Blue-headed parrot

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Blue-headed parrot
Pionus menstruus -in captivity.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Superfamily: Psittacoidea
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Arinae
Tribe: Androglossini
Genus: Pionus
Species: P. menstruus
Binomial name
Pionus menstruus
(Linnaeus, 1766)

The blue-headed parrot, also known as the blue-headed pionus (Pionus menstruus) is a medium large parrot. It is about 27 cm long and they are mainly green with a blue head and neck, and red under tail feathers.[2] It is a resident bird in tropical and subtropical South America and southern Central America, from Costa Rica, Venezuela and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Brazil. It is named for its medium-blue head and neck.



Blue-headed pionus parrots are popular as pets.[2] Compared to other parrot species (Amazons for example) they are very quiet. They are affectionate, but not known for their talking ability.


At La Senda Verde Animal Refuge, Bolivia

The blue-headed parrot is about 28 cm (11 in)[2] long and weighs 245 g. It is mainly green with a blue head, neck and upper breast, red undertail coverts, and some yellowish on the wing coverts. The upper mandible is black with reddish areas on both sides.[2] They have dark ear patches. In addition to the well-known nominate subspecies found throughout most of the species' South American range, there are two more localized subspecies: rubrigularis from southern Central America and the Chocó has an overall paler plumage and typically a relatively distinct pinkish patch on the throat, and reichenowi from the Atlantic Forest in east Brazil has a paler bill and most of the underparts blue. In all subspecies the male and the female are alike, and juvenile birds have less blue on the head, as well as red or pinkish feathers around the ceres. They moult into their adult plumage at about 8 months of age, but it can take up to two years for the full blue hood to emerge.


In South America, the blue-headed parrot is mainly an Amazonian species, including in the southeast the neighboring Araguaia-Tocantins River system as its eastern limit; a disjunct population lives southeastwards on Brazil's South Atlantic coast, a coastal strip from Pernambuco in the north to Espírito Santo state in the south, about 1500 km long. In northwest South America the range continues into Central American Panama to Costa Rica. It avoids the northern Andes cordillera spine, and a smaller contiguous area of central Venezuela and northern Colombia. A Pacific Ocean coastal strip continues the range, from southern Ecuador, north to Caribbean areas of northwestern Colombia and western Venezuela.


At a clay lick in Peru

Food and feeding

They eat fruit and seeds, and sometimes grain.


The blue-headed parrot nests in tree cavities. The eggs are white and there are usually three to five in a clutch. The female incubates the eggs for about 26 days and the chicks leave the nest about 70 days after hatching.[2]



  1. ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Pionus menstruus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Alderton, David (2003). The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Caged and Aviary Birds. London, England: Hermes House. p. 229. ISBN 1-84309-164-X. 

External links

  • World Parrot Trust Parrot Encyclopedia - Species Profile
  • Blue-headed parrot videos on the Internet Bird Collection
  • Stamps (for Suriname) with RangeMap
  • Blue-headed parrot photo gallery VIREO--(includes Clay-cliffs photos) Photo-High Res
  • Photo-High Res; Article—"Suriname Birds"--Photo-2

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