Blue-crowned Parakeet - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Capilla del Monte, Argentina, October, 2019

Aternative Names: Blue-crowned Conure, Sharp-tailed Conure

Thectocercus acuticaudata

Identification

33–38 cm (13-15 in)

• Green plumage
• Dull blue forehead, crown, cheeks, and ears
• Bare white eye ring
• Green or yellow-green breast
• Green tail feathers
• Maroon to red-brown on underside
• Bill:

• Horn coloured upper mandible; grey-black tip
• Lower mandible is horn-coloured in juveniles, fading to grey-black after the first year

• Pink-brown legs
• Grey-brown claws

Distribution

Photo by Pantanal1
Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil

South America: found in eastern Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.

A popular cage pet, there are established feral populations in Florida, Spain, and Portugal.

Taxonomy

Formerly placed in genus Aratinga.

Subspecies

There are 5 subspecies^[1]:

• T. a. koenigi:

• North-eastern Colombia and northern Venezuela

• T. a. neoxena:

• Isla Margarita (Venezuela)

• T. a. haemorrhous:

• Interior north-eastern Brazil

• T. a. neumanni:

• Highlands of eastern Bolivia

• T. a. acuticaudata:

• Eastern Bolivia to Paraguay, southern Brazil, western Uruguay and northern Argentina

Habitat

Grassland, forest edges and semi-arid regions.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of berries, seeds, nuts and fruit such as guava and cacti. The will also eat ripe mangoes and corn and sorghum crops

Breeding

They nest in tree holes; the 3-4 white eggs are incubated by the female for 26 days. The young fledge about 52 days later.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Collar, N., Boesman, P. & Sharpe, C.J. (2020). Blue-crowned Parakeet (Psittacara acuticaudatus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/54633 on 12 January 2020).

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Blue-crowned Parakeet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-crowned_Parakeet

External Links

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