The rusty-faced parrot (''Hapalopsittaca amazonina'') is a

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

species of bird in subfamily

Arinae The neotropical parrots or New World parrots comprise about 150 species in 32 genera found throughout South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean islands and (formerly) the southern United States. Among them are some of the most familiar an ...

of the family

Psittacidae The family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the roughly 10 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Old World or Afrotropical parrots) and 157 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or Neotropic ...

, the African and New World parrots. It is found in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and possibly Ecuador.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. 30 January 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved January 30, 2023

Taxonomy and systematics

The rusty-faced parrot has these three subspecies: *''H. a. theresae'' (

Hellmayr Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 in Vienna, Austria – 24 February 1944 in Orselina, Switzerland) was an Austrian ornithologist. Biography Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete hi ...

, 1915) *''H. a. velezi'' Graves, GR & Restrepo, 1989 *''H. a. amazonina'' ( Des Murs, 1845) What are now Fuertes's parrot (''H. fuertesi'') and the red-faced parrot (''H. pyrrhops'') were previously treated as subspecies of the rusty-faced parrot. The three now make a superspecies.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023

Description

The rusty-faced parrot is about long and weighs . Adults of the

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

''H. a. amazonina'' have a dull orange-red forehead and crown, yellow lores, an orange-red chin, and brownish red ear

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

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 Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

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.Collar, N. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Rusty-faced Parrot (''Hapalopsittaca amazonina''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rufpar2.01 retrieved February 25, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of the rusty-faced parrot are found thus: *''H. a. theresae'', northwestern Venezuela from central Trujillo to northern

Táchira Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...

*''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 Undocumented sight records in Ecuador lead the South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

to classify the species as hypothetical in that country. The rusty-faced parrot moslty inhabits very wet

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

, though ''H. a. velezi'' has been recorded where the alder ''

Alnus acuminata ''Alnus acuminata'' is a species of deciduous tree in the Betulaceae family. It is found in montane forests from central Mexico to Argentina.Zuloaga, F. O., O. N. Morrone, M. J. Belgrano, C. Marticorena & E. Marchesi. (eds.) 2008. Catálogo de la ...

'' has been used for reforestation. In elevation it mostly ranges between but has been recorded as low as and as high as .

Behavior

Movement

Only small elevational movements are known for the rusty-faced parrot.

Feeding

The rusty-faced parrot feeds on seeds and fruit including those of genus ''

Clusia ''Clusia'' is the type genus of the plant family Clusiaceae. Comprising 300-400 species, it is native to the tropics of the Americas. The genus is named by Carl Linnaeus in honor of the botanist Carolus Clusius. The closest relatives of ''Clus ...

'' and

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

Breeding

Nothing is known about the rusty-faced parrot's breeding biology.

Vocalization

The rusty-faced parrot's flight call is "a repeated strident and loud “creek!”." It also makes " similar piercing calls such as “creenk!” or a more bisyllabic “shreeank” " when perched.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

originally assessed the rusty-faced parrot as Threatened, then in 1994 as Endangered, in 2005 as Vulnerable, and since 2021 as Near Threatened. It has a limited range and its estimated population of below 10,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. The primary threat is deforestation for human settlement expansion, agriculture, ranching, and other purposes. The species is considered rare throughout its range; much of its original habitat has already been cleared or degraded. Though it occurs in two Venezuelan national parks, they are threatened by human encroachment.