Yellow-bibbed Lory,Lorius chlorocercus , is a large lory up to 33cm in length.
It is an overall red colour with green wings, green tail, black cap and black neck patches, and a distinctive yellow bib. Eyes are light brown, beak is large and orange with black near nostrils, thighs white/blue/green/black and feet black. (Female has more green in thighs with male more blue)

We have eight Yellow-bibbed Lories. (as of 2 August 2001)
The first two, Nippy and Freddie, arrived early 2000, in January and February. Both are lovable characters wih distinct personalities and really enjoy human company.
Bothe Nippy and Freddie are over 4 yers old (as of December 2001|) Freddie has a problem with one leg which looks as though it was broken and has healed in a strange shape. One of his claws on the odd leg is twisted backwards but he not concerned about this. He still uses that claw to hold food.
Nippy seldom flies, instead she will make great efforts to walk, climb and hop her way around her aviary, although She can fly very well. Freddie is the opposite, he gets a real thrill from flying at every opportunity. His odd leg just makes landing a tad interesting unless it is a well know perch or a convenient human arm held out as a landing stage.
Although Nippy and Freddie were paired together from early 2000 they never bonded, Nippy always rejected Freddie and eventually when the opportunity came to buy an 8year+ old female Yellow-bib (Polly) she was paired with Freddie in late 2000 and has bonded with him since early 2001.

Another pair of Yellow-bibs was purchased in mid 2000, Danny and Dolly, these were about one year old. Unfortunately Dolly was found to have PBFD and died in April 2001 although she had been removed from our aviaries in December 2000. Danny was eventually paired with Nippy and after six months together they finally bonded in late 2001.

A fourth pair was purchased in August 2001. These were the parents of Freddie (and possibly Dolly) and from these a baby Yellow-bib was hand raised from an egg they abandoned in September 2001

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7 July 2000
Two new Yellow Bibs arrived today, A male and female both apparently aged about 1 year. Although not a bonded pair they are very friendly both to each other and to humans. The female we have named Dolly, she looks a little odd as her plumage colours look a bit different to normal. Instead of a complete black cap she has several red feathers amongst the black and her wings have some yellow feathers instead of the complete green covering normal for a Yellow Bib.
We have been told this is a diet problem so perhaps with time and a good varied diet her plumage may become more normal.
The male looks quite normal.
Both Yellow Bibs are extremely lively and just love eating and eating and eating. Everything that has been offered to them has been consumed with great delight, whistles, clucking, cooing and all sorts of strange noises. Grapes are an especially liked treat.

9 July 2000
The new Yellow Bibs have now settled in to their new avairy. These are two of the friendliest and active birds we have and they just love human company. Neither is the slightest aggressive and now they appear to have bonded.
The first night they slept apart but the last two nights they have been tight together and have been seen preening and cooing at each other. The female is the boss but she will share all food with the male and there seems to be no jealousy between them. They enjoy being hand fed and will carefully preen and play in human hair and ears.
The female has been seen stripping green bark from a camphor tree, gently chewing it then spreading the juice into her feathers. She spent an hour doing this all the while whistling and cooing.

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6 October 2000
Our fifth Yellow bib arrived two days ago. A female whose age is not exactly known but from the previous owner we know she is at least eight years old. She arrived with three olive Scaly lorikeets, all from the same person we obtained the eight Scalies and Olive Rainbow in June this year. These were the last birds he had available.
This female Yellow bib is very quiet and inquisitive, appears quite friendly and not afraid of humans. Her red plumage is a more orange/red colour when compared to our other four Yellow Bibs.
Within a day of arriving she has noticed the other Yellow Bibs and has been quiety calling them with low whistles, they are all within a few metres of each other although not in adjacent aviaries.

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12 December 2000
Sadly, today we learned that Dolly has beak and feather virus, our local avain vet had taken blood samples from several of our Lories after it had been reported to us that a local bird breeder (from whom we obtained several birds, Yellow bibs Danny and Dolly, a male Bluestreak and a pair of Edwards) has supplied birds with this virus.
Other bird owners who also had birds tested positive for this virus have had the birds euthanised by various means but we decided to keep Dolly as she still is active and her quality of life is excellent. We could not keep her anywhere near our other birds who all tested negative for the virus so after talking to my parents who live about 30 kilometers away they agreed to take Dolly and provide her with a home.
Before moving Dolly we had the vet give her a full inspection as there would be little point in keeping her if she was ill or suffering in any way. She did not have any secondary infections, weight was good and apart from some bendy and fall out feathers she was in overall good condition. With the vet's recommendation of keeping low sugar content in her food she was taken to her new home.
Danny, her partner, has tested negative to the virus although he has to be retested in February 2001 to ensure he has not been infected by his close contact with Dolly for several months.

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10 March 2001
The new Yellow bib female, now named Polly, has now settled in very nicely and is sharing an aviary with Freddie. The good news is that after installing a new, just right for Yellow-bibs nestbox, both Polly and Freddie are now spending some time in the nestbox. Maybe we will see some eggs in the not too distant future.
They have definitely bonded together. Freddie and Nippy never quite accepted each other, although Freddie would often try to get friendly with Nippy he would most often be attacked then he in turn would fight back. This resulted in a very stand-off relationship.

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20 April 2001
Today we bought a breeding pair of Yellow-bibbed Lories. These are supposed to be about 4 years old and have laid eggs although none have made it through to hatching. These birds have come from an aviary where there are also yellow-backed chattering lories. We will be obtaining these later next month.

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30 August 2001
Just a day before the yellow-bib egg was due to hatch and the egg has disappeared. Only a small fragmnet of the egg was found and this was part of a near fully developed chick. As yet we are unsure what happened but we have ruled out rodents being responsible. It is most likey the male got into the nestbox and destroyed the egg as just yesterday the female was scared out of the nestbox by two Sun Conures that invaded their aviary.

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8 October 2001
After sitting on two apparently fertile eggs for two weeks the female abandoned them. It seems both had disappeared (again!) but a search next day found one buried in the nestbox. This egg was removed and placed under Rainbow lorikeets that had infertile eggs.

25 December 2001
Our first Yellow-bib baby is now just over 2 months old. She is from the breeding pair we obtained in August and is from the third lot of eggs they produced since August. This pair or the male appear to have difficulty in keeping fertile eggs until they hatch. Twice now there have been fertile eggs that have either disappeared or been abandoned.
Two eggs laid in September appeared to be fertile but after two weeks disappeared. A day or so later one was found buried in the nestbox, retrieved, and placed under a pair of Rainbow lorikeets who were sitting on infertile eggs. The yellow-bib egg hatch and the Rainbows fed the baby for 2 weeks before abandoning it. It was then hand raised. After a few days another abandoned baby scaley of the same age was kept with the yellow-bib for company. This kept both babies much quieter. Images below show its development until about 9 weeks old when it fledged and was placed in a communal aviary where it quickly established itself as the boss over musks, scaleys and red-collars.