Fiery-shouldered parakeet facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fiery-shouldered parakeet |
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The fiery-shouldered parakeet is a colorful bird from the parrot family. It is also known as the fiery-shouldered conure. You can find these parrots in South American countries like Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. They live in warm, wet mountain forests. There are two slightly different types, called subspecies.
What Does It Look Like?
The fiery-shouldered parakeet is about 26 centimeters (10 inches) long. It weighs around 75 grams (2.6 ounces). That's about as much as a small apple!
Its head is grey. The rest of its body and wings are mostly green. The front part of its wing has bright yellow and orange spots. This is where it gets its "fiery-shouldered" name.
The bird's chest is green with brown and yellowish-white stripes. Its belly is reddish-brown. The top of its tail is reddish-brown too, but the underside is grey. It has brown eyes surrounded by white skin. Its beak is horn-colored.
One type of this parakeet has deeper green feathers. It also has less bright color on its belly.
Where Do They Live?
The fiery-shouldered parakeet lives only in a special part of South America. This area includes parts of Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela. Their home is a large tropical rainforest. It covers about 50,000 square kilometers (19,300 square miles). This area includes part of the Canaima National Park.
These parrots live in both old and new forests. They prefer places high up, between 700 and 1800 meters (2,300 to 5,900 feet) above sea level. Sometimes, they even visit parks and gardens near the forest edges.
How Do They Behave?
Fiery-shouldered parakeets usually fly in small groups. A group can have up to 25 birds. They are very fast and good at flying through trees. When they take off, they often make loud, shrill calls.
These birds are quite shy. They are very good at hiding among the leaves. They look for food high up in the trees. They especially like to eat from Cecropia trees. Scientists don't know much yet about how these birds raise their young.
Protecting These Parakeets
Even though the fiery-shouldered parakeet lives in a small area, it is quite common there. However, their rainforest home is slowly shrinking. This is because of logging, which means cutting down trees.
Their numbers are thought to be going down. But the decline is slow. Because of this, the International Union for Conservation of Nature says the bird is of "least concern". This means they are not in immediate danger of disappearing. Still, it's important to protect their forest homes!
