The turquoise-winged parrotlet (''Forpus spengeli'') 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 Psittacoide ...

in the family Pscittacidae.

Description

Turquoise-winged parrotlets are typically long and weigh about . Their bodies are mostly yellow-green; eyes are dark brown and legs and beak are light peach. Turquoise-winged parrotlets are

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 ...

: males have bright turquoise feathers on their lower backs and rumps, and have purple-blue underwing

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 s ...

and axillaries. Females have no blue markings, but their foreheads and faces are brighter yellow-green than males'. Like all parrots, turquoise-winged parrotlets exhibit

zygodactyly In biology, dactyly is the arrangement of digits (fingers and toes) on the hands, feet, or sometimes wings of a tetrapod animal. It comes from the Greek word δακτυλος (''dáktylos'') = "finger". Sometimes the ending "-dactylia" is use ...

: two toes face forward and two toes face backward.

Distribution and Habitat

Turquoise-winged parrotlets are found in northern Colombia from the Caribbean coastal region southwest of the Santa Marta Mountains,

Atlantico ''Atlantico'' is a French news website. Founded on 28 February 2011 amid much media attention, it quickly attracted notice for scoops related to scandals involving the Socialist politician and International Monetary Fund head, Dominique Strauss ...

, and south along the

Rio Magdalena The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much ...

in Bolívar and Cesar. Turquoise-winged parrotlets are most often found in drier, open or

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

groves,

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

scrubland, and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

Conservation

There is not an estimate for the number of turquoise-winged parrotlets, but it is believed that their population is decreasing because of increased human interference and habitat destruction. Turquoise-winged parrotlets are listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

Behavior and Ecology

Social

Turquoise-winged parrotlets are highly

gregarious Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp ...

and are often found in flocks of up to 50 birds.

Reproduction

The turquoise-winged parrotlet's breeding season is May to August. Females lay 3-7 small white eggs.

Diet

Turquoise-winged parrotlets mostly feed on ''

Cecropia ''Cecropia'' is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the speci ...

sp.'' fruits, ''

Mikania ''Mikania'' is a genus of about 450 species of plants in the tribe Eupatorieae within the family Asteraceae. The name honors the Czech botanist Johann Christian Mikan, 1743–1814. Members of the genus are stem twiners and lianas and are common ...

sp.'' and ''

Trema micrantha ''Trema micrantha'', the Jamaican nettletree or capulin, is a plant species native to warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere. It has been reported from Mexico, Central America, tropical South America, the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola ...

'' seeds, and '' Ambrosia sp.'' and ''

Marcgravia ''Marcgravia'' is a genus of plants in the Marcgraviaceae family commonly eaten by the dwarf little fruit bat. The genus is native to the Caribbean Islands, Central America, and South America, and genus is named in memory of the German naturalis ...

sp.'' flowers. They are also known to occasionally feed on other plants such as grass.

Taxonomy

Until recently, the turquoise-winged parrotlet was considered a subspecies of the

cobalt-rumped parrotlet The cobalt-rumped parrotlet (''Forpus xanthopterygius'') or blue-winged parrotlet is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. There are two subspecies: Salvadori's cobalt-rumped parrotlet (''F. x. flavescens'') and Hellmayr's cobalt-rumpe ...

as ''Forpus xanthopterygius spengeli''. However, in 2015 Bocalini and Silveira studied morphological differences between subspecies of cobalt-rumped parrotlets and determined that the turquoise-winged parrotlet was its own species, ''F. spengeli''. This split was supported by Donegan ''et al.'' in 2016. There is continuing debate over the validity of this change. Some taxonomic authorities (including 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 ...

) do not recognize this change in classification.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21191097 turquoise-winged parrotlet Birds of Brazil turquoise-winged parrotlet turquoise-winged parrotlet