Parakeets
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Ring-necked Parakeet ( Psittacula krameri ) |
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| Psittacula | ||||||||||||
| Cuvier , 1800 |
The noble parakeets ( Psittacula ) are a genus of parrots (Psittacidae). The main distribution area extends from Asia over the entire Indian subcontinent via Bangladesh to China and Thailand . Another distribution area of some subspecies is in Africa in Senegal and Guinea in a broad band through the Sahel to South Sudan . In Ethiopia as far as Djibouti and Somalia there are subspecies of the ring-necked parakeet.
The genus comprises 15 species, three of which were previously endemic to islands in the Indian Ocean and are now extinct . Of the island species, only the Mauritian parakeet lives today . Several species are still divided into subspecies.
Parakeets have been known in Europe since ancient times .
Appearance and behavior
All parakeets look very similar. The plumage is mainly green. With them, the elongated tail feathers make up over 50% of the total length. Males and females show a differently colored plumage ( sexual dimorphism ). There are also differences between adult birds and young birds. The plumage of all wild-colored parakeets is green.
species
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- Bearded Parakeet ( P. alexandri )
- Blue- tailed Parakeet ( P. calthropae )
- Gray-headed Parakeet ( P. caniceps )
- Pigeon Parakeet ( P. columboides )
- Plum-headed Parakeet ( P. cyanocephala )
- Chinese Parakeet ( P. derbiana )
- Mauritian Parakeet ( P. echo )
- † Mauritius gray parakeet ( P. bensoni )
- Alexander Parakeet ( P. eupatria ) (also called "Great Alexander Parakeet ")
- † Rodrigues parakeet ( P. exsul )
- Black -headed Parakeet ( P. himalayana ) (also called "Himalayan Parakeet")
- Ring-necked Parakeet ( P. krameri ) (also called "Little Alexander Parakeet")
- Long-tailed parakeet ( P. longicauda )
- Rose-headed Parakeet ( P. roseata )
- † Seychelles parakeet ( P. wardi )
history
Tame parakeets were already being kept as pets on Indian farms two and a half thousand years ago . For a Nagaraka (नागरक), an intellectual young Indian of the wealthy upper class, the ability to teach a parrot to speak was even among the sixty-four skills recorded in the ancient Indian textbook Kamasutra by Watsjajana that he had to master.
The first recorded European mention comes from the Greek Ktesias of Knidos , the 397 BC. Published the book Indika .
literature
- Dieter Hoppe : Parakeets and parrots. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, ISBN 3-8001-4452-2 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Tony Juniper: Parrots: a guide to parrots of the world . Yale University Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-300-07453-6 , pp. 405 .
- ^ Jim Groombridge: Molecular phylogeny and morphological change in the Psittacula parakeets. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 2004, ISSN 1055-7903 , p. 96-108 .
- ↑ Hans Strunden: Parrots then and now . Horst-Müller-Verlag, Walsrode 1984, ISBN 3-923269-22-6 , p. 7 .
Web links
- Tree of Life Web Project. 2007. Psittacula. Version August 31, 2007. In: The Tree of Life Web Project
- http://www.papageien.org/HJP/SP/PSITTACULIDAE/genus_psittacula.html
- http://www.edelsittich-freunde.de