Red-bellied Parrot
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The red-bellied parrot (''Poicephalus rufiventris'') is a small
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n
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 Psittacoide ...
about 23 cm (9 in) long of the genus ''
Poicephalus The genus ''Poicephalus'' belongs to the subfamily Psittacinae of the true parrots (Psittacidae) and comprises ten species of parrots native to various regions of the Afrotropical realm, which encompasses Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from Sene ...
''. It is a mostly greenish and grey parrot. Males have a bright orange belly and females have a greenish belly.


Description

The red-bellied parrot is a small parrot about 23 cm (9 in) long and weights 140 g (5 oz). It is a mostly greenish and grey bird with the green being more prominent over its lower surfaces and the grey more prominent over its upper surfaces. Adult birds have green feathers covering the upper portions of their legs, red irises and dark grey beaks. The species is
sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...
; Typically, males have a bright orange lower chest and abdomen, whilst adult females are greenish on these lower areas. The dimorphism occurs from a young age and is seen even in young chicks still in the nest. Although the name red-bellied parrot implies that the parrot has hints of red, the word for the color orange was not introduced into the English language until after the fruit orange was discovered and named, so some animals which are colored orange by our current definition were named red due to the fact that a word for the color orange didn't exist in English.


Breeding

The red-bellied parrot nests in tree cavities. The eggs are white and there are usually three in a clutch. The female incubates the eggs for about 28 days and the chicks leave the nest about 63 days after hatching.


References

red-bellied parrot Birds of the Horn of Africa red-bellied parrot {{parrot-stub