Black-winged Parrot

Blackwing Parrot ( Hapalopsittaca melanotis )

The Blackwing Parrot ( Hapalopsittaca melanotis ) or brown ear parrot is a bird from the family of authentics parrots ( Psittacidae ). The species has a large distribution area, which includes the South American countries of Bolivia and Peru. The stock is assessed by the IUCN as endangered not (Least Concern ).

Features

Blackwing parrots reach body lengths of about 22.5 to 24 centimeters. They have a short tail and graduated with purple blue tail tips and a gray beak. The front top of the head as well as the vast majority of the feathers are green. The reins and the neck are colored blue-gray. The ear-coverts are black. The black wing-coverts are replaced at the primaries by purple and blue on the under wing-coverts bluish green by springs.

Young birds have the large and medium-sized secondaries with broad green seams.

Distribution and habitat

The natural habitat of black wing parrots are moist forests with fruit trees. Their habitat ranges from mighty tree forests to swampy dwarf forests. Occasionally one sees them to the limits of the cultural landscape.

Social behavior

Often Blackwing parrots are in fairly large groups traveling every now and then you meet them only as a pair. They feed preferably of berries that you can find in the treetops.

In flight, one can perceive their strong wing beats. Here they are significantly different from other Andean parrots such as the macaws ( Aratinga ), the Rotsteißpapageien ( Pionus ) or the Amazon parrots (Amazona ).

Subspecies

There are two subspecies have been described which differ in their coloration and their area of ​​distribution:

• Hapalopsittaca melanotis melanotis Lafresnaye 1847 The nominate lives of the Departments of Cochabamba and La Paz in the Bolivian Yungas at altitudes 1700-2500 meters.
• Hapalopsittaca melanotis peruviana Carriker, 1932, yellow-brown golden ear-coverts. The sides of the head and the upper part of the throat are yellowish green. The lower portion of the channel is bounded by a blue band. The subspecies occurs at altitudes 1950-3100 m in the Cordillera de Carpish in Departamento de Huánuco, Pasco in the region and in the District of uranium Marca in the region of Apurimac ago.

Etymology and History of Research

Frédéric de Lafresnaye described the Schwarzflügelpapgei under the name Pionus melanotis. He had The type specimen from the Muséum national d' histoire naturelle, which this had in turn received by Alcide Dessalines d' Orbigny from Bolivia. Only later did he slammed the genus Hapalopsittaca.

The word " Hapalopsittaca " the genus is composed of the Greek words " hapalos " for " fine, delicate " and " psittacos " for " Parrot " together. The Greek word " melanotis " stands for " black ." Finally, the ' peruviana ' refers to Peru, a country in which this subspecies occurs.