El Oro parakeet

The El Oro parakeet, conure D'Orcès, cotorra de El Oro, or perico de El Oro (Pyrrhura orcesi) is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae, endemic to Ecuador. It is a relatively newly identified species, having been discovered in 1980. Little is currently known about it.

El Oro parakeet
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Genus: Pyrrhura
Species:
P. orcesi
Binomial name
Pyrrhura orcesi
Ridgely & Robbins, 1988

Description

The body is mostly covered by a darkish green color with a red forehead (the females lack the red forehead). The edges of the wings, and the end of the tail, also have this same red color. On the outer edges of the wings, there is a bluish color. Feet are dark grey, the eyes are surrounded by a white circle and the bill is horn colored. It is approximately 22 cm long and weighs 73 g.

The juveniles have duller colors and a reduced red forehead.

Behavior

Their flocks can have from 4 to 12 members and the breeding seasons are between March and June. They eat mostly fruit and seeds in the canopy of the forests. The young are fed regurgitated food from the adults. Bird calls are short, high-pitched shrills and squeaks that continue throughout flight and while foraging for food. They are very social, like most parrots, and fly and eat in large groups. El Oro parakeets breed cooperatively, a breeding pair being accompanied by up to 6 helper individuals.[2]

Conservation

It is endangered because of extreme deforestation and forest fragmentation for cattle ranching, which causes habitat degradation. This degradation destroys the nesting sites and feeding areas the birds rely on to survive and reproduce at a healthy rate. The habitat is restricted to only the west Andes of Ecuador and because of this the sensitivity to its habitat destruction is heavy. Protection for some of this species' habitat has been established in the Buenaventura Ecological Reserve. In the reserves, bird houses have been built in the trees to help promote reproduction and has had some success. Further projects have been proposed to assess the population size.

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References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Pyrrhura orcesi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Klauke, Nadine; Segelbacher, Gernot; Schaefer, H. M. (April 2013). "Reproductive success depends on the quality of helpers in the endangered, cooperative El Oro parakeet (Pyrrhura orcesi)". Molecular Ecology. 22 (7): 2011–2027. doi:10.1111/mec.12219.
  • Ridgely, Robert S., and Mark B. Robbins. "PYRRHURA ORCESI, A NEW PARAKEET FROM SOUTHWESTERN ECUADOR, WITH SYSTEMATIC NOTES ON THE P. MELANURA COMPLEX." The Wilson Bulletin 100.2 (1987): 173–82. Google Docs. Web. 1 May 2010.
  • Schaefer, H. M., and Veronika Schmidt. Final Report El Oro Parakeet Project, Southwestern Ecuador 2002–2003. Rep. Google Docs. Web. 1 May 2010. <https://web.archive.org/web/20110719031618/http://www.fjocotoco.org/pdf/final-report-pyrrhura.pdf>.
  • Ridgely, and Robbins. "Lexicon of Parrots." Lexicon of Parrots. 1988. Web. 1 May 2010. .
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