A nice collection of hybrids between several parrot species.
This week reader Nico Rosseel send me a big collection of hybrid parrot pictures. All photographs show captive birds, and this is not that surprising. My Ibis paper on hybridization in birds – the paper that actually started this blog in 2015 – showed that captive hybrids are fairly common in the parrot order Psittaciformes.
The incidence of hybridization in birds. The size of the pie charts is proportional to the number of species in the respective Order. Colors indicate no hybridization (green), hybridization in nature (blue) and hybridization in captivity (red). The black arrow highlights the Psittaciformes. (adapted from Ottenburghs et al. 2015 Ibis)
But let’s have a look at Nico’s pictures. I have added photos of the parental species, so you can easily compare them to the hybrids.
Blue-and-yellow macaw x red-and-green macaw
The parental species: Blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and red-and-green macaw (A. chloptera)
And the hybrid.
Blue-and-yellow macaw x military macaw
The parental species: Blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) and military macaw (A. militaris)
And the hybrid.
Goffin’s cockatoo x citron-crested cockatoo
The parental species: Goffin’s cockatoo (Cacatua goffiana) and citron-crested cockatoo (C. sulphurea citrinocristata)
And the hybrid.
Cardinal lory x yellowish-streaked lory
The parental species: Cardinal lory (Pseudeos cardinalis) and yellowish-streaked lory (Chalcopsitta scintillata)
And the hybrid.
Red lory x rainbow lorikeet
The parental species: red lory (Eos rubra) and rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus)
And the hybrid
Meyer’s parrot x red-bellied parrot
The parental species: Meyer’s parrot (Poicephalus meyeri) x red-bellied parrot (P. rufiventris)
And the hybrid.
Many thanks to Nico for sharing these pictures. Feel free to contact me and send in your own hybrid observations. More information on hybridization in parrots can be found on the Psittaciformes page.
Avian Hybrids 
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I don’t know these individual birds, but I am willing to bet that the B&G x Military hybrid shown here is actually 75% B&G, a 2nd generation hybrid. I have never seen a “miligold” look anything like that. That bird has all the typical B&G traits, just with a little green on the back.
The Meyer’s x red-bellied hybrid also looks exactly like a red-bellied, without the slightest change, the same grey tone as the red-bellied, and no hint of yellow markings from the Meyer’s.