By Rosemary Low
During the 1980s several species of lories and lorikeets were imported into Europe, which were virtually unknown in aviculture. These included four species of exquisite, elegant birds from New Guinea, the Red-flanked, Red-spotted, Josephine’s and Stella’s. Of these Stella’s and the Red-flanked (also called Pleasing) are established in Europe. The Red-spotted and Josephine’s Lorikeets perhaps no longer exist in the UK, but there are a small number of breeders in Europe.
I never had the Red-spotted in my care, but was enchanted with the other three species, by their beauty, playfulness and fascinating behaviour. Recently I perused an old file of notes and letters about the small lorikeets which I had assembled while writing my Encyclopedia of the Lories, published in 1998. It remains the largest work on one group of parrots ever written by a single person, as a result of my long and intense interest in these gorgeous birds.
In recent years there has been a lot of work on the taxonomy and phylogenetics of lorikeets and many species find themselves in a different genus! It can be quite hard to keep up with all these changes. The species formerly classified in the genus Charmosyna have now been split into two genera, with the species with red-body plumage retained in Charmosyna.