautiful pictures Jake! Just what I needed to take my mind off the snow and ice we got this weekend with more promised for tomorrow. I'll be looking at these often! Susan

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michelle Mouton (BonaireTalker - Post #72) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 9:07 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Wow - nice pics - Takes my mind off of the impending snow storm tonight and puts it right back into Bonaire!
Michelle

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1387) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 10:24 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

This discussion reminds a New Englander of blue lobster (Yeah, I know...). Genetic quirks in singular individuals produce various degrees of blue, some quite bright, with less or none of the red/dark green usual natural color. Loras similar??

This reminds me that I have never heard what color a blue lobster turns when cooked. (Yeah, I know...) A natural question for a scientific curiosity which enjoys steamed lobster so much. Any answers?? The local Norwalk Aquarium and the New England Aquarium occasionally are given blues by lobstermen. The aquarists claim they don't eat the lobsters that die in their tanks because they don't know the cause. Yeah, sure!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole Baker (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2254) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 10:57 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Beautiful shots of beautiful subjects, Jake. Must be nice to hear such lovely creatures outside your door. Thanks again. Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By bob neer (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #913) on Sunday, April 6, 2003 - 11:35 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

must be spring in bonaire ;)

whatever,

thanks for the pics ;)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marc @ CrystalVisions (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #960) on Monday, April 7, 2003 - 12:44 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Great shots Jake... 2 Comments:
- I believe the english name is yellow shouldered amazon?
- The blue one... it doesn't appear in any of the wildlife books I have on the Antilles, as far as I can remember. Maybe it's an escaped domestic parrot?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Richter - NetTech (Moderator - Post #1387) on Monday, April 7, 2003 - 12:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

The latest guess on the origin of the Blue Lora is that it is a Lora that for some reason lacks the Yellow pigment. There were several article in the Bonaire Reporter back a couple months when the Lora count was being done.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marc @ CrystalVisions (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #962) on Monday, April 7, 2003 - 1:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

That would make sense... green - yellow = blue, I learned that in kindergarten :-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By sherry baker (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #456) on Monday, April 7, 2003 - 4:00 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

so the blue parrot may be a color phase, just like albino is an absent of color?.. just missing the yellow. that is cool. has anyone ever seen an albino parrot there? i am sure it would be rare as albino's usually are.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter (Moderator - Post #4176) on Monday, April 7, 2003 - 4:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Marc - yep - you're right - Bonairean yellow shouldered parrot.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marc @ CrystalVisions (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #966) on Tuesday, April 8, 2003 - 1:41 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

An albino parrot would have a fair chance of surviving here, since the island doesn't have any predators that would hunt it. I'd go to great lengths to get it in front of my telelens, if one was to be spotted!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kitty @ CrystalVisions (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #229) on Tuesday, April 8, 2003 - 4:51 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

There *would* be one type of predator for that albino parrot: humans....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Karin van Veen (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #7) on Monday, April 21, 2003 - 9:07 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Albino parrots would have a lot of trouble with the sun, though!
The blue parrot looks definitely like it is lacking yellow pigment, its head is white too. I am not really into bird colour genetics, but I do know a lot about rodent/gerbil coat colour genetics (www.gerbil-info.com). I can ask a friend though, who is a parrot expert (biologist).

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter (Moderator - Post #4230) on Monday, April 28, 2003 - 11:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I happened to mention the blue Lora to a bird expert at Seaworld last week and she confirmed that albinism (lack of pigmentation) in birds can happen in just a single color.

Jake

 


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