The first time I saw a pair of Pale Headed Rosellas I fell in love with them, they were in a very big aviary and sitting high up, these beautiful pale blue birds, I just could not get over them. I found the owner and asked him what they were. Pale headed Rosellas he told me, from Queensland. Years later I purchased a pair, but they were not like the pair I first saw, they were a lot paler and not the beautiful blue like the first ones were, but I kept them and they bred well for me.

The Pale Headed Rosella has a yellow-white head, a white cheek patch with blue on the lower edge, black feathers on the back with broad yellow borders. Lower back bluish grey, the rump yellowish, breast and belly is a greenish pale blue, middle wing coverts are black and the lower wing blue, under the tail feathers red, in some hens these feathers are an orange-red. Flight feathers are black with dark blue edges. Tail feathers are black with a tinge of green-blue; the outer tail feathers are blue with white tips. The beak is horn coloured, the iris dark brown, and legs blue-brown.

I find females are identical in coloration, but the head and beak is smaller, some have the white wing stripe and as I said orange-red under the tail. Juveniles are paler with a greenish head frequently interspersed with some red feathers, which disappear after the first moult. Full adult plumage at about 15 to 16 months of age. Mature sexually at 12 month old.

They are a funny bird to deal with; they like to be left alone, and do not like people around, even their keepers. I found they do not interact well with other birds and so can only be kept in single pairs. I found this out the hard way. I had two pair in adjoining aviaries and one night when I went into the aviary late, one hen must have flown in past me into the other aviary, but I did not see her. Next morning I found one hen dead and the other almost dead on the floor, this taught me not to have Rosellas next to one another at breeding time, and this goes for all Rosellas.

Paleheads like a big aviary they like to fly and stretch their wings. They like to nest up high so you put your nest boxes up as high as you can and I do not put anything in for them to nest on, only the bare boards. I have a false bottom in the box with a slight concave so as to keep the eggs together. They will go to nest at least twice in a season and are reasonable parents if left alone.

They are not hard to feed just the normal parrot breeder mix will suit them down to the ground, some silver beet or sour thistle, and seeding grass heads in season. A bit of cuttle fish and some shell grit and they will thrive. And here again like all Rosellas they love to bathe, you put in fresh water and in a few minutes it is all gone, splashed about the floor, but they love to do it.

They are very flighty birds I lost two hens with broken necks, one a pigeon flew onto the aviary, and my hen took off like a bullet straight into the back wall of the aviary. The other one did the same when a hawk just flew over the aviary.

You will do best to keep them in the quietest aviary that you have. I ended up putting plastic on the roof, that stopped them seeing other birds overhead, and also stops them from being infected with worms from wild birds.

Copyright remains with the author.