Blaze-winged Parakeet
Pyrrhura devillei
Small parakeet with a long, pointed greenish-yellow tail. Has a brown crown, a scaled breast, and a variable-sized maroon belly patch. In flight, note the red and yellow bands on the underwing. Highly gregarious. Typically found in riparian woodlands.
Identification
The blaze-winged parakeet is 25 to 26 cm (9.8 to 10 in) long. The sexes are the same. Adults have a brownish crown and reddish brown ear coverts; the rest of their face is yellowish green. Their upperparts are green. Their chin, the sides of their neck, and their breast are yellowish green; brown feather edges give a scaly appearance. The center of their belly is maroon and the rest of their underparts are the same green as their upperparts. Their wing is mostly green, with blue primaries, a red carpal area, and red and yellow underwing coverts. Their tail's top surface is olive green with maroon on the outer third, and the lower surface is dull rufous brown.
Taxonomy
The blaze-winged parakeet is closely related to the maroon-bellied parakeet (P. frontalis) and they may be conspecific. The blaze-winged parakeet hybridizes with P. f. chiripepe where their ranges overlap in Paraguay. The blaze-winged parakeet is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Pyrrhura devillei
- Authority
- (Massena & Souancé, 1854)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittacidae
- Genus
- Pyrrhura
Range and habitat
The blaze-winged parakeet is found in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and in northeastern Paraguay's Alto Paraguay and Concepción departments. Though the type specimen is noted as having been collected in Bolivia, the area is now believed to be part of Paraguay. Undocumented sight records in Argentina lead the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society to list it as hypothetical in that country.<p>The blaze-winged parakeet inhabits parts of the Pantanal and Chaco, where it occurs mostly in deciduous and gallery forest. It is also found in the ecotones between those habitats and adjoining scrublands and savannah.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The blaze-winged parakeet's movements, if any, have not been determined.<p>The blaze-winged parakeet feeds on fruits, seeds, and nuts.<p>Nothing is known about the blaze-winged parakeet's breeding biology in the wild. In captivity it lays four to six eggs with an incubation period of 22 days and fledging seven to eight weeks after hatch.<p>The blaze-winged parakeet's most common call is "a series of rather high-pitched shrill notes , e.g. “krree krree krree” ", which it makes both from a perch and in flight. However, perched birds are often silent. Flocks in flight "call frequently and simultaneously, producing a noisy, harsh and piercing chattering."
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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