Tag Archives: Colombian Parrots

Red-billed Parrot (Pionus sordidus)

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The Red-billed Parrot (Pionus sordidus) or Red-billed Pionus is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family.

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They can be found in humid subtropical forests in the Venezuelan Coastal Range, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and in the Andes from Colombia in north to Bolivia in south (though with significant gaps).  I took these photos on the Mindo Waterfall Trail just outside of Mindo and I also saw some in El Dorado Reserve in Colombia.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT RED-BILLED PARROTS

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World Parrot Trust

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Neotropical Birds

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A hungry little guy!

 

Ready for his close-up!

 

Mealy Parrot (Amazona farinosa)

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The Mealy Amazon or Mealy Parrot (Amazona farinosa) is among the largest parrot in the Amazona genus, the amazon parrots.

Although I have seen this bird in several places – Cristalino, Panama, Tambopata I don’t seem to have any decent photos so I have to rely on the Wikipedia shots.

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All I could get was distant flight shots.

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Mealy Parrots have a huge range throughout South America and prefer tropical rainforest environments.  Good places to see them are Cristalino, Tambopata, Napo, Panama’s Soberania (different subspecies) and other rainforest lodges.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT MEALY PARROTS

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World Parrot Trust

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Neotropical Birds

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Noisy flock in Peru

On a clay lick

Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis)

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The Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis), also known as the Tovi Parakeet, is a small mainly green parrot of the Brotogeris genus.  It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and heavily degraded former forest. Its name comes from a small clump of bright orange feathers located under the lower beak.

Radisson Summit, Panama

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WHERE TO SEE THEM

Orange-chinned Parakeets are found from southern Mexico, throughout Central America to the northern parts of Colombia & Venezuela.  A Central America award will get you to the main places you can see them.  We saw them from the balcony of the Radisson Summit in Panama albeit at a great distance.  Views at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica were much closer!  The parakeets enjoy the bananas put out for them and tend to frequent the surrounding trees as well.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PARROT

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

VIDEO

Although the dialogue is is Spanish, the footage of the birds is beautiful!

 

Fuertes’s Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi)

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The Fuertes’s Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi), also known as Indigo-winged Parrot, is a critically endangered parrot which has a highly restricted range on the west slope of the Central Andes of Colombia.The Fuertes’s Parrot is about 24 cm longand is green with indigo wing feathers, red shoulders, and a blue crown. The bird’s pale ivory bill has chestnut feathers at the base.  It was rediscovered in 2002 after an absence of 91 years on the slopes of a volcano in Colombia.

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HELP THIS PARROT

For over 90 years, the Fuertes’s Parrot was thought to be extinct; it was the cause of great celebration when in 2002 a team of Colombian conservationists from Fundación ProAves, a WLT partner, rediscovered a small colony of 15 individuals clinging to existence on a small and highly fragmented patch of cloud forest habitat located above the town of Cajamarca in Central Colombia.

ProAves has worked tirelessly since then to save the species and in 2009 established the 361 acre Giles-Fuertes Nature Reserve to protect one of only two tiny surviving populations of parrot, as well as many other threatened birds and mammals that are dependent on these cloud forests.

It is now vitally important to protect a further 363 acres alongside Giles-Fuertes Nature Reserve. While the parrot’s core breeding colony is protected, the encroachment of pasturelands into the sensitive cloud forests surrounding the reserve threatens further fragmentation and destruction of key foraging and nesting areas for this magnificent parrot.

Rusty-faced Parrot (Hapalopsittaca amazonina)

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The Rusty-faced Parrot is most threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation. Extensive logging and clearing for agriculture, development, and mining have destroyed much of its historical habitat in the Andes.

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Hapalopsittaca amazonina has three subspecies in the Andes of Venezuela and Colombia. A sight record from Ecuador in 1992 was presumed by range to be this species (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001). Subspecies theresae is restricted to the Sierra de Mérida (Trujillo [Sharpe et al. 2001], Mérida and Táchira), Venezuela. Nominate amazonina occurs on both slopes of the East Andes in south-west Táchira, Venezuela; and Cundinamarca, Boyacá and historically Norte de Santander and Santander, Colombia. Subspecies velezi is known from both slopes of the Central Andes in Caldas, Risaralda (R. Strewe in litt. 1999) and Tolima (B. López-Lanús in litt. 2000), Colombia. There are recent sightings of Hapalopsittaca species from the head of the Madgalena valley, Huila, Colombia, and northern Ecuador (Robbins et al. 1994a, G. H. Rosenberg in litt. 2000), probably all amazonina (Juniper and Parr 1998). A recent Colombian population estimate of 2,500-10,000 individuals based on a hypothetical density c.1 individual/km2 and 25% occupancy of the estimated 13,890 km2 of suitable habitat (Renjifo et al. 2002) may be over-generous, but it is likely that the Colombian population numbers several thousand birds (P. G. W. Salaman in litt. 2005). There are c. 250 birds of the nominate subspecies in the Soata bird reserve, Boyacá (O. Cortes and A. Hernandez-Jaramillo in litt. 2007). The Venezuelan population unknown, although it is encountered regularly in several different parts of the Mérida Andes (C. J. Sharpe in litt. 2003, Weller and Rengifo 2003, Rengifo et al. 2005, Rengifo et al. 2005).

Getting to Colombia is easy with airline miles.  Since Colombia is in the northern South America region with Peru, please see this post for details on how many miles you would need.  The main airport, Bogota is well served by both Star Alliance (Avianca, Copa, United, Lufthansa, Air Canada) and One World (American, LAN, Iberia).

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LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

American Bird Conservancy

Birdlife

World Parrot Trust

ECO-TOUR OPERATORS

Colombia Birding

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

VIDEO

 

Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis)

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The Yellow-eared Parrot nests and lives among wax palms in a few areas of Western and Central Cordillera of Colombia, where it inhabits cloud forests about 1800–3000 meters above sea level. It nests in the hollow trunks of the palms, usually 25–30 meters over the floor level. It also occurred very locally in northern Ecuador where wax palm grows. Their numbers had been greatly reduced, and only 81 individuals were recorded in the Colombian census of 1999. Their populations have been impacted by hunting and habitat destruction, particularly the harvesting of wax palm, which was traditionally cut down and used each year on Palm Sunday. There has been no confirmed records of this parrot from Ecuador since the mid-90s.

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This colorful, green and yellow parrot was believed to be extinct until April 1999, when a group of researchers, sponsored by Fundación Loro Parque and ABC, discovered a small population of just 81 individuals in the Colombian Andes.  Fundación ProAves, which was formed as a result of this discovery, has been working on recovering the species ever since.

The Yellow-eared Parrot has suffered greatly from habitat loss and fragmentation – over 90% of montane forests in Colombia have been cleared for agriculture or settlement, and Quindio wax palms, on which the parrot depends, have been decimated by logging and disease. Wax palms were also being unsustainably exploited for use in Palm Sunday celebrations within the parrot’s range.

Getting to Colombia is easy with airline miles.  Since Colombia is in the northern South America region with Peru, please see this post for details on how many miles you would need.  The main airport, Bogota is well served by both Star Alliance (Avianca, Copa, United, Lufthansa, Air Canada) and One World (American, LAN, Iberia).

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LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BIRD

American Bird Conservancy

American Bird Conservancy Update

Birdlife

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Parrots International

ECO-TOUR OPERATORS

Colombia Birding

Birding Colombia

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

MINI-DOCUMENTARY VIDEO

 

List Of Parrots In Colombia

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Blue-and-yellow Macaw – Ara ararauna

Military Macaw – Ara militaris

Great Green Macaw – Ara ambigua

Scarlet Macaw – Ara macao

Red-and-green Macaw – Ara chloroptera

Chestnut-fronted Macaw – Ara severa

Red-bellied Macaw – Orthopsittaca manilata

Yellow-eared Parrot – Ognorhynchus icterotis

Blue-crowned Parakeet – Aratinga acuticaudata

Pacific Parakeet – Aratinga strenua

Scarlet-fronted Parakeet – Aratinga wagleri

White-eyed Parakeet – Aratinga leucophthalmus

Dusky-headed Parakeet – Aratinga weddellii

Brown-throated Parakeet – Aratinga pertinax

Golden-plumed Parakeet – Leptosittaca branickii

Sinu Parakeet – Pyrrhura subandina

Todd’s Parakeet – Pyrrhura caeruleiceps

Painted Parakeet – Pyrrhura picta

Santa Marta Parakeet – Pyrrhura viridicata

Maroon-tailed Parakeet – Pyrrhura melanura

Flame-winged Parakeet – Pyrrhura calliptera

Barred Parakeet – Bolborhynchus lineola

Rufous-fronted Parakeet – Bolborhynchus ferrugineifrons

Green-rumped Parrotlet – Forpus passerinus

Blue-winged Parrotlet – Forpus xanthopterygius

Spectacled Parrotlet – Forpus conspicillatus

Dusky-billed Parrotlet – Forpus sclateri

White-winged Parakeet – Brotogeris versicolurus

Orange-chinned Parakeet – Brotogeris jugularis

Cobalt-winged Parakeet – Brotogeris cyanoptera

Tui Parakeet – Brotogeris sanctithomae

Lilac-tailed Parrotlet – Touit batavica

Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlet – Touit huetii

Blue-fronted Parrotlet – Touit dilectissima

Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet – Touit purpurata

Spot-winged Parrotlet – Touit stictoptera

Black-headed Parrot – Pionites melanocephala

White-bellied Parrot – Pionites leucogaster

Brown-hooded Parrot – Pyrilia haematotis

Rose-faced Parrot – Pyrilia pulchra

Orange-cheeked Parrot – Pyrilia barrabandi

Saffron-headed Parrot-  Pyrilia pyrilia

Rusty-faced Parrot – Hapalopsittaca amazonina

Indigo-winged Parrot – Hapalopsittaca fuertesi

Short-tailed Parrot – Graydidascalus brachyurus

Blue-headed Parrot – Pionus menstruus

Red-billed Parrot – Pionus sordidus

Speckle-faced Parrot – Pionus tumultuosus

Bronze-winged Parrot – Pionus chalcopterus

Dusky Parrot – Pionus fuscus

Red-lored Amazon – Amazona autumnalis

Festive Amazon – Amazona festiva

Yellow-crowned Amazon – Amazona ochrocephala

Orange-winged Amazon – Amazona amazonica

Scaly-naped Amazon – Amazona mercenaria

Mealy Amazon – Amazona farinosa

Red-fan Parrot – Deroptyus accipitrinus