Turquoise parrot

Pair flight cage

48 × 24 × 30 in, bar spacing 1/2 in

Small Australian grass parrot — keep as compatible pairs. Provide horizontal flight, varied natural perches, ground feeding area (they feed on the ground in the wild), and a draft-free room. Turquoise parrots are quiet and gentle.

Long flight cage or indoor flight

72 × 30 × 36 in flight cage

Six-ft horizontal flight gives real flying length, foraging on the ground, and a calm setting. Avoid mixing with aggressive parakeet species during breeding season.

Outdoor aviary

10 × 3 × 6 ft outdoor aviary

Walk-in planted aviary with frost-free shelter, ground-foraging substrate, and bathing. Turquoise parrots breed reliably and look stunning in spacious aviary life.

Birds develop inside a hard-shelled egg incubated by the parent(s). Egg size, shell color, and clutch size vary by species; the embryo develops over days to weeks before hatching.

Hatchlings are either altricial — naked, blind, and dependent on parents (typical of parrots and songbirds) — or precocial — downy, mobile, and self-feeding soon after hatching (typical of poultry and waterfowl). Down gives way to the first feathers.

Fledglings grow in their juvenile plumage and begin to fly and feed themselves, though they may still beg from parents at first. Juvenile feathering is often duller than the adult and is replaced as the bird matures.

Adults attain full body size and mature plumage, and are capable of breeding. Many species show distinct adult coloration, and in sexually dimorphic birds males and females differ in plumage, size, or markings.

(c) Will Cornwell, some rights reserved (CC BY) via iNaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/340105450

representative

Red-fronted / Red-bellied

Some wild and bred males show an extended red patch across the belly/breast; selective breeding has fixed strongly red-bellied lines.

Tip: Red expression is largely a cock-bird trait — pair a heavily red-bellied male to unrelated hens to build the line, and feed a varied seed/softfood diet so the red doesn't wash out.

representative

Yellow (Opaline)

A widespread mutation producing a predominantly yellow bird, often with red wing/belly markings intensified; one of the most popular turquoisine morphs.

Tip: Opaline is sex-linked recessive — a single split-cock paired to a hen lets you sex visual-yellow hens at fledging, which simplifies pairing for beginners.

representative

Pied

An irregular mutation producing patches of yellow/pale feathering scattered through the green plumage.

Tip: Pied is variable and not health-linked, but avoid pairing two heavily-marked pieds repeatedly — over-selection for maximum pied can reduce fledging vigor in some lines.

representative

Cinnamon

A sex-linked dilution turning black melanin to warm brown and softening the overall coloration.

Tip: Cinnamon chicks have plum-colored (not black) eyes in the nest, letting you ID them early; the diluted plumage fades faster in sun, so shade the aviary's perching zone.