(aka White-eared Parakeet, Maroon-faced Parakeet, Pyrrhura leucotis)
Brazilian name: Tiriba-de-peito-cinza
October 2008
The Grey-breasted Parakeet is endemic to a small area in north-east Brazil where there are ranges of hills above about 500 metres where there is sufficient rain to support humid forest in what is normally a semi-arid area. It may well be now restricted to the Serra de Baturité where these photos were taken.
It is classified as Critically Endangered by Birdlife International. There are possibly less than 200 individuals remaining, the habitat is under pressure and, unhappily, there is still a threat from collectors for the caged bird trade.
There is disagreement about the treatment
of this taxon. It has in the past been treated as both a species
in its own right and as a sub-species of White-eared
Parakeet P. leucotis. Recently, the South American
Classification Committee decided to split it and treat it as a
separate species. After some DNA sequencing in 2006, the
Committee decided to reverse this decision and treat it as a
sub-species of P. leucotis but there is again a proposal
to split the taxon. If you are interested you can read the
SACC deliberations where everyone is agreed
that things are a bit messy and require a lot of additional work.
Birdlife International currently treat it as a separate
species.
An article in Cotinga by Fabio Olmos, Weber Silva and Ciro Albano
which treats it as a separate species is available
here.
A Brazilian NGO, Aquasis, is involved
in conservation efforts and I met them in the Serra de
Baturité as they were installing some nesting boxes. There is a video in Portuguese about this initiative here.
The chest and breast are grey with a scalloped effect. The face
is dark red with a white ear patch. It has a reddish-brown belly,
rump and tail with red on the shoulder and blue on the
primaries.
There are recordings on xeno-canto and additional information is available via Avibase.
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