Black-capped Parakeet

Taxobox
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
name = Black-capped Parakeet


caption = need picture
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Psittaciformes
familia = Psittacidae
genus = "Pyrrhura"
species = "P. rupicola"
binomial = "Pyrrhura rupicola"
binomial_authority = (Tschudi, 1844)

The Black-capped Parakeet, "Pyrrhura rupicola", also known as the Black-capped Conure, the Rock Conure or the Sandia Conure, is a parrot in the western Amazon basin from Peru to Bolivia and possibly the western edge of Brazil. It is 25cm, mostly green with a dark brown-black cap, whitish scaly neck & breast, red wing coverts (upper, not lower - along leading edge) and a black beak. The breast feathers are dark with light tips, rather than the opposite.

It lives in humid lowland forsts, less often in east Andean foothills up to 300m. While its habitat is being disturbed, part is protected (e.g., in Peru's Manu National Park). Flock size 20-30, smaller in breeding season.

There may be two subspecies. If so, they would be:
* P. r. "rupicola": Central Peru.
* P. r. "sandiae": SE Peru and N Bolivia (and possibly W. Brazil). Narrower pale edges on breast & neck feathers, absent on hind neck.

A apparent Black-capped Green-cheeked hybrid was found in Puno, Peru, so it is also possible that this species is conspecific with the Green-cheeked Conure. Which in turn is possibly conspecific with the Maroon-bellied conure, so they could all be one conure species with high variability over a wide geographic range.

References

"Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World"; 1998, ISBN 0-300-07453-0.