Pileated parrot

Not to be confused with Red-capped parrot.
Pileated parrot
male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Superfamily: Psittacoidea
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Arinae
Tribe: Androglossini
Genus: Pionopsitta
Bonaparte, 1854
Species: P. pileata
Binomial name
Pionopsitta pileata
(Scopoli, 1769)

The pileated parrot (Pionopsitta pileata), also known as the red-capped parrot (leading to easy confusion with the Australian Purpureicephalus spurius), is a medium-small species of parrot with a total length of about 22 cm (8.7 in). It is found in or near Atlantic Forest in south-eastern Brazil, far north-eastern Argentina, and eastern Paraguay. A local name in Paraguayan Guaraní is cúiu cúiu.

Unlike all other species previously placed in the genus Pionopsitta, the pileated parrot does not have a contrasting brownish-olive chest, and recently it was established via mtDNA that it is indeed distinct enough for the others to be moved into a separate genus, Pyrilia, again making Pionopsitta monotypic. The plumage of the pileated parrot is overall green with bluish flight feathers, a faint brownish-maroon auricular patch (lacking in juveniles) and, in the male, a bright red forehead that extends down to just below the eyes.

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.