Blue-crowned Parakeet - BirdForum Opus

Aternative Names: Blue-crowned Conure, Sharp-tailed Conure

Male
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Capilla del Monte, Argentina, October, 2019

Photo by Pantanal1
Location: Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil

Thectocercus acuticaudata

Identification

37cm

• Green plumage
• Dull blue forehead, crown, cheeks, and ears
• Bare white eye ring
• Green or yellow-green breast
• Green tail feathers
• Maroon to red-brown on underside
• Bill:

• Horn coloured upper mandible; grey-black tip
• Lower mandible is horn-coloured in juveniles, fading to grey-black after the first year

• Pink-brown legs
• Grey-brown claws

Distribution

South America: found in eastern Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.

A popular cage pet, there are established feral populations in Florida, Spain, and Portugal.

Taxonomy

Formerly placed in genus Aratinga.

Subspecies^[1]

There are 5 subspecies.

• T. a. koenigi:

• North-eastern Colombia and northern Venezuela

• T. a. neoxena:

• Isla Margarita (Venezuela)

• T. a. haemorrhous:

• Interior north-eastern Brazil

• T. a. neumanni:

• Highlands of eastern Bolivia

• T. a. acuticaudata:

• Eastern Bolivia to Paraguay, southern Brazil, western Uruguay and northern Argentina

Habitat

Grassland, forest edges and semi-arid regions.

Behaviour

Breeding

They nest in tree holes; the 3-4 white eggs are incubated by the female for 26 days. The young fledge about 52 days later.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-crowned Parakeet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 2 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-crowned_Parakeet

External Links

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