‘Masters’s Rosella Platycercus mastersianus’: An obscure intrageneric hybrid parrot reviewed, with two recent records from the wild

Abstract

Records of hybridisation between the Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans and Pale-headed Rosella P. adscitus in the wild are few and have few associated data. Only one undoubted museum specimen exists, named P. mastersianus (Masters’s Rosella) by Edward P. Ramsay in 1877. Records of this hybrid involve only the southern, nominate, subspecies of the Crimson Rosella P. e. elegans. The history of this hybrid in museum collections, in captivity, and in the wild is reviewed. Two recent and previously unpublished records of individuals from the wild are illustrated and discussed; for the first time, the northern subspecies of the Crimson Rosella P. e. nigrescens is involved. One of these birds is preserved as a skin specimen resulting from a road-kill near Lake Eacham and the other was a live individual photographed in an Atherton garden, both on the southern Atherton Tableland, north Queensland.