Crowns in the animal kingdom
If you thought that only kings and queens could be crowned, think again! Here are just some of species from the animal kingdom that are rocking regal headgear.
Blue-crowned hanging parrots
Male blue-crowned hanging parrots have a characteristic blue ‘crown’ patch on their heads, along with red marks on their throats. For females, the blue crown is either very faint or non-existent and they don’t have red patches.
Crowned lemurs
The crowns on these lemurs are a little more subtle, but look closely and you’ll see that they have distinctive orange-brown crowns on top of their heads. Females have grey bodies with an orange crown, while males are a darker reddish brown with a black and orange crown.
West-African crowned cranes
It’s not hard to see how the West African crowned crane got its name! According to African legend, the cranes gained these striking crowns of stiff golden feathers when they helped a great chief who had become lost and weak from lack of food and water.
Blue-crowned laughingthrush
These beautiful birds have yellow bellies, brown backs, a black mask and bright blue crowns lined with silver on their foreheads. Sadly, these desirable bright markings are prized in the pet trade, which is one of several reasons why the species is classed as Critically Endangered in the wild.
