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Parakeet (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Steve.Jonesy
- Start date
david kelly
Drive-by Birder
I don't know echo parakeet but from the description this looks more like ring-necked to me. If it were female echo it would have an all dark bill and darker plumage I think (sounds like darker emerald green is a feature of both sexes)
Edit: we can see the tail is heavily abraded and I find it difficult to judge its length
Edit: we can see the tail is heavily abraded and I find it difficult to judge its length
I do not know to which extent this is true, but it seems the Echo images shows a bird with not only blacker lower mandible but also with darker feathering immediately around the lower mandible. If this is true, then your images should also show Echo.
Niels
Niels
Well if it's female it's definitely not echo for the reasons I said. If it's male, it's clearly sub adult as there's no evidence of the rings. The bills of male echo and ring-neck are indistinguishable (see e.g. Ebird photos or step outside my house and look up). As far as I know, that leaves colour, relative proportions and tail length. I've commented on 2 of those above. I'm not sure we can tell proportions on a single bird with major feather wear like this but I've never seen echo as I said.
One reason I started looking at images was that I see ring-necked every day, and this one just looked much darker in the are of lower mandible and surroundings.
Niels
I tend to agree. If the dark isn't a photographic artefact then this seems quite different to the numerous Ring-necked I get in my garden & see everywhere I go, so though I have no experience of Echo, I can't see why this couldn't be a first year male.
Steve.Jonesy
Well-known member
Richard Dale
Well-known member
Tricky, and I've probably seen more Echoes than most, but I think it's probably a female RNP that has been incubating in a tree cavity, which would explain the heavily abraded tail feathers and apparently too-short tail. It does look quite short-winged though, which would be a point in favour of Echo.
It's a worn bird, and if the colours are true then it's certainly a Ring-necked, as Echoes are a darker, mossier green, and don't tend to wear to the pale yellower hues seen in Ring-necks; however, it feels like either the colour balance of the image or the lighting is a little odd. The undertail in an Echo is a fairly dull, smoky olive-yellow, even in adult males, but often a much brighter yellow, as here, in RNP.
We can rule out a juvenile or female Echo from the red bill, and adult male from the lack of a clear neck ring. The only Echo plumage that fits, therefore, would be an immature male - though in my experience the bill tends to be a dull red in these birds, rather than the brighter crimson on this bird. See attached photo, showing a group including males, females and an immature male.
Female Echoes show the dusky plumage on the face, but it is not evident in males.
One other observation: the feet appear to be quite pinkish - I can't find a photo of an Echo with anything other than blueish grey feet, but there seems to be more variation in this regard, at least in online photos, in RNP.
Either way, it has provided a pleasant diversion from work looking through old photos of Echo Parakeets...
It's a worn bird, and if the colours are true then it's certainly a Ring-necked, as Echoes are a darker, mossier green, and don't tend to wear to the pale yellower hues seen in Ring-necks; however, it feels like either the colour balance of the image or the lighting is a little odd. The undertail in an Echo is a fairly dull, smoky olive-yellow, even in adult males, but often a much brighter yellow, as here, in RNP.
We can rule out a juvenile or female Echo from the red bill, and adult male from the lack of a clear neck ring. The only Echo plumage that fits, therefore, would be an immature male - though in my experience the bill tends to be a dull red in these birds, rather than the brighter crimson on this bird. See attached photo, showing a group including males, females and an immature male.
Female Echoes show the dusky plumage on the face, but it is not evident in males.
One other observation: the feet appear to be quite pinkish - I can't find a photo of an Echo with anything other than blueish grey feet, but there seems to be more variation in this regard, at least in online photos, in RNP.
Either way, it has provided a pleasant diversion from work looking through old photos of Echo Parakeets...
Attachments
Yes cool. I saw there was quite a bit on Wikipedia about taxonomy etc. What's feeling on distinctness now: anyone know if ecology differs, any sign of interbreeding w ring-necks etc?
IIRC, latest tree on wikipedia has ring-neck as paraphyletic, with ?abyssinian ring-neck and echo as sisters embedded in the larger ring-neck tree.
...Think I read it might have diverged ~3+M years ago, which would make it older than things like Iberian green woodpecker.
Steve.Jonesy
Well-known member
Parakeet continued
Thanks Richard
Very informative.
The Echo’s in your pic also don’t seem to have the orange/yellow ring around the eye!
My guide to birds of the Indian Ocean islands only mentions two. I guess I am resigned to it being a RNP!
Thanks all for thoughts though
Steve
Thanks Richard
Very informative.
The Echo’s in your pic also don’t seem to have the orange/yellow ring around the eye!
My guide to birds of the Indian Ocean islands only mentions two. I guess I am resigned to it being a RNP!
Thanks all for thoughts though
Steve
