Research has shown this dimorphism with no role reversal is a product of the rare nest hollows, and the selective pressures that accompany this.

This unique coloration is evidence of an evolutionary compromise between the need to attract and compete for mates, and the risk of predation.

This range is largely due to their relatively recent popularity in aviculture, with many individuals in captivity having not yet reached their natural lifespan.

Many owners of eclectus parrots have reported ages upwards of 45 years, noting their birds show no obvious signs of age-related health decline.

[7][9][10] The oceanic eclectus is thought to be from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene Epoch, and was found in Vanuatu, Fiji, and on the Tonga Archipelago.

[11] The eclectus parrot is endemic to rainforests from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, and the tip of the Cape York Peninsula of Australia.

As such, it is thought that they expanded from Papua New Guinea into Australia around 10,000 years ago, when the two were connected by a land bridge.

Breeding hollows lower than this height tend to flood easily in the rainforest climate, and are generally avoided if possible.

[3][12] Eclectus parrots have a varied range of calls, from a loud, high-pitched squawk to whistles and screeches.

[13] These parrots eat intermittently, in order to increase food storage capacity and process meals as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Their esophagus is wide and flexible, to allow the fast passage of food and rapid digestion, and their proventriculus (glandular region between the crop and gizzard) is elongated and highly distensible, allowing it to hold comparable amounts of food as the crop.

Eclectus parrots can produce the fat they do not get from their diet endogenously in their liver, from hexose sugars found in the fruit pulp they eat.

Males have been known to travel unusually large distances to mate with females, the longest found being 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles).