The Black-winged Lory, Eos cyanogenia also known as Biak Red Lory is an Indonesian endemic, the Black-winged Lory is distributed to forests and coastal habitat of Biak, Numfor, Manim and Mios Num islands in Cenderawasih Bay, Papua. It frequents and roosts in coconut trees.

We saw a few of them flying in pairs or small flocks during our brief visit to Biak but I was unable to get a good pic with my camera.  These guys fly fast!  So I will have to use the one on Wikipedia which appears to have been taken in a bird park to show you what they look like up close.  They are gorgeous birds, I wish they weren’t so camera shy in the wild!

Black-winged Lory (Eos cyanogenia)

The population is estimated to number 2,500-9,999 mature individuals based on an assessment of known records, descriptions of abundance and range size.  Relatively large numbers have been trapped for the domestic and international trade (Nash 1990b, K. D. Bishop in litt. 1994), and this species is commonly observed as a pet on Biak (Bishop 1982). Large areas of forest on Biak have been destroyed or damaged by logging and subsistence farming, particularly the southern plains, and the remainder is under pressure (Bishop 1982, K. D. Bishop in litt. 1996, D. Holmes in litt. 2000). Furthermore, forest does not regenerate easily on areas of raised coralline limestone. Much of Supiori comprises virtually impenetrable, forested limestone mountains, which is likely to be safe from habitat degradation.

BirdLife International 2012. Eos cyanogenia. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 27 March 2013