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Socorro Parakeet | Psittacara brevipes
Socorroaratinga | Perico de Socorro
The Socorro Parakeet is a medium-sized, all-green parakeet found only on Isla Socorro, the largest of the Revillagigedo Islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 450 km south of the tip of Baja California. It was long regarded as a subspecies of the Green Parakeet. It is the only parrot on the island.
Voice
Shrill, grating calls, similar to those of the Green Parakeet; a high kreek, often repeated in flight.
Recording: Alán Palacios — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
31–33 cm, with a long, pointed tail. All green, slightly more yellowish below, with no red on the head or throat. The underside of the flight feathers and tail is olive-yellow. The eye is orange-red with a bare, purplish-brown eye-ring; the bill is horn-coloured and the legs are brownish and relatively short. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
No other parrots occur on Isla Socorro. The Green Parakeet Psittacara holochlorus of the mainland is very similar, but often has a few red feathers on the head or throat and a paler eye-ring.
Habitat
Evergreen and semi-evergreen forest on the slopes of the volcano Cerro Evermann, mostly above 500 m, and scrub and wooded ravines lower on the island. It eats fruit, seeds and flowers. It nests in a tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Only on Isla Socorro in the Revillagigedo Islands (Colima, Mexico), in the Pacific Ocean. It occurs nowhere else.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Isla Socorro is part of a national park and biosphere reserve that also has a naval base; landing is only possible with a permit. On the island the birds are best found in the forests on the higher slopes, where small groups fly calling loudly between the trees.
Conservation status
Not evaluated separately; the IUCN includes it in the Green Parakeet, which as a whole is not threatened. The Socorro Parakeet itself is seriously threatened: around 2007 the population was estimated at about 300 birds, fewer than in the early 1990s. Grazing by feral sheep has damaged the forest and feral cats prey on the birds; the sheep have since been removed and the cats are being controlled.
Scientific name
Psittacara brevipes | (Lawrence, 1871) (GBIF: Aratinga holochlora)
Lawrence described the species in 1871 as Conurus holochlorus var. brevipes; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Psittacara was introduced in 1825 by Vigors. Psittacara joins Greek psittakos 'parrot', Latin psittacus, with the genus name Ara, the macaws. brevipes is Latin, from brevis 'short' and pes 'foot', after the shorter legs than in the Green Parakeet. The specimen the first description was based on came from Socorro Island, Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico.