Nanday Parakeet (Aratinga nenday) — Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of North America

Voice

A loud, energetic screech, mostly in flight and on taking off; the call carries far and sounds harsher than that of most other naturalised parakeets in these cities. Perched, between bouts of feeding, the chatter is much softer and shorter.

Listen: Flight callXC854880

Recording: Guilherme Melo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Porto Murtinho, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil · xeno-canto

Identification

Mostly green, with a sharply defined black mask across forehead, lores and chin, and a black bill. The chest is blue-green, the lower breast paler green, and the thighs red. In flight black flight feathers stand out along with a long tail edged in blue. Male and female cannot be told apart in the field.

Confusion species

Mitred Parakeet and its Psittacara relatives in the same cities have a pale, horn-coloured bill and red on the head instead of a black mask. Monk Parakeet, which shares the same parks, has a grey breast and lacks the black facial mask entirely. The black mask combined with the black bill is the surest mark for Nanday Parakeet.

Habitat

Scrub, forest edge, open savanna, pasture and stockyard country in its native range. In this region mainly suburbs, parks and farmyards in south Florida, south Texas and southern California, drawn to feeders and fruiting trees.

Where the bird is most often found, arranged by the USNVC — the vegetation classification of the United States and Canada — and CMECS for sea and coast.

Range and movements

Its original range lies in the Pantanal and adjoining savannas, from southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil to central Paraguay and northern Argentina; that falls outside the guide area. In North America it is naturalised from escaped cage birds: established groups live in Los Angeles, in San Antonio, Texas, and in several counties of western and southern Florida, including Sarasota, Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. Smaller, introduced groups have also been reported near Mexico City. It does not migrate: the birds stay in the same area all year.

Resident
Winter
Passage
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

The map is a density field, not a drawn range boundary: it is built from the records themselves and therefore does not follow state or national borders. Both the seasonal colour and the depth of colour come, cell by cell, from the records of GBIF (2006–2026), counted per 0,7° cell and divided by all bird records in that same cell, so that the density of birdwatchers does not count. Every cell is counted separately for June–July, December–January and the migration months, and takes the colour of the season that wins there; a cell is only called summer or winter where the other season is nearly empty. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). This species occupies a small area; the map is zoomed in on it.

Where and when to look

Watch the face: a crisp black mask and a black bill on an otherwise green bird are not matched by any other naturalised parakeet in this region. Flocks are loudest as they arrive at or leave a shared roost, around sunrise and sunset.

Conservation

The species is listed worldwide as Least Concern (LC) and numerous across its native range. The naturalised populations in Florida, Texas and California are increasing; reported damage in this region is limited to occasional fruit pecking in gardens.

Scientific name

Aratinga nenday | (Vieillot, 1823)

Vieillot described the bird in 1823 as Psittacus nenday; because it was later moved to another genus, author and year stand in parentheses. The genus Aratinga was introduced by Spix in 1824, from Tupi ara tinga, 'bright macaw' or 'bright parrot'. nenday imitates the call, and is also the name the bird carries in parts of South America.