Parrots | Psittaciformes

Papegaaiachtigen | Parrots | Loros y cotorras

The bill is short, deep and strongly hooked, and the upper mandible is hinged to the skull so that it can move on its own; at its base lies a waxy skin holding the nostrils. The foot has two toes forward and two back and is used like a hand: food is picked up and brought to the bill, where it is husked and cracked rather than swallowed whole. The red and yellow in the plumage come from pigments found only in this group; combined with the blue reflection of the feather structure they produce the familiar green. They are cavity nesters with white, almost round eggs and naked, helpless young; they live long, live in groups and have loud calls. In the Andes and along the west coast the order consists of 87 species of New World parrots, from small parakeets to amazons and macaws, with the greatest variety in the Amazonian foothills on the eastern slope. Most nest in tree holes, some parakeets in a hollowed-out arboreal termite nest, the Yellow-eared Parrot in the wax palms of Colombia and Ecuador and the Red-fronted Macaw in cliffs in the dry valleys of Bolivia. Logging and trapping for the pet trade have greatly reduced many species. In addition, escaped cage birds from elsewhere turn up here and there.

Famílias desta ordem

African and New World parrots | Psittacidae87 espéciesThe parrots of Africa and those of the New World together form this family; in the Andes and along the west coast it numbers 87 species in twenty-six genera, from small parakeets (Brotogeris, Forpus) through the amazons (Amazona) to the large macaws (Ara), such as Scarlet Macaw and Great Green Macaw. The plumage is mainly green, with red, yellow, blue or white on the head, wing or tail; the sexes usually look much alike. High in the Andes live species of their own, such as the mountain parakeets (Bolborhynchus, Psilopsiagon) and the Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus), which in the Colombian Andes depends on wax palms. The strong, hooked bill cracks hard seeds and stones, often still unripe, and fruit, blossom and nectar are taken as well; the foot serves as a hand to hold food. The flight is fast and direct, with shallow beats, and comes with shrill, far-carrying calls that nearly always give the birds away before they can be seen. They live in pairs within flocks that move morning and evening between communal roosts and feeding trees, and nest in a tree hole, a few parakeets in a termite nest; usually the female alone incubates and is fed by the male. Several species are threatened by deforestation and capture for the cage-bird trade.