The brown-hooded parrot (''Pyrilia haematotis'') is a species of bird in subfamily

Arinae The neotropical parrots or New World parrots comprise about 150 species in 32 genera found throughout South America, South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean islands and the southern United States. Among them are some of the most familia ...

of the family

Psittacidae The Family (biology), family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the 12 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Afrotropics, Afrotropical parrots) and 167 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or ...

, the African and New World parrots. It is found from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The brown-hooded parrot and the other six members of genus ''Pyrilia'' were until the early 21st century included in genus ''Pionopsitta'' with the pileated parrot (''P. pileata'').Tavares, E.S., Baker, A.J., Pereira, S.L. and Miyaki, C.Y. (2006). Phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of Neotropical parrots (Psittaciformes: Psittacidae: Arini) inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. Syst. Biol. 55(3): 454–470 The brown-hooded and rose-faced parrot (''Pyrilia pulchra'') have at times been treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

and are now considered

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023 The brown-hooded parrot has two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''P. h. haematotis'' ( Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1860) and ''P. h. coccinicollaris'' ( Lawrence, 1862). The latter has at times been suggested as a separate species but this treatment has not been accepted.

Description

The brown-hooded parrot is long and weighs . Adults have a reddish brown crown, ear

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

, and throat, a pinkish red patch behind the eye, and white nares and eye ring. Their nape and breast are dull olive-yellow and their flanks red. Most of the rest of their body is green, with blue on the wing edge, blackish blue on the flight feathers, and blue on the tips of the tail feathers. Subspecies ''P. h. coccinicollaris'' adds some pinkish red below the dark throat that sometimes extends around the neck. Immature birds are much like adults but with a paler head, no red patch behind the eye, and a greener breast.Collar, N. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Brown-hooded Parrot (''Pyrilia haematotis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.brhpar1.01 retrieved February 23, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of the brown-hooded parrot is found from

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

and

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

in southeastern Mexico south on the Caribbean slope through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and thence on both slopes in Costa Rica and western Panama. ''P. h. coccinicollaris'' is found from approximately the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

into northwestern Colombia's Chocó,

Antioquia Antioquia is the Spanish form of Antioch. Antioquia may also refer to: * Antioquia Department Antioquia () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders th ...

, and Córdoba departments. The species inhabits the canopy and edges of humid

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, ...

, and mature

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to but occurs as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The brown-hooded parrot is thought to make some seasonal elevational movements or, at least in Costa Rica, moving to lower elevation after breeding fairly high.

Feeding

The brown-hooded parrot forages in the canopy and forest edge. Its diet is mostly fruits and seeds from trees and

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s; figs (''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

'') appear to be favored. It has also been observed feeding on mistletoe leaves.

Breeding

The brown-hooded parrot's breeding season appears to vary geographically but is not well defined. It nests in a cavity in a tree. The clutch size, incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

The brown-hooded parrot's flight call has been described as "a clear chirruping ''kee-reek'' or ''curicu-reek''" and also as "a high-pitched ''chreea, cheea''". When perched is makes other, rather melodious calls "ranging from yelps to various gurgling and squeaking notes".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the brown-hooded parrot as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. Logging of its habitat is the only identified threat, and it does not appear to be severe. It "is fairly common over much of tsrange and suffers very little persecution even locally from trapping".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1062472 brown-hooded parrot Birds of Belize Birds of Central America brown-hooded parrot brown-hooded parrot brown-hooded parrot