The slaty-headed parakeet (''Psittacula himalayana'') is the only psittacid species to exhibit

altitudinal migration Altitudinal migration is a short-distance animal migration from lower altitudes to higher altitudes and back. Altitudinal migrants change their elevation with the seasons making this form of animal migration seasonal. Altitudinal migration can be ...

. The species' range extends from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, to Western

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

through

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

and up to the

Eastern Himalayas ] The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. I ...

in the northeastern Indian state of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

. They descend to the valleys in winter, approximately during the last week of October.

Description

Adults of both sexes have green (tinted with blue)

feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and an exa ...

s on most of their body. It has a dark grey (slate colored) head with a light blue tint where head meets the neck.

Male Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...

s feature dark maroon patches on inner wing coverts.

Female An organism's sex is female ( symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and ...

s do not feature these maroon patches. Males have long central tail feathers which are shorter in female birds. The tail is green at base and becomes deep blue and widely tipped with bright yellow. The parakeet features a bright red-orange upper mandible with a pale yellow lower. It also has a pale yellow eye.

Distribution and population

The slaty-headed parakeet has a wide range throughout the

and surrounding areas. This bird is found is western

, most of

, and in the following the Indian states;

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

,(southern)

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. It is can also be found in a small area north of

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

and in the southern areas of the

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

. The bird can also be found in small pockets of mountainous areas in the provinces of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, Logar,

Nangarhar Nangarhār (Pashto: ; Dari: ), also called Nangrahar or Ningrahar, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country and bordering Logar, Kabul, Laghman and Kunar provinces as well as having an internatio ...

, and

Paktia Paktia (Pashto – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 623,0 ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Ecology and behavior

The species is usually found at elevations of 460–2400 meters in its natural habitat of highland/hillside forest and valley woodlands. They are usually observed in small flocks or family groups in search for their diet of various fruits (wild and agriculturally grown), nuts, pine nuts, seeds, nectar, and acorns. Multiple larger flocks are usually seen near the end of the wet season, where they descend into the valleys for most of winter. It is common for to see them mingle with other parakeet species such as the

rose-ringed parakeet The rose-ringed parakeet (''Psittacula krameri''), also known as the ring-necked parakeet, ringneck parrot (in aviculture) or the Kramer parrot, is a medium-sized parrot in the genus ''Psittacula'', of the Family (biology), family Psittacidae. It ...

plum-headed parakeet The plum-headed parakeet (''Psittacula cyanocephala'') is a species of parakeet in the family Psittacidae. It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent and was once thought to be conspecific with the blossom-headed parakeet (''P. roseata'') before b ...

, and

blossom-headed parakeet The Blossom-headed parakeet, ''Psittacula roseata'' or ''Himalayapsitta roseata,'' is a parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It has a lime green body and a pink or bluish grey-head and is found in Southeast Asia. This species is sometimes also ref ...

. Females usually lay 4-5 eggs of about 28.5 x 22 mm. The eggs incubate for approximately 23–24 days before hatching. In their Afghanistan range, this bird will often nest in abandoned nest cavities of the scaly-bellied woodpecker, and these species may nest in close proximity to each other for security against predators. The slaty-headed parakeet usually breeds within the months of March–May. It has as typical lifespan of 15–17 years.

References

External links

Oriental Bird Images: ''Slaty-headed Parakeet''
Selected photos {{Taxonbar, from=Q110279166, from2=Q1036497 slaty-headed parakeet Birds of the Himalayas Birds of Nepal Birds of Pakistan slaty-headed parakeet Parakeets Taxa named by René Lesson