Rose-fronted Parakeet
Pyrrhura roseifrons
Long-tailed parakeet with a rosy-pink face. Green overall, with a red-pink face and black scalloping on the head and neck. Usually moves in small flocks around the forest canopy, not flying high over the canopy as much as other parrots. Calls similar to other parakeets like Black-capped; listen for mellow even-pitched screeches and yaps.
Identification
The rose-fronted parakeet is 20 to 23 cm (7.9 to 9.1 in) long. The sexes are the same in all subspecies. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. r. roseifrons have a bright red crown and face and dirty whitish ear coverts. Their upperparts are mostly green with a maroon-red red lower back and rump. The hindcrown, throat, and breast are dark with buff to buffy-white edges to the feathers. The center of their belly is deep red to brownish red, and the rest of their underparts are yellowish green. Their wing is mostly green with blue primaries. Their tail is maroon. The iris is orange-brown to dark brown with pale pinkish white to blackish bare skin around it. Their bill is blackish with a whitish cere and their legs and feet are blackish gray. Immatures are similar to adults but without the red crown and face.<p>Subspecies P. r. peruviana has a deep maroon forehead, a greenish blue forecrown, a dusky gray hindcrown and nape, and a thin light blue band on the upper hindneck. Its face is mostly deep rusty brown to deep maroon with some greenish blue below the eye. Its throat and breast feathers are grayish with blackish wedge shapes and yellowish fringes. Its tail has a green base. P. r. dilutissima is similar to peruviana but has less blue on the forecrown, a rusty red rather than maroon face, and a grayer throat and breast with more yellow. P. r. parvifrons resembles the nominate but has a narrow red lower forehead, a dark brown crown and nape, and a deep red-brown face.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the rose-fronted parakeet is unsettled. Until the early 2000s, it was considered a subspecies of the painted parakeet (P. picta). They were separated, and subspecies added to it, as a result of studies published in 2002 and 2006. More subspecies were added as a result of a 2008 publication.<p>The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, and the Clements taxonomy assign it these four subspecies:<p>The 2008 paper advocated that roseifrons and parvifrons be treated as monotypic species. It further advocated that peruviana be treated as a species with dilutissima as a subspecies of it. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World adopted this three-species treatment, naming them rose-fronted, Garlepp's, and wavy-breasted parakeets respectively.<p>The rose-fronted parakeet is sometimes called the red-crowned parakeet, potentially leading to confusion with the New Zealand species of that name, Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae.<p>This article follows the four-subspecies model.
- Scientific name
- Pyrrhura roseifrons
- Authority
- (Gray, GR, 1859)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittacidae
- Genus
- Pyrrhura
Range and habitat
The subspecies of the rose-fronted parakeet are found thus:<p>The rose-fronted parakeet inhabits lowland evergreen forests and nearby clearings. The one confirmed record in Ecuador was at 875 m (2,900 ft). In Peru, it occurs as high as 1,650 m (5,400 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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