9-6-2023 MANDAI BIRD PARADISE, SINGAPORE - ECLECTUS PARROT (MALE) (Eclectus roratus)

Moluccan eclectus hens have a strong maternal instinct, which is displayed in captivity, where they constantly seek possible nesting places, climbing into cupboards, drawers, and spaces beneath furniture, and becoming very possessive and defensive of these locations. An unpaired hen may go on to lay infertile eggs with little encouragement in the spring. It is often possible to place abandoned eggs from other parrot species beneath a broody eclectus hen, which she will readily accept and then incubate to the point of hatching, even rearing the hatched chick up to the point it is removed from the nest.

Adult females with poor nest hollows often commit infanticide on the male, if they produce both a male and a female chick. Inadequate nest hollows have a habit of flooding in heavy rain, drowning the chicks or eggs inside. This reported infanticide in wild pairs may be the result of other causes, since this behavior where the hen selectively kills male chicks is not observed in captive birds.