Double-eyed Fig-Parrot

Cyclopsitta diophthalma

Jacques Bernard Hombron and Honoré Jacquinot were the first to describe the species, in 1841.

Cyclopsitta combines Cyclops, a race of one-eyed Sicilian giants in Greek mythology, with psitta from Latin, meaning parrot; diophthalma is drawn from Greek and means two-eyed. Although the names seem contradictory, the name Cyclops is based on the Greek kuklops, meaning round-faced, and diophthalma is a reference to the two dark blue spots, between the eyes of some subspecies, that vaguely resemble eyes.

Herbert Goodchild, Opopsitta leadbeateri (Blue-faced lorilet);
Opopsitta coxeni (Red-faced Lorilet) 1916 –1917

Author’s note: These two lorilets are now regarded as the one species, Cyclopsitta diophthalma. The adult female (top, behind) and the adult male (top, front) belong to the subspecies macleayana; the adult male (bottom, behind) and the adult female (bottom, front) belong to the subspecies coxeni.

John Gould (artist), Henry Constantine Richter (lithographer),
Cyclopsitta coxeni (Coxen’s Parrakeet) 1869 (adult female, left; adult male, right)

Author’s note: John Gould named Cyclopsitta coxeni after his brother-in-law, Charles Coxen, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland and a keen ornithologist. Gould realised that there were very similar species on the islands to Australia’s north, and the bird is now considered to be one of eight subspecies of Cyclopsitta diophthalma, three of which occur in Australia: marshalli in the far north of Queensland; macleayana in central Queensland; and the rare coxeni of northern New South Wales.