Peach-fronted Parakeet - Eupsittula / Aratinga aurea

Peach-fronted Parakeet Eupsittula aurea
(aka Aratinga aurea)

Brazilian name :Periquito-rei

Brazil

The Peach-fronted Parakeet is possibly the commonest parakeet found in Brazil, mainly south of the Amazon as far as Paraguay and northern Argentina.

Its name comes from its peach-orange forehead which has a bluish border towards the crown. The orange round its eye is not entirely bare orbital skin but is highlighted by orange feathers.

It is a bird of mainly open country - savanna, cerrado, etc. and in Emas National Park they were often to be seen perched on termite mounds in which they sometimes build their nests.

They feed on seeds, including crops of soya, maize, etc., but are also known to feed on termites, moths and beetles.

The Peach-fronted Parakeet was one of the earliest New World birds to be illustrated featuring in paintings by Lazarus Roting in about 1614 and by Marcgrave in 1648. Today, you can find illustrations in HBW, Pages 322 and 434; and in Sick, Plate 17.

There are recordings on xeno-canto, a distribution map from NatureServe and additional information available via Avibase. There is also a page on Wikiaves.

Jeremy Minns' recording at Linhares included the bird in photo 4.

Peach-fronted Parakeet, Linhares, Espirito Santo, Brazil, March 2004 - click for a larger image

In changing the genus from Aratinga to Eupsittula I have followed Howard and Moore 4th Edition. At the time of writing in July 2013 this treatment is a proposal in front of the South American Classification Committee which looks likely to be accepted.

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