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Pacific Parrotlet | Forpus coelestis
Grijsrugmuspapegaai | Periquito del Pacífico | Tuim-do-pacífico
The Pacific Parrotlet is the parrotlet of the dry Pacific side of Ecuador and Peru. It is one of the characteristic species of the Tumbesian region, where it is common in dry forest, scrub, farmland and villages. Groups move through the bushes with high-pitched chattering and often drop to the ground to feed on seeds.
Voice
A high, shrill tsit and rapid chirping, often from whole groups; in flight a dry chattering.
Recording: Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a short, wedge-shaped tail and a pale, pinkish bill. The head and underparts are green, with a brighter green forehead and face; the mantle and back are greyish green. The male has a blue streak behind the eye, a cobalt-blue rump and cobalt-blue wing coverts and secondaries. The female has a fainter streak behind the eye, a less blue rump and no blue in the wing. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
Yellow-faced Parrotlet Forpus xanthops is larger, with a yellow face and forehead, and lives only in the dry Marañón valley. Grey-cheeked Parakeet Brotogeris pyrrhoptera is larger, with a longer, pointed tail, grey cheeks and orange underwing coverts. Spectacled Parrotlet Forpus conspicillatus lacks the grey back and the blue streak behind the eye, and lives in Colombia.
Habitat
Dry deciduous forest, thorn scrub, scrubland, edges of more humid forest, fields, orchards, gardens and villages, from sea level to about 1500 m, locally higher. It eats seeds of grasses and herbs, also fruit and flowers. It nests in a cavity in a tree or post.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Ecuador in the western lowlands and on the lower western slopes, from Manabí and western Pichincha south to El Oro and Loja; in recent years also reported from dry Andean valleys in the north, such as in Imbabura. In Peru in the dry north-west, from Tumbes and Piura south to about La Libertad, with scattered records farther south. In Colombia there are records from the south-west; whether the species occurs there naturally is unclear. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search dry forest, gardens and fields around Guayaquil, on the Santa Elena peninsula or in north-western Peru, such as around Piura and Chiclayo. Small groups often perch in bushes or on power lines.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in a fairly small range and adapted to farmland and villages; locally trapped for the cage-bird trade.
Scientific name
Forpus coelestis | (Lesson, 1847)
Lesson described the species in 1847 as Agapornis coelestis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Forpus was introduced in 1858 by Boie. The genus name, introduced by Boie in 1858, is probably arbitrary. It may come from Greek phoreō, 'to possess', and pous, 'foot', for the dexterous toes; according to Prestwich (1963) it is an anagram of Latin profus, 'spread out', for the short, wedge-shaped tail. The species name is Latin caelestis, 'heavenly, sky-blue', for the blue in the plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Peru.