Crimson Rosella

Platycercus elegans

Johann Friedrich Gmelin was the first to describe the species, in 1788.

Platycercus combines the Greek platus (broad or flat) and kerkos (tail); elegans means elegant in Latin.

John Gould (artist), Henry Constantine Richter (lithographer), Platycercus pennantii (Pennant’s Parrakeet) 1848

 (immature, top; adult, bottom)

Sarah Stone, Pennantian Parrot 1790

Author’s note: This is the first published illustration of the species. Thomas Pennant was a renowned Welsh naturalist. Joseph Banks gave him some of the specimens collected on the Endeavour in 1770, including, perhaps, the Crimson Rosella that Gmelin described.

John and Elizabeth Gould, Platycercus adelaidiae
(Adelaide Parrakeet) 1848 (adult, top; immature, bottom).

John and Elizabeth Gould, Platycercus flaveolus (Yellow-rumped Parrakeet) 1848 (adult)

Author’s note: Gould’s Adelaide Parrakeet and Yellow-rumped Parrakeet are no longer considered to be separate species. They are now recognised as subspecies of the Crimson Rosella: Platycercus elegans adelaidae (at the westernmost extent of the Crimson Rosella’s range—from Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Mt Lofty Ranges and thereabouts) and Platycercus elegans flaveolus (at the most inland of the Crimson Rosella’s range—along the rivers approaching the junction of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales).