''Brotogeris'' is a genus of small

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 ...

s endemic to Central and South America. Their closest relatives are the

monk parakeet The monk parakeet (''Myiopsitta monachus''), also known as the Quaker parrot, is a species of true parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is a small, bright-green parrot with a greyish breast and greenish-yellow abdomen. Its average lifespan is 20 ...

and the and the

cliff parakeet The cliff parakeet (''Myiopsitta luchsi'') is a small species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It occurs in Andean valleys of central Bolivia between 1,000 /1,300 and 3,000 metres above sea level, roughly from southeastern La Paz Department (B ...

in the genus '' Myiopsitta''. They eat seeds and fruit. The word ''brotogeris'' means "having the voice of a human". In the language of their native countries, which is mostly Spanish, they are called ''pericos'' – the translation of which is "parakeet". Their average lifespan is 15 years, although some have been reported to have lived up to 35 years. Also, the bird was found in Rio Grande do Sul in South America.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Brotogeris'' was introduced in 1825 by Irish zoologist

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 1785 a ...

with the grey-cheeked parakeet as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specim ...

. The name is from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

''brotogērus'' meaning "with human voice". The genus contains eight species: *

Tui parakeet The tui parakeet (''Brotogeris sanctithomae'') is a species of bird in the family Psittacidae, the true parrots. It is found in the Amazon Basin of Brazil, and Amazonian Peru and Bolivia; also a minor range into eastern Ecuador, and the river b ...

, ''Brotogeris sanctithomae'' * Plain parakeet, ''Brotogeris tirica'' * White-winged parakeet, ''Brotogeris versicolorus'' * Yellow-chevroned parakeet, ''Brotogeris chiriri'' (also called canary-winged parakeet) * Grey-cheeked parakeet, ''Brotogeris pyrrhoptera'' * Orange-chinned parakeet, ''Brotogeris jugularis'' (also called Tovi parakeet) * Cobalt-winged parakeet, ''Brotogeris cyanoptera'' * Golden-winged parakeet, ''Brotogeris chrysoptera''

Phylogeny

The species form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

group whose closest relatives are the

and the

in the genus '' Myiopsitta''. Within ''Brotogeris'' the species are divided into two separate

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

Gallery

File:Plain Parakeet (Brotogeris tirica) -on branch.jpg, Plain parakeet
(''B. tirica'') File:Grey-cheeked Parakeet (Brotogeris pyrrhoptera) captivity.jpg, Grey-cheeked parakeet
(''B. pyrrhoptera'') File:Brotogeris chiriri -pet-8a.jpg, Yellow-chevroned parakeet
(''B. chiriri'') File:Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis)10c1.jpg, Orange-chinned parakeet
(''B. jugularis'') File:Brotogeris cyanoptera -Ecudore-4.jpg, Cobalt-winged parakeet
(''B. cyanoptera'') File:Brotogeris sanctithomae -captive-8a.jpg,

(''B. sanctithomae'')

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

Gallery

References

Further reading