Pileated Parrot

Pileated Parrot
Pileated Parrot
male
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Psittacinae
Tribe: Arini
Genus: Pionopsitta
Bonaparte, 1854
Species: P. pileata
Binomial name
Pionopsitta pileata
(Scopoli, 1769)

The Pileated Parrot (Pionopsitta pileata), also known as the Red-capped Parrot (leading to easy confusion with the Australia Purpureicephalus spurius), is a medium-small species of parrot with a total length of about 22 cm (8½ in). It is found in or near Atlantic Forest in south-eastern Brazil, far north-eastern Argentina, and eastern Paraguay. A local name in Paraguayan Guaraní is Cúiu Cúiu.

Unlike all other species previously placed in the genus Pionopsitta, the Pileated Parrot does not have a contrasting brownish-olive chest, and recently it was established via mtDNA that it is indeed distinct enough for the others to be moved into a separate genus, Pyrilia, again making Pionopsitta monotypic. The plumage of the Pileated Parrot is overall green with bluish flight feathers, a faint brownish-maroon auricular patch (lacking in juveniles) and, in the male, a bright red forehead that extends down to just below the eyes.

References

  • BirdLife International 2004. Pionopsitta pileata. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 24 July 2007.
  • Ribas, C., R. Gaban-Lima, C. Miyaki, and J. Cracraft (2005). Historical biogeography and diversification within the Neotropical parrot genus Pionopsitta (Aves: Psittacidae). Journal Biogeography 32:1409-1427.