Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot

The Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot is a small parrot which is a resident endemic breeder in Sri Lanka. It undergoes local movements, driven mainly by the availability of the fruit, seeds, buds and blossoms that make up its diet.

Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot is a bird of open forest. It is strictly arboreal, never descending to the ground. It nests in holes in trees, laying 2-3 white eggs.

This is a small, mainly green hanging parrot, only 14 cm long with a short tail. The adult has a red crown, rump and bill, and an orange tint to its back.

Immature birds lack the orange hue to the back, have a duller rump, and have only a hint of orange on the crown.

Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot is less gregarious than some of its relatives, and is usually alone or in small groups outside the breeding season. Its flight is swift and direct, and the call is a sharp whistled twiwittwit..twitwitwit.

In Culture

In Sri Lanka, this bird is known as Gira Maliththa or Pol Girwa in Sinhala Language. Hanging Parrot appears in a 15c Sri Lankan postal stamp,