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Black-headed Parrot | Pionites melanocephalus
Zwartkopcaique | Loro coroninegro | Marianinha-de-cabeça-preta
The Black-headed Parrot is a stocky, noisy parrot with a black cap and a white belly, belonging to the genus Pionites. In the guide area it lives in the Amazonian lowlands north of the Amazon and the Marañón; south of them it is replaced by the White-bellied Parrot. Small groups move agilely through the canopy, often hanging and clambering.
Voice
High, shrill, screeching calls such as a repeated klee-ak, and a wide variety of whistles and chatter. Groups are noisy both in flight and when perched.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
23 cm, stocky, with a short, square tail. The crown is black, with a narrow green streak below the eye. The cheeks, throat and nape are yellowish orange. The back, wings and tail are green, the flight feathers partly blue. The breast and belly are creamy white; the thighs and undertail coverts are yellow to orange-yellow, paler yellow in birds from the west of the range. The bill is black, the eye orange-red. The sexes are alike; juveniles have a buffy wash on the belly and a dark eye.
Confusion species
White-bellied Parrot Pionites leucogaster lacks the black cap, having an apricot crown and a pale bill; it lives south of the Amazon and the Marañón. Orange-cheeked Parrot Pyrilia barrabandi has a black head with an orange-yellow cheek patch, but a green breast and belly. Blue-headed Parrot Pionus menstruus is larger, with a blue head and a green belly.
Habitat
Humid lowland terra firme and várzea forest, also forest edges and tall secondary forest, up to about 1000 m at the foot of the Andes. It eats fruit, seeds and flowers high in the canopy. It lives in pairs and groups of five to ten birds. The nest is in a tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the lowlands east of the Andes, from Meta and Guainía to Putumayo and Amazonas. In Ecuador throughout the eastern lowlands. In Peru north of the Amazon and the Marañón. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search from canopy towers and along forest edges in eastern Ecuador or around Iquitos; groups give themselves away by their shrill calls. They also visit clay licks to eat soil.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range in largely intact forest; locally it is captured for the cage-bird trade.
Scientific name
Pionites melanocephalus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Psittacus melanocephalus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pionites was introduced in 1890 by Heine. The genus name is derived from the genus Pionus with the Greek suffix -itēs, 'resembling'. The species name comes from Greek melas, 'black', and kephalē, 'head'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Venezuela.