The orange-fronted parakeet or orange-fronted conure (''Eupsittula canicularis''), also known as the half-moon conure, is a medium-sized

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 Psittaco ...

that is resident from western

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

to Costa Rica.

Taxonomy

The orange-fronted parakeet was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nom ...

''. He placed it with all the other parrots in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Psittacus ''Psittacus'' is a genus of African grey parrots in the subfamily Psittacinae. It contains the two species: the grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus'') and the Timneh parrot (''Psittacus timneh''). For many years, the grey parrot and Timneh parr ...

'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Psittacus canicularis''. The

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

is northwestern Costa Rica. Linnaeus based his description on the "red and blue-headed parakeet" that had been described and illustrated in 1751 by the English naturalist George Edwards in the fourth part of his ''A Natural History of Common Birds''. The orange-fronted parakeet is now one of five species placed in the genus ''

Eupsittula ''Eupsittula'' is a genus of South and Middle American parakeets in the tribe Arini. Until 2013, all the species were believed to belong to the genus '' Aratinga''. Some of the ''Eupsittula'' species are kept in aviculture or as companion p ...

'' that was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''eu'' meaning "good" with the

Modern Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

''psittula'' meaning "little parrot". The specific epithet ''canicularis'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power ...

meaning "of the bright star

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CMa ...

". Three subspecies are recognised: * ''E. c. clarae'' ( Moore, RT, 1937) – west-central Mexico * ''E. c. eburnirostrum'' ( Lesson, R, 1842) – southwest Mexico * ''E. c. canicularis'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, t ...

, 1758) – south Mexico to west Costa Rica

Description

The orange-fronted parakeet is long and weighs . The adult is mainly green, paler and yellower below and with an olive tone to the breast. The wings have blue outer primaries and yellow linings, and the pointed tail is tipped with blue. The head is distinctive, with a blue crown, orange forehead, bare yellow eye-ring, yellow iris and white bill. Young birds are similar to the adults, but with much less orange on the forehead.

Habitat and range

It is found in lowlands and foothills on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

side of the central mountain ranges in forest canopy and edges, and more open woodland, including savanna and second growth.

Behaviour

The orange-fronted parakeet feeds in flocks which can reach 100 birds outside the breeding season, taking various seeds, flowers and fruits including

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s. Its flight call is a raucous ''can-can-can'', and when perched it has a reedy ''zeeweet''.

Breeding

The 3–5 white

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s are laid in an unlined nest cavity, usually self-excavated in an arboreal

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...

nest of the termite species ''

Nasutitermes nigriceps ''Nasutitermes'' is a genus of termites with a tropical distribution world-wide. Species The ''Termite Catalogue'' lists the following: # ''Nasutitermes acajutlae'' # ''Nasutitermes acangussu'' # ''Nasutitermes acutus'' # ''Nasutitermes adu ...

'', but sometimes in an old

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar region ...

hole or natural cavity. Both the male and female half-moon conures excavate a cavity in the termite mound using their beaks (the male doing the majority of the digging) over the course of about a week. Following this, the birds leave the new cavity alone for 7-10 days, to allow time for the termites to seal off and abandon the damaged area. They then return and proceed to nest inside. Conure activity often causes the eventual disintegration of the termite nest due to irreparable structural damage, which provides an opportunity to predatory ants to enter the colony.

Aviculture

The orange-fronted parakeet (more commonly known as the half-moon conure in aviculture) is sometimes kept as a

companion parrot A companion parrot is a parrot kept as a pet that interacts abundantly with its human counterpart. Generally, most species of parrot can make excellent companions, but must be carefully managed around other common pet species like dogs and cats ...

. An excitable, energetic bird that enjoys climbing and playing, it tends to be quieter than some other conure species and is good-natured when properly socialized. It is not noted as a

talking bird Talking birds are birds that can mimic the speech of humans. There is debate within the scientific community over whether some talking parrots also have some cognitive understanding of the language. Birds have varying degrees of talking ability: ...

, but may mimic a few words or sounds. In order to remain healthy, it requires regular mental stimulation and time outside of its cage in which to fly. The population has decreased in many areas due to persecution for the

pet trade Wildlife trade refers to the of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, ti ...

Gallery

File:Aratinga canicularis -Costa Rica -two-8.jpg, Two birds in Mexico File:Aratinga canicularis.JPG, Pet orange-fronted parakeet File:Aratinga canicularis -caged in Mexico.jpg, Pet orange-fronted parakeet in a cage in Guatemala File:Aratinga canicularis -pet-4-3c.jpg, Pet orange-fronted parakeet in garden File:Chocoyo.JPG, Chocoyo in El Crucero, Nicaragua

References

External links

* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q27074957 Birds described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Birds of Central America Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Guatemala Birds of Mexico Eupsittula Natural history of the Mexican Plateau