seem relatively close together, these parrots do not fly enough to be able to cross the 70 miles between the peninsula and mainland Papua New Guinea. 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. They prefer to stay in the canopy level of the rainforests, and can nest anywhere from 20 to 30 meters above the ground. Breeding hollows lower than this height tend to flood easily in the rainforest climate, and are generally avoided if possible. Behavior Vocalizations Eclectus parrots have a varied range of calls, from a loud, high-pitched squawk to whistles and screeches. They have also been observed to make a chime-like call when a male returns to the nest with food, in what seems to be a show of gratitude or an acknowledgement of return. Diet In the wild, eclectus parrots primarily feed on various fruits and their pulp. However, they will also feed on seeds, leaf buds, blossoms, nectar, figs, and nuts. They are frequently found to be eating the pulp of the fruit of Salacia chinensis (lolly berry) and Leea indica (bandicoot berry), and the seeds of Dodonaea lanceolata. These items are of high nutritional value to the birds. These parrots eat intermittently, in order to increase food storage capacity and process means as quick and efficiently as possible. They have special adaptations in their digestive system to help them with this. 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. Ecelctus parrots can produce the fat they don't get from their diet endogenously in their liver, from hexose sugars found in the fruit pulp they eat. After securing a good nesting hollow, females generally never leave the nest unless threatened, so the males are primarily responsible for feeding the female and her chicks. They have been observed to travel long distances in search of food, some over a 30 km2 range. The males usually feed the female in the mornings and the afternoons, and generally stick to a strict and regulated feeding schedule. Reproduction As stated previously, eclectus parrots nest in hollow cavities 20 to 30 meters above the ground. Optimal