Golden Parakeet

Identificazione

The golden parakeet is 34–36 cm (13–14 in) long and mainly yellow with green in the outer wings and with an all-yellow tail. It has a large horn-colored (gray) beak, pale-pink bare eye rings, brown irises, and pink legs. Males and females have identical external appearance. Juveniles are duller and have less yellow and more green plumage than the adults. The juvenile's head and neck are mostly green, the back is green and yellow, the upper side of tail is mostly green, the breast is greenish, the eye rings are pale-gray, and the legs are brown.

Tassonomia

The golden parakeet was listed in 1633 by the Dutch geographer Joannes de Laet in his History of the New World. He gave the local name as Guiarubas. De Laet included the parakeet in the 1640 French translation of his book. The word Guiarubas comes from the Tupi language: Guarajúba means "yellow bird". The golden parakeet was also described by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in 1648 in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Marcgrave gave the local name as Quiivbatvi. Based on Marcgrave's description, the golden parakeet was included in the works of Francis Willughby in 1678, John Ray in 1713, and Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. In 1779 the French polymath, the Comte de Buffon, included a description based on a preserved specimen in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. An illustration based on the same specimen was published separately.<p>When in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae he included the golden parakeet and cited earlier works including Buffon's description of "Le Guarouba". He placed it with the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus guarouba. <p>Formerly classified as Aratinga guarouba the golden parakeet is now the only species placed in the genus Guaruba that was introduced in 1830 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The different spellings of the genus and species names result from the different spellings used by Lesson and Gmelin and the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Lesson initially used Guarouba but on subsequent pages changed this to Guaruba. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. This species is also known as the golden conure.<p>Molecular studies show that Guaruba and Diopsittaca (red-shouldered macaw) are sister genera. It is also closely related to Leptosittaca branicki, (golden-plumed parakeet).

Nome scientifico

Guaruba guarouba

Autorità

(Gmelin, JF, 1788)

Ordine

Psittaciformi

Famiglia

Psittacidae

Genere

Guaruba

Areale e habitat

Its range is estimated to be limited to about 174,000 km2. between the Tocantins, lower Xingu, and Tapajós Rivers in the Amazon Basin south of the Amazon River in the state of Pará, northern Brazil. Additional records occur from adjacent northern Maranhão. The birds in a 1986 study used two different habitats during the year; during the nonbreeding season, which coincided with the dry season, they occupied the tall forest. During the breeding season, they left the tall forest and entered open areas on the edge of the forest such as fields used in agriculture.

Migrazione

Nomade

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Nomade.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: in diminuzione.

Tendenza della popolazione

in diminuzione