The brown-necked parrot (''Poicephalus fuscicollis''), sometimes known in aviculture as the uncape parrot, is a large ''Poicephalus'' parrot species endemic to Africa. It consists of two subspecies: the savanna-dwelling brown-necked parrot (''P. fuscicollis fuscicollis'') and grey-headed parrot (''P. f. suahelicus'') subspecies. It formerly included the

Cape parrot The Cape parrot (''Poicephalus robustus'') or Levaillant's parrot is a large, temperate forest dwelling parrot of the genus ''Poicephalus'' endemic to South Africa. It was formerly grouped as a subspecies along with the savanna-dwelling brown-nec ...

(now ''Poicephalus robustus'') as a subspecies before the Cape parrot was re-classified as a distinct species.

Taxonomy

German naturalist

Heinrich Kuhl Heinrich Kuhl (17 September 1797 – 14 September 1821) was a German naturalist and zoologist. Kuhl was born in Hanau (Hesse, Germany). Between 1817 and 1820, he was the assistant of professor Th. van Swinderen, docent natural history at the ...

described the brown-necked

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

in his 1819 work ''Conspectus Psittacorum''. Although unsure of its country of origin, he felt it was definitely a distinct species and related to the Cape parrot. The species name is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

words ''fuscus'' "dark" and ''collum'' "neck". South Africa-based ornithologist

Phillip Clancey Phillip Alexander Clancey (26 September 1917 – 18 July 2001) was a leading authority on the ornithology of South Africa. Background and education Phillip Clancey was born, brought up and educated in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the Gl ...

proposed the Cape and brown-necked parrots were separate species in 1997 based on the shape and size of the bill, head coloration and preferred habitat. Mike Perrin observed that species status would facilitate protection of the endangered Cape parrot.Perrin, M.R. 2005. A review of the taxonomic status and biology of the Cape Parrot ''Poicephalus robustus'', with reference to the Brown-headed Parrot ''P. fuscicollis fuscicollis'' and the Grey-headed Parrot ''P. f. suahelicus''. Ostrich 76: 195–205 Genetic analysis of the three

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

published in 2015 supported the distinctness of brown-necked and cape parrots, showing that ancestors of the two had diverged between 2.13 and 2.67 million years ago—in the late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

epoch. This period was a period of changes in climate, where grassland and forest were expanding and contracting, which led to isolation and eventually speciation of separate populations. The old name for the three taxa was Cape parrot, with virtually all the individuals in captivity belonging to what became ''P. fuscicollis''. Jean Pattison called them Uncape parrots because of this.

Description

The largest member of its genus, the brown-necked parrot has a relatively large head and bill, and stocky build. It has a light grey head. The nominate subspecies ''fuscicollis'' has a bluer sheen to its plumage than ''suahelicus''. The upperparts are yellow-green and underparts greenish. Grey-headed parrot

Distribution

Subspecies ''fuscicollis'' is found in west Africa from Gambia and southern Senegal to Ghana and Togo. Locally common in places, it appears to have declined in Senegal and Gambia. Subspecies ''suahelicus'' is found in southern Africa from southern Congo and Tanzania to northern Namibia and south to northern South Africa.

Aviculture

The species adapts readily to captivity and is seen in the pet trade.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1543843

brown-necked parrot The brown-necked parrot (''Poicephalus fuscicollis''), sometimes known in aviculture as the uncape parrot, is a large ''Poicephalus'' parrot species endemic to Africa. It consists of two subspecies: the savanna-dwelling brown-necked parrot ('' ...

Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa