Rusty-faced parrot
The rusty-faced parrot is a Near Threatened species of bird in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela and possibly Ecuador.
Taxonomy and systematics
The rusty-faced parrot has these three subspecies:- H. a. theresae
- H. a. velezi Graves, GR & Restrepo, 1989
- H. a. amazonina
Description
The rusty-faced parrot is about long and weighs. Adults of the nominate subspecies H. a. amazonina have a dull orange-red forehead and crown, yellow lores, an orange-red chin, and brownish red ear coverts with yellow streaks. Their upperparts are green with a red shoulder. Their breast is buffy olive and the rest of their underparts grass green. Their primaries and secondary coverts are blue, the former darker than the latter. Their tail is dark red with blue-black to violet blue tips. Immature birds have a duller red face with fewer yellow streaks than adults. Subspecies H. a. theresae has darker green upperparts than the nominate, and the red on their face is more brownish, their ear coverts darker, and their breast rusty olive. H. a. velezi is like the nominate with the addition of a golden olive hindneck and nape.Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of the rusty-faced parrot are found thus:- H. a. theresae, northwestern Venezuela from central Trujillo to northern Táchira
- H. a. velezi, Colombia's Western and Central Andes and possibly extreme northern Ecuador
- H. a. amazonina, Colombia's Eastern Andes and extreme western Venezuela
The rusty-faced parrot mostly inhabits very wet cloudforest, though H. a. velezi has been recorded where the alder Alnus acuminata has been used for reforestation. In elevation it mostly ranges between but has been recorded as low as and as high as.