The golden-mantled racket-tail (''Prioniturus platurus'') is a species of

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

in the family

Psittaculidae Psittaculidae is a family containing Old World parrots. It consists of five subfamilies: Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae. This family has been accepted into ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World' ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

up to an altitude of about .

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognised. The nominate subspecies ''P. p. platurus'' occurs in

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Togian The Togian (or Togean) Islands are an archipelago of 56 islands and many offshore islets, situated in the Gulf of Tomini, off the coast of Central Sulawesi, in Indonesia. The largest islands are Batudaka, Togean, Talatako and Una-Una. Ther ...

, Banggai and several other nearby islands, ''P. p. talautensis'' occurs in the

Talaud Islands The Talaud Islands (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Talaud'') also spelled Talaur or Talaut, are a group of islands situated about 225 miles (360 km) northeast of Sulawesi, in Indonesia, north-east of the Sangihe Islands. The Ta ...

and ''P. p. sinerubris'' occurs in Taliabu and

Mangole Mangoli or Mangole (Xulla Mangola - earlier name.) is a large island in the Sula Islands, which are part of North Maluku province in Indonesia. It is located at , east of Taliabu Island and north of Sanana Island. It has an area of 2,142.48 km2 ...

in the

Sula Islands The Sula Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Sula) is one of the regencies in North Maluku province of Indonesia. It covers a land area of 3,338.67 km2 and consists of two of the three large islands comprising the Sula Archipelago, together ...

. One of the places where this bird can be seen is the

Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve is a preserved area in the north of the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is in a mountainous, little-explored region and contains a large number of indigenous plants and animals. Geography The Gunung Ambang Nature R ...

on Sulawesi.

Description

Adult golden-mantled racket-tails are about long and weigh about . The male is mainly green with a rose red spot surrounded by a grey blotch above the eye and an orange collar across the mantle. The underparts are pale green. The upper wing coverts are grey and the secondaries greenish-blue with yellowish inner margins. The central tail feathers are green near the base but elongated into "rackets", with bare shafts and black tips tinged with blue. The outer tail feathers are green with a black band near the tip. The female is similar but lacks the red spot and the orange collar, has greener upper wing coverts and has a shorter tail. The juvenile is similar to the female but does not have bare shafts to the tail feathers. The bill is grey and the iris dark brown. The call consists of various whistling notes which are slurred together making a musical whole. Other sounds emitted are harsh and guttural.

Behaviour

The golden-mantled racket-tail often forms small flocks. The diet consists of seeds and fruit found in the forest and the bird sometimes visits mango plantations to feed. Breeding takes place in October and holes in trees are used as nesting sites.

Status

The golden-mantled racket-tail has a wide range and is common within much of that range and the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has classified the bird as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

External links

Oriental Bird Images: ''Golden-mantled Racquet-tail''
Selected photos {{Taxonbar, from=Q1267335 golden-mantled racket-tail Endemic birds of Sulawesi golden-mantled racket-tail Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot