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Spot-winged Parrotlet | Touit stictopterus
Vlekvleugelpapegaai | Periquito alipunteado | Apuim-de-asa-pintada
The Spot-winged Parrotlet is a small, short-tailed parrot of the montane forests in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It lives high in the canopy, in pairs or small groups, and is scarce and local over most of its range. The male has dark wing coverts with pale spots, which give the species its name.
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Voice
A harsh, nasal call, often in short series, mainly in flight.
Recording: Lelis Navarrete — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17–18 cm, stocky, with a short, square tail and a pale bill. The plumage is green, slightly more yellowish below. The male has dark brown wing coverts with whitish tips that form a spotted pattern on the wing, and a small orange patch on the outer secondaries. The female has green wing coverts with small dark spots and lacks the orange. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
Blue-fronted Parrotlet Touit dilectissimus has a blue forehead and red on the face and lives on the western side of the Andes. Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet Touit purpuratus has a blue rump and a dark band across the back, and lives in the lowlands. Barred Parakeet Bolborhynchus lineola is finely barred black and has a pointed tail. Rusty-faced Parrot Hapalopsittaca amazonina is larger, with a reddish-brown face and a longer tail.
Habitat
Humid montane and foothill forest, mainly on the eastern slope of the Andes, roughly between 1000 and 2400 m, also forest edges and tall secondary growth. It eats fruit and seeds in the canopy. Little is known about breeding.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia at scattered sites in the Andes, mainly on the eastern slope of the Eastern Andes. In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes, mainly in the south, including the Cordillera del Cóndor. In Peru in the north, in Amazonas, Cajamarca and San Martín. 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 the montane forests of south-eastern Ecuador, such as the Cordillera del Cóndor, and the montane forests of San Martín and Amazonas in Peru. Watch for small groups flying high over the forest with harsh calls.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The species has a fragmented range and is losing habitat to deforestation, road building and mining on the eastern slope of the Andes.
Scientific name
Touit stictopterus | (Sclater, 1862)
Sclater described the species in 1862 as Urochroma stictoptera; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Touit was introduced in 1855 by Gray. The genus name comes from the extinct Tupi language, in which tuí eté means 'really little parrot'; Marcgrave used 'Tuiete' for a small parrot as early as 1648. The species name comes from Greek stiktos, 'spotted', and pteron, 'wing', for the pale spots on the wings. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.