- Touit purpuratus
Identification
17–18 cm
- Olive-brown crown
- Green rest of head and underparts
- Slightly darker green back and wings, dusky brown scapulars forming a V on folded wings
- Violet blue carpal edge
- Blue lower back and rump
- Green central tail feathers, red rest of tail, all feathers tipped blackish
- viridiceps has a green crown
Females have paler scapulars and a green subterminal band on the outer tail. Immatures are like females but duller and with an olive rump.
Distribution
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
An uncommon and inconspicuous species.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies recognized:
- T. p. viridiceps from southeast Colombia to south Venezuela, east Ecuador and northeast Peru
- T. p. purpuratus from south Venezuela to the Guianas and north Amazonian Brazil
Habitat
Moist lowland forests, swamps, and moist montanes. Also in isolated woods in cleared terrain.
Occurs up to 1400 m.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on fruit, leaves, shoots, bark and dead wood.
Breeding
Breeding recorded in March in Venezuela, in April and November in the Guianas, in November in Colombia. One recorded nest was excavated in a dead tree in flooded forest, uses also termitaria. Lays 3 to 5 eggs.
Movements
No information available.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2016)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 2 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sapphire-rumped_Parrotlet
