Talk:Maroon-bellied parakeet

Merging with Maroon-bellied conure

I just merged this page with the one on Maroon-bellied conure, which referenced the conure from the perspective of a pet owner. I know nothing of these birds, but the information was basically identical on both pages. However, neither page had adequate citations, so I added a request for citations as well. Mukk ^{» Talk «} 17:10, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

In merging, you lost many of the names and implied that all of them apply to all the subspecies (half are specific to one subspecies). I fixed it. I removed the sentence about flying when startled and pooping afterwards; it describes most birds, rather than this species. I removed "They are often noted as being very similar in appearance to the green-cheeked conure."; between the 3-4 subspecies of maroon-belly and 5 subspecies of green-cheeked, some are quite similar and some aren't, and I think the note that they may be conspecific will suffice. I also removed the request for citations: the single reference to Juniper & Parr is perfectly adequate for everything except the general statements of behavior at the end. (J&P and Forshaw are the two basic parrot references. J&P notes 12 references specifically for this species - but I didn't read those, so I didn't cite them.) "curious, intelligent birds, and may learn to open cage doors" applies to most parrots. For talking and volume, I'll look for a reference tomorrow (most of my bird books are currently in the room where my birds are sleeping). Brucemoko 06:27, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for tackling this. Honestly, I just changed the name bit because having a list of alternate names at the beginning of an article was unencyclopedic and contrary to Wikipedia style conventions. I figured that having the names inline would work just as well as having them placed as a list, and more inline with the style of other articles. As a side note, have you created links from the pages of those common names leading back to this page?

The rest of the information, honestly, I lifted directly from the other page and incorporated into your text. Some of it seemed a bit general and arbitrary, which is why I left the references request -- so that the information could be verified (as I know next to nothing about parrots). Thank you for dealing with that. Mukk ^{» Talk «} 11:40, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Citation for voice provided. Yes, the list of alternate names at the top is against the style convention. It's also accurate and useful. You *could* write:

The Maroon-bellied Conure, Pyrrhura frontalis, is also known as the Maroon-bellied Parakeet, Reddish-bellied Conure/Parakeet, Brown-eared Conure/Parakeet, or Scaly-breasted Conure/Parakeet. The chiripepe subspecies is also known as Azara's Conure/Parakeet, the devillei subspecies is also known as the Blaze-winged Conure/Parakeet or Bronze-winged Conure/Parakeet. The kriegi or frontalis subspecies are also known as Krieg's Conure/Parakeet.

Which is also accurate - just not as useful. If you compare the two, the bullet list is easy to understand, and the text list isn't. The suggested style works fine for one or two alternate names - not for 15. And yes, I put all the other common names in the list and linked to this article. Which is another reason to have the alternate names prominent - the majority of references will likely come from one of the alternate names. If you were looking for "Bronze-winged Parakeet", you'd be likely to give up and assume a crossed link before getting to that name in the text list. Brucemoko 22:25, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, you know, a lot of articles have a "Subspecies" section and then do something like this:

* Azara's Conure/Parakeet, P. f. chiripepe

* Blaze-winged Conure/Parakeet, P. f. devillei

* Krieg's Conure/Parakeet, P. f. kriegi, P. f. frontalis

I know I'm just being nitpicky now, but it just seems really off. :P Mukk ^{» Talk «} 01:51, 18 April 2007 (UTC)