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Hi all,

I've been birding at Ulva Island today and I spotted a weird parakeet with forehead red and orange. I've roughly processed the photo and attached it below, and if any detailed photos are necessary I'm happy to attach them.

I cannot find details about such hybrid from my handbook and I'm not sure whether there's a weird juv. stage for parakeets. Thank everyone here for your help!

Cheers,
Geert

Geert

Your first guess is the right one. Its a hybrid red X yellow-crowned parakeet, not a juvenile. A bird like this often has a yellow, orange or red earspot but I can't tell if your bird has it or not with all the missing feathers there. They are present in low frequency wherever you get both species.

Ian

Ian Southey wrote: Sun Feb 08, 2026 9:07 pm Geert

Your first guess is the right one. Its a hybrid red X yellow-crowned parakeet, not a juvenile. A bird like this often has a yellow, orange or red earspot but I can't tell if your bird has it or not with all the missing feathers there. They are present in low frequency wherever you get both species.

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
Geert

I believe hybrids are quite frequent on Auckland Island, and I wonder about the situation on Ulva where Red-crowns are really quite abundant and Yellow-crowns seem to be increasingly difficult to find compared to when I first went there 30 years ago.