Cinnamon Scaly-breasted Lorikeets


Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Trichoglossus Chlorolepidotus, is a medium sized lorikeet (22cm to 25cm in length).
Colour is an overall green, feathers on chest and shoulders edged in yellow giving a scaled appearance, tail green and green/yellow under, blue tinge on head (more prominent in male), underwing red, beak red, eyes red/orange.
Young birds have lighter orange beak and light grey ring in eye that develops into an orange ring as they get older.
About one in every four to six Scaleys will be of the Olive variety. Less common are Lutino, Yellow and Cinnamon types and extremely rare are blue Scalys.

These pages of our web site are to provide images of our cinnamon scaly lorikeets. We were very fortunate to obtain a breeding pair where the hen was either a yellow, cinnamon or mustard, and we were also able to purchase seven of her offspring, five greens and two olives. The two olive unfortunately escaped from their aviary and two of the greens (a hen and cock) were separately sold. This hen also disappeared before we could raise any chicks from her.
The remaining three greens have been paired up with other birds that have come from other lutino hens. One pair started breeding in June 2001 but as yet the other two pair have not.
Colour mutations gives a simplified explanation of how our original pair of Scalies produced their various coloured offspring.
Later in 2001 the other greens were sold leaving us with just this one pair that produce cinnamon chicks. It is this one breeding pair that have now produced four greens and two cinnamons.
Each time they have laid two fertile eggs:
August 2001 saw the first cinnamon chick hatch along with a normal green. This cinnamon has yellow plumage overlaid with light (lime) coloured green;
October 2001 one chick died while hatching, the other is much more yellow coloured cinnamon with very sparse green over the yellow plumage;
December 2001, again one chick died while hatching, the other was a green;
Two more chicks hatched in late March 2002. Both survived and are greens.

In April 2002 an opportunity arose to obtain two adult yellow/cinnamon hens along with a male that was described as green with a yellow back. A pair of greens that were the parents of one of these yellpw hens was also obtained. It is most likely that the male green is a split cinnamon, assuming sex-linked colour gene inheritence rules apply here.
Also, after a visit to another breeders aviaries, where there was a cinnamon hen paired with a grey-green (olive) male who had produced two chicks, it was agreed to purchase these as any male chick will likely be split cinnamon - again assuming the sex-linked rules, this will introduce another blood line.
When the five scalies arrived the peculiar male was indeed mostly normal green but with an overlaying, somewhat patchy, of yellow feathers through his tail and mostly on the back of his body and wings. I am guessing this is indeed a cinnamon male. He appears to be attracted to one of the yellow/ cinnamon hens and spends most of his time near her although she is not completely interested in him yet. This yellow/cinnamon hen has raised young before but she was paired with a rainbow lorikeet, the breeder may have been trying to introduce the yellow gene to rainbows. Hopefully these two will get together and produce yellow/cinnamon chicks.


29 May 2000.
Today a new squadron of Scalies arrived. A four year old breeding pair with a yellow (or possibly mustard or cinnamon) female and a normal green male, and five of their offspring between a 5 months and a year old, all normal green scalies.
This is the first yellow, cinnamon or possibly mustard Scaly we have seen. None of her offspring have been yellow/cinnamon with all being either normal greens or olives.


May 2001.
Sadly this month we lost our yellow female Scaly. She had been nesting and sitting on two eggs so had not been missed for several days. Eventually when the nestbox was inspected she was not there. We are not quite sure what has happened to her, she may have escaped unnoticed.


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September to December 2001
Much to our complete surprise we were told that one of two baby Scalies that were just hatched in the last few days of July 2001 was going to be different to the usual green or olive type.
This was after posting 3 day old baby pictures on the Lorylink mailing list. Although the babies eyes are closed there was a very distinct red colour to the skin covering the eyes of one baby.
The biggest surprise with this is that the parents are both normal green Scalies although each has come from a yellow hen. (we are not sure if these were actually Lutino, Cinnamon or Yellow). The green hen came from our cinnamon hen which was lost earlier this year.

Once its eyes were open it obviously had bright red eyes and as it developed the feathers were not coming out the normal green or olive colours. Instead of being the expected yellow colour there was a mix of lime green coloured and yellow feathers with tinges of red around the head. After further mailing list messages it was suggested this bird was a cinnamon or cinnamon mutation. This is apparently quite unusual. This bird is now almost fully grown and is in excellent health.


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September to December 2001
..and again! The pair of green Scalies that produced the cinnamon have done it again. Another baby with red eyes but as it developed during November and December 2001 it becamse clear that this one was indeed much more yellow than the first cinnamon tched several weeks ago. However, it is another cinnamon or cinnamon mutation.
This baby was removed from its parents after two weeks as they appeared to be only partially feeding it. It was immediately placed in an incubator with a same age baby Yellow-bib and they kept each other company. This cinnamon has now fully developed to a beautiful quite yellow cinnamon adult with tinges of red in it tail feathers and hints of red on its face and chest areas.


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April 2002
Below are images of the two new yellow/cinnamons we obtained this month and the green/yellow cock bird. The two yellows are hens, one has red eyes and both have a very slight green tinge on their heads and backs - proving hey are not pure yellows or lutinos. There is distinct red on the face of each below their eyes and around the beaks. Red tinges can also be seen in the tail feathers and chest areas.


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Last modified: 21 April 2002.