Bourke's parrot

an original among the grass parrots

With its very subtle colours of pink, blue and brown, the Bourke’s parrot does not catch the eye immediately unlike most of the Neophemas which mix brilliant red, green, blue and yellow … but it is not less attractive for those who are able to have a closer look at it and appreciate its attractive pastel colouring and it deserves its place in our aviaries for several reasons. Very quiet, sociable, non aggressive towards other birds, easily quite tame and familiar with its owner, it has a charming sweet and soft twittering, also easy to house and feed and more often a good brood hen… all that makes it an ideal bird for the beginner as for the experienced breeders who can also add some attractive mutations to their collection.
Green as predominant colour in body is typical in most of the Neophemas. But the Bourke is different as it does not have green as its basic colour in the wild type and it produces brown melanin rather than black, although it still has some black melanin in the flights, obvious in the opaline mutation, and the foreground melanin produces markings comparable to those of the Budgerigar, which is found in Pshephotus genus, overall it has never hybridized with any Neophema species. Consequently it has been classified in a monotypic genus called Neopsephotus, between Neophema and Psephotus.  

Forshaw (1977 edition) indicates 19 cm for size which seems a bit low as good show specimens should reach 23 cm. It is not easy to describe, as it does not have coloured areas strictly defined (as Neophema) but a range of varied and changing pastel colours specially in front from throat to abdomen.
Blue line in forehead and above the eyes in males, white forehead and reduced blue line in females. Lores and periophthalmic region dusky white. In front part of cheeks each feather is whitish (sometimes slightly pinkish), finely edged with brown, white becoming pink towards the back of the head and blue towards the chin.

Throat and breast pink with mottled brown, the pink  increasing to pure pink on chest and abdomen. Nape is brown slightly tinged with pink, olive brown mantle and wings feathers lightly edged in pale brown, bend of wing and outer webs of primaries violet-blue, undertail, flanks and sides of rump blue. Under wings coverts blue, wing stripe absent in males, present in females. The tail is dark brown washed with blue, lateral feathers tipped with white.
The female is not as richly coloured as the male, very few blue on front, no blue over the eye,  pink colour slightly paler on body.

The immatures are similar to the hen , duller coloured, with a pale horn  beak, but  young cocks sometimes show some blue tinge very early in nest.
It is noticeable that we find less pure wild coloured birds in our aviaries and that is important to encourage breeders to keep a good stock free of any mutation. Increasing mutations and their mixing can end in less typical birds with a doubtful genotype.