Brown-headed Parakeet
| Brown-headed Parakeet | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Brown-headed Parakeet ( Aratinga weddellii ) |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Aratinga weddellii | ||||||||||
| ( Deville , 1851) |
The Brown-headed Parakeet ( Aratinga weddellii ), also known as the Weddell Parakeet, is a species of parrot from the Neotropical genus of the Macaws . It occurs on the tributaries of the Amazon in southeastern Colombia , eastern Ecuador , eastern Peru, and northeastern Brazil . The species is considered harmless. The specific epithet in the scientific name honors the English botanist Hugh Algernon Weddell (1819–1877).
features
The brown-headed parakeet reaches a size of 28 cm, a wing length of 140 to 150 mm and a weight of 95 to 115 g. The plumage is predominantly green. The upper breast is olive green, the lower abdomen greenish yellow. The head is gray-brown, each feather has a dull blue border. The first wing is black with a blue border, the others are green with a bluish border at the ends of the outer flags. The top of the tail is blue with a greenish base, the underside is black. The protruding, featherless eye ring is white. The beak is black, the wax skin reddish gray. The iris is light yellow. The legs and feet are gray. The immature birds (young birds before the first moult) have generally blunt plumage. The head is greyish, the iris is brown in them and the white eye ring is narrower.
habitat
The brown-headed parakeet lives in rainforests along rivers, marshland, forest parcels in wet savannahs , secondary forests and cleared areas with isolated woodland at altitudes up to 750 m. Occasionally he can be seen at the edges of forests or coffee plantations.
Way of life
The Brown-headed Parakeet lives in pairs or outside the breeding season in flocks of three to eight birds. Occasionally it forms swarms of 75 to 100 individuals if enough food is available. His wanderings prefer to run along the river banks, where his sleeping trees are. He seldom flies over the dense forest. When eating, it is silent and inconspicuous. Its call, which is reminiscent of that of the Pavua Parakeet , but sounds finer and sharper, can only be heard while it is flying.
food
The diet of the brown-headed parakeet consists of seeds, fruits, flowers and berries. He also examines rotten trees for insects and their larvae. It often flies to places in the rainforest or on the river banks where the soil contains minerals.
Reproduction
In Bolivia and Colombia the breeding season is from July, otherwise between February and May. Brown-headed parakeets do not have a special courtship behavior; the breeding mood can be recognized by their frequent stay in the breeding cave. Brown-headed parakeets nest in dead trees, palms or arboreal termite burrows at heights between 4 and 15 m. It often lays its eggs, which measure 27.0 × 23.0 mm, in abandoned woodpecker heights. The young birds are raised by both adult birds. In captivity, a pair can raise up to three broods a year.
attitude
The brown-headed parakeet is kept relatively seldom, it was probably first introduced to Germany in 1976 and bred for the first time in Euskirchen in the same year . Like many parrots that breed in caves, brown-headed parakeets have a strong need to gnaw.
literature
- Emile Deville: Note sur quatre espèces nouvelles d'oiseaux provenant de l'expédition de M. Castelnau. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie pure et appliquée, 2nd Ser., Vol. 3, Paris 1851. (google books)
- Joseph Michael Forshaw : Parrots of the World - An Identification Guide. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2006, ISBN 978-0-691-09251-5 .
- Josep del Hoyo ; Andrew Elliott; Jordi Sargatal : Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, ISBN 978-84-87334-22-1 .
- Thomas Arndt : South American Parakeets ieS Volume 3, Horst Müller-Verlag , Walsrode 1981. ISBN 3-923269-02-1 . Page 62
Web links
- Aratinga weddellii in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2011. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Accessed November 14, 2011th
- Lexicon of Parrots
