Red-bellied parrot
| Red-bellied parrot | ||||||||||
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Red-bellied parrot ( Poicephalus rufiventris ) |
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| Poicephalus rufiventris | ||||||||||
| ( Rüppell , 1845) |
The red-bellied parrot ( Poicephalus rufiventris ) is a species from the genus of the long-winged parrot . Together with the other species of this genus, and the lovebirds , the Rose-ringed Parakeet and Madagascar endemic Vasa Parrots this type is a typical parrot species of Afrotropical .
Distribution area
Its distribution area is Ethiopia , Tanzania and Somalia . The birds live in the lowlands and in dry areas up to an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level. He prefers thorn bush savannahs, which are loosely covered with African baobabs . Like most of the long-winged parrots, they are food and habitat generalists.
Appearance
Red-bellied parrots are very colorful birds whose plumage shows a pronounced sexual dimorphism . The difference between males and females is so great that they were originally assigned to different species. In the male, the rear breast and belly as well as the under wing coverts are deep orange. In the female, however, these feathers are grayish-brown in color. The basic color of the body plumage is green in both sexes.
Way of life
Red-bellied parrots live in small family groups of four to eight individuals. Larger associations are seldom seen, which is probably due to the fact that there is seldom an abundance of food in their area of distribution. They occasionally invade agricultural areas where they particularly like to eat corn. They breed preferentially in trunk and branch cavities of the baobab tree, whereby their cavity is often at a considerable height above the ground. Nesting dens of red-bellied parrots have also been found in the structures of ground-dwelling termites. In this case, their breeding cave was no more than two to three meters above the ground. The clutch consists of one or two eggs. Otherwise very little is known about the breeding biology of birds. It is likely that broods occur throughout the year in the large distribution area.
Red-bellied parrots and humans
Red-bellied parrots were first imported to Europe in 1920. Unlike belonging to the same genus Mohrenkopf parrots that after Gray parrot are among the most frequently imported large African parrots, Rotbauchpapageien are rarely available commercially. The first known offspring in human care only succeeded in the 1970s in Mozambique . As with all other parrots, it applies here that they should only be kept in pairs and in aviaries.
The systematic position within the genus Poicephalus
The following cladogram shows the genus Poicephalus with their respective degrees of relationship. The Niam-Niam parrot ( Poicephalus crassus ), whose species status is controversial, is missing .
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The following subspecies are described for the red-bellied parrot:
- Poicephalus rufiventris rufiventris
- Poicephalus rufiventris pallidus
Individual evidence
- ^ Low, p. 188
- ↑ Welcke and Hoppe, p. 95
- ↑ Welcke and Hoppe, p. 95
- ^ Low, p. 188
- ↑ Welcke and Hoppe, p. 96
- ↑ Hoppe and Welcke, p. 79
literature
- Dieter Hoppe , Peter Welcke: Long-winged parrots , Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8001-4786-6
- Rosemary Low: Das Parrotienbuch , Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8001-7191-0
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Poicephalus rufiventris in the Internet Bird Collection
- Poicephalus rufiventris inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2013.