Lord Derby's parakeet (''Psittacula derbiana''), also known as Derbyan parakeet, is a parrot species, which is confined to a small pocket of moist evergreen forest in the hills and mountains of the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n states of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

, and adjoining parts of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The species suffers from

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the sca ...

of old trees (important for nesting sites) and

poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...

for the illegal

wildlife trade Wildlife trade refers to the exchange of products derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tis ...

. In 2011, its status was updated from

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

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

on 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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

. The adult male and female are easily distinguished because they have different beak colours and slightly different plumage. The name of this bird commemorates

Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851), styled Lord Stanley from 1776 to 1832, and Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe from 1832–4, was an English politician, peer, landowner, builder, farmer, art collector and na ...

. Lord Derby's parakeets feed on fruits, berries, seeds, and leaf buds, occasionally foraging in gardens and fields.

Description

Lord Derby's parakeets are in length and are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

. They have a mostly green plumage over their dorsal surface (i.e. from behind), black lores and lower cheeks, a bluish-purple crown and pale yellow eyes. The throat, breast, abdomen and under-wing coverts are greyish blue to lavender. The thighs and vent area are yellowish green with blue edging on some of the feathers. The tail feathers are shades of green, some edged with blue. Male birds have a red upper mandible with a yellow tip, while the lower mandible is black. The females have an all-black beak. Immature Lord Derby's parakeets are duller in colour than the adults. Juvenile birds have green crowns, orange-red upper and lower mandible (beak), and their irises are dark and do not lighten until they reach maturity between two and three years of age.

Sexual dimorphism

Image:Psittacula derbiana-20050502.jpg, The adult male has a red upper mandible File:Psittacula derbiana -aviary -male-8a.jpg, Male File:Psittacula derbiana -Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China -male-8a.jpg, Male pet kept in China File:Derbyan parakeet (Psittacula derbiana) -female2.jpg, A female pet in Tibet. The adult female has an all black beak. File:Psittacula derbiana (female) -Beijing -captive-8.jpg, A female pet in China File:Bird - Aviary, Tazishan Park - Chengdu, China - DSC03030.JPG, A captive female in China

Reproduction

Breeding season usually begins between April and June. The female lays a clutch of two to four eggs () in nest holes of trees. The young hatch after an incubation period of about 23 days and will fledge after 8 to 9 weeks.

Divergence

It was discovered that the divergence of Psittacula from other parrots occurred between 3.4 and 9.7 million years ago and divergence in Psittacula occurred between 2.5 and 7.7 million years ago. However, the divergence of derbyan parakeet occurred most recently between 0.2 and 0.5 million years ago.

References

External links

World Parrot Trust
Parrot Encyclopedia - Species Profiles

* ttp://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=516 Oriental Bird Images: ''Derbyan parakeet'' Selected photos * http://animal-world.com/encyclo/birds/parakeets/DerbyanParakeet.php# * http://home.wanadoo.nl/psittaculaworld/PsittaculaWorld.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20070606112952/http://www.ruffledfeathersaviary.com/derbyan_photos.htm {{Taxonbar, from=Q999922

Lord Derby's parakeet Lord Derby's parakeet (''Psittacula derbiana''), also known as Derbyan parakeet, is a parrot species, which is confined to a small pocket of moist evergreen forest in the hills and mountains of the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, a ...

Birds of Northeast India Birds of Tibet Birds of Central China Birds of Yunnan