The peach-fronted parakeet (''Eupsittula aurea''), more commonly known as the peach-fronted conure in aviculture, is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Psittacidae The family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the roughly 10 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Old World or Afrotropical parrots) and 157 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or Neotro ...

. It is widespread and often common in semi-open and open habitats in eastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, far northern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

and southern

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

( Sipaliwini Savanna). Both its

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally ...

and scientific name is a reference to the orange-yellow forehead, although this is reduced in juveniles.

Taxonomy

The peach-fronted parakeet was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of

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, ...

's ''

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 aurius''. Gmelin based his description on earlier publications. In 1758 the English naturalist George Edwards had described and illustrated the species with the English name, the "golden-crowned parakeet". The peach-fronted parakeet in now one of five parakeets 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 ''psittula'' meaning "little parrot". The specific epithet ''aurius'' 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 "golden. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

: no subspecies are recognised.

Description

The peach-fronted parakeet has a peach cap, white round the eye and green plumage. peach-fronted parakeets are

sexually monomorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most anim ...

. Juvenile peach-fronted parakeets resemble adults, with a much smaller peach crown, with no white eye ring.

Gallery

File:Aratinga aurea -Chapada das Mesas National Park -Brazil-8.jpg Image:Peach-fronted Parakeet (Aratinga aurea)-4-3c.jpg

References

* Juniper, T., & M. Parr (1998). ''A Guide to the Parrots of the World.'' Pica Press, East Sussex.

External links

* Eupsittula Birds of South America Birds of Brazil Birds of Paraguay Birds of Argentina Birds of Bolivia Birds of the Guianas Birds of the Pantanal Birds of the Cerrado Birds of the Caatinga Birds described in 1788 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{parrot-stub