Saffron-headed Parrot
Pyrilia pyrilia
Unmistakable medium-sized parrot found from eastern Panama into Colombia and Venezuela. Green body with a bright yellow head and white eyering. Also note yellow shoulder and blue flight feathers. In flight, look for red underwing coverts and short square tail. Uncommon in forests and edge, mainly in the lowlands and foothills, up to around 1,600 m.
Identification
The saffron-headed parrot is 22 to 24 cm (8.7 to 9.4 in) long. Adults have an almost entirely yellow head and neck. They have a ring of bare white skin around their eye; brown feathers are around it and on their lores and nares, and a red wash is behind the eye. Their breast is olive that continues as a thin line around the back of the neck. Most of the rest of their body is green, with yellow shoulders, red carpals and flanks, and yellow lower thighs. Their primaries are blackish and their tail feathers have dusky blue tips. Immature birds have green heads, shoulders, and carpals.
Taxonomy
The saffron-headed parrot and the other six members of genus Pyrilia were until the early 21st century included in genus Pionopsitta with the pileated parrot (P. pileata). The saffron-headed parrot is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Pyrilia pyrilia
- Authority
- (Bonaparte, 1853)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittacidae
- Genus
- Pyrilia
Range and habitat
The saffron-headed parrot is found in Panama's eastern Darién Province, in north and central Colombia, and in northwestern Venezuela. Though one source describes it as "very rare (status uncertain)" in Ecuador, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society does not recognize any records in that country. It inhabits the interior and edges of humid to wet forest, both primary and secondary, usually at elevations below about 900 m (3,000 ft). It occurs in cloudforest up to 1,650 m (5,400 ft) but that may be only seasonally.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The saffron-headed parrot appears to be mostly sedentary, with possibly seasonal elevational movements and some nomadic roaming.<p>Nothing is known about the saffron-headed parrot's feeding behavior or diet.<p>The saffron-headed parrot breeds between March and June in Colombia. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.<p>The saffron-headed parrot's most common calls are "a shrieking “cureek” or “queek” " that are made both from a perch and in flight. It also "utters piercing, hoarse-sounding calls" from perches.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Great Rufous Sparrow
Passer motitensis
A large, chunky sparrow with a bright rufous rump and different-looking males and females. The male has a grayish crown with a rufous crescent around the ears and a white patch between the top of the eye and the base of the bill. The female has a paler washed-out head. Pairs and small groups are loyal to arid thorn scrub, avoiding human-altered habitats. The smaller House Sparrow is most easily told from the Great Rufous Sparrow by having a gray (not rufous) rump.
Sooty Shrikethrush
Colluricincla tenebrosa
A little-known, medium-sized bird of mid-montane forest thickets. Overall deep, sooty-brown color. Perches for long periods, scanning for insects. Skulking and difficult to see. Similar to Black Pitohui, and somewhere between the color of the black male and brown female, but Sooty Shrikethrush is smaller. Similar size various species of the Little Shrike-Thrush complex, but darker and found at higher elevation. Voice is little known, but apparently gives a loud, metallic alarm call.
Tickell's Leaf Warbler
Phylloscopus affinis
Brown-and-yellow leaf warbler without a wingbar. Breeds in high-altitude areas, in open areas with low vegetation. Winters at lower elevations, including throughout the Indian Subcontinent south of the Himalayas, where it is most abundant in shrubbery in the northeast Indian plains and in the high Western Ghats. Resembles Sulphur-bellied Warbler, but has a yellower cheek and underparts, and shows little contrast between the eyebrow and the throat. Tickell’s spends less time on or near the ground than Sulphur-bellied, tends to flock, and often participates in mixed-species foraging flocks.
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