Parrots | Psittacidae

Papegaaien | Loros

The parrots of Africa and those of the New World make up this family; in southern Africa it is represented by Poicephalus, a genus of thickset parrots with a large head, a short square-cut tail and a heavy grey-black to horn-coloured bill. The plumage is largely green, with a brown, grey or blackish head set off sharply from the body, and with yellow or red on the bend of the wing, the thighs, the crown or the rump; in a few species the female differs from the male in the colour of crown or forehead. The bill cracks the hard kernels of marula, mopane and other hardwood fruits, the flesh often being discarded; blossom, nectar and unripe seed are taken as well. The flight is fast and direct, with stiff shallow beats below the line of the body, and a shrill far-carrying call that almost always betrays the birds before they are seen. They live in pairs and small parties that move between fixed roost trees and feeding trees at first light and towards dusk, and breed in an unlined rot cavity or old woodpecker hole, where the female incubates alone and is fed by the male.