This lovely green parrot would have qualified as one of the 60-odd species of ENDEMIC birds of the Philippines (i.e. species found nowhere else in the world) were it not for a small colony that live and breed among the casuarina trees on Tanjung Aru Beach in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Borneo)! So now it is relegated to a mere NEAR-ENDEMIC! Many believe that this group of birds in Kota Kinabalu are actually descended from pet birds brought over from the Philippines as they are very popular pets there.The photo on top was in fact that of a pet caged bird taken in Zamboanga City by Ken using a Nikon Coolpix digital camera when he was only 5 years old (in May 2005)! He had stuck the lens in between the cage wires and snapped this perfectly sharp shot. When I received the photo by email I just digitally removed the background and signs of the cage and add a frame. I also thought it's a photo of one of the small hanging parrots, (called Colasisi in the Philippines) which are also popular cage birds, until a well-known Filipino bird photographer pointed out to me that it's a Blue-naped Parrot! (How embarrassing!)
I have since gone to Tanjung Aru Beach and successfully taken some shots of this once-endemic beauty of the P. I. They seem to be doing well there, with quite a large number of them to be seen busily and very noisily, squawking loudly, flying from tree to tree and building nests in crevices on the trees oblivious to the bathers and picnickers below.
Photo of one of the Tanjung Aru birds >
