Blue-cheeked Rosella Crimson

The Crimson Rosella, officially the Blue-cheeked Rosella Crimson, is crimson and blue.

The scientific name for the Crimson Rosella is Platycercus elgans. The crimson version lives in south eastern Australia along the coast from Adelaide around to Brisbane and some distance inland. There is a yellow version of the Blue Cheeked Rosella living in the drier inland parts of Victoria and a cross, an orange version, around Adelaide. Other varieties of Rosella live in the same area and continue along the northern coast of Australia.

Crimson Rosellas eat seeds, insects, and some flower blossoms. Insects provide protein. Flowers provide protein in the pollen and water in the nectar. You can attract them to your table with bird seed but, and a this is important, give them clean feed on a clean plate for every feed. There are diseases that pass from bird to bird in wet food. If one infected bird eats from your feeding plate, the infection can live in anything damp on the plate and pass easily to the next bird. Place only a small amount of seed on the plate then clean the plate before the next set of birds fly in. You can use several plates and rotate them through your dishwasher.

There are special bird seed mixes for parrots. Vary the food by adding slices of fruit. Do not feed every day because the bird population will expand to fit the food supply then they will starve when you go on holidays. Feed them for a couple of days then leave a gap of a few days. They will remember to fly past every day looking for food.

The following picture shows an adult Crimson Rosella.

The following picture shows a juvenile Crimson Rosella with some of the green feathers used for camouflage.