Black-capped parrot
| Black-headed parrot | |
|---|---|
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| At Jurong Bird Park, Singapore | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Genus: | Pionites |
| Species: | P. melanocephalus |
| Binomial name | |
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Pionites melanocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Pionites melanocephala |
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Pionites melanocephala
The black-headed parrot (Pionites melanocephalus ; sometimes incorrectly Pionites melanocephala), also known as the black-headed caique, black-capped parrot or pallid parrot (for P. m. pallidus), is one of the two species in the genus Pionites of the family Psittacidae; the other species being the allopatric white-bellied parrot.
It is found in forest (especially, but not exclusively, humid) and nearby wooded habitats in the Amazon north of the Amazon River and west of the Ucayali River in Brazil, northern Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. It is generally fairly common and occurs in many protected areas throughout its range.
It is most often found in pairs or small noisy flocks of up to 10 individuals, but sometimes up to 30. In the wild, they eat mostly flowers, pulp, and seeds and possibly insects.
The black-headed parrot is a medium-small, short-tailed parrot with a black crown, yellow to orange head, whitish belly, yellow thighs and crissum (the area around the cloaca), green back, wings and upper tail, blue primaries (blackish from below), and greyish-black bill and feet. The white breast feathers of wild caiques are often stained a chestnut brown (or 'isobel') colour. This may be tannin staining, as result of their particular affinity for bathing by rubbing their bodies against wet leaves and other plant matter.
Male and female birds have identical plumage.
There are two subspecies of the black-headed parrot. They hybridize freely and individuals showing some level of intermediacy in color are common:
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Wikipedia