Malabarsittich

Bestimmung

The blue-winged parakeet is bluish grey with a long yellow-tipped tail. The black neck ring is complete in both males and females. The male has a bluish-green lower edge to the black collar and the upper mandible is red with a white tip while the female has an all black bill and has only the black collar. The female looks similar to the female of the plum-headed parakeet which however can be told apart by its broad yellow collar. Flocks move through the forest while calling out in a series of screeching keek-keek-keek calls.<p>They breed in the dry season after the northeast Monsoon and the chicks fledge before the southwest Monsoon in June. They nest in holes in trees (often tall Mesua ferrea species), especially old woodpecker and barbet nests. The birds begin breeding in December and eggs are laid in December and January. The usual clutch was 4 eggs which hatch after about 23 days. The female initially broods with the male bringing food and later the male takes over. The chicks fledge in about a month and leave the nest. Chicks are sometimes trapped for trade. Individuals have been observed feeding on the leaves of Loranthus longiflorus.<p>The closest living relative of this species is Layard's parakeet which is endemic to Sri Lanka.

Taxonomie

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Psittacula columboides

Autorität

(Vigors, 1830)

Ordnung

Psittaciformes

Familie

Psittaculidae

Gattung

Psittacula

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

This parakeet is restricted to the Western Ghats south of about 19°N (Kasa, north of Bombay) to Kerala, extending into the hills of the Palnis and Nilgiris as well as the adjoining Eastern Ghats including the Biligirirangan range and possibly further east in the Kolli Hills in India.

Zugverhalten

Nomadic movement

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend

stable