The red-breasted pygmy parrot (''Micropsitta bruijnii'') is a species of

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

in the family

Psittaculidae Psittaculidae is a family containing Old World parrots. It consists of five subfamilies: Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae. This family has been accepted into ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World' ...

. Its natural habitat is the boreal

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical or tropical dry forests, and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

moist lowland forests of the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

and

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...

. As their name suggests, the pygmy parrots are the smallest genus of all parrots, with distribution confined to islands off South-east Asia. This particular species is found at higher altitudes than other pygmy parrots, and uses trees rather than arboreal

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

nests as breeding sites. They have jerky movements, rather reminiscent of

nuthatch The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...

es (''Sitta'' species), and cling close to the bark as they search for

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Antonie Augustus Bruijn 250 px, Antonie Augustus Bruijn (Surabaya, 1865) Antonie Augustus Bruijn (December 27, 1842 – August 11, 1890) was a Dutch navy officer, naturalist and trader in naturalia from the Dutch East Indies. He was the son-in-law of Maarten Dirk van Re ...

Subspecies

The species has five subspecies: *''M. b. bruijnii'' - mountains of New Guinea *''M. b. buruensis'' - Buru *''M. b. necopinata'' - New Britain and New Ireland *''M. b. pileata'' - Seram *''M. b. rosea'' - Bougainville, Guadalcanal and Kolambangara in the Solomon Islands

References

red-breasted pygmy parrot Birds of the Maluku Islands Birds of Melanesia Birds described in 1875 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{parrot-stub