Rüppell's parrot (''Poicephalus rueppellii'') or Rueppell's parrot, is a bird that is endemic to southwestern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

from central

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

to southwest

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. It lives in

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

where there are trees or in dry woodland. It is more common near streams or rivers. The name commemorates the German naturalist and explorer

Eduard Rüppell Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell, also spelled Rueppell (20 November 1794 – 10 December 1884) was a German Natural history, naturalist and List of explorers, explorer, best known for his collections and descriptions of plants and animals from ...

Description

Rüppell's parrot is 22–25 cm (9 in) long and weighs 121–156 g. It has an overall dark brown color and its head is dark greyish. Both adult male and female birds have some yellow feathers on the leading edge of the wings, and yellow feathers covering their upper legs; in immature birds, the yellow is dull or missing. They 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 ...

; adult female birds have blue feathers on the lower back and the rump, whilst male birds lose this blue feather coloration as they become mature.

Diet

The Ruppell's parrot eats mainly seeds, flowers, leaves, anthropods, and bark. It has been found that during the rainy seasons they prefer to eat flowers and insects. Consistently they eat '' Terminalia pruniodies'' and occasionally they also eat fruit, preferring softer more tender ones.

Breeding

The Rüppell's parrot nests in tree cavities. The eggs are white and there are usually three or four in a clutch. The female incubates the eggs for about 28 days and the chicks leave the nest about 68 days after hatching.

Status

It is a protected species, listed on

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

appendix II.

References

* del Hoyo, J., et al., eds. (1997). ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

'' 4: 415. Lynx Edicions.
Photograph on CITES website
*Richard G. Selman, Mike R. Perrin, Margaret L. Hunter & W.R.J. Dean (2002) The feeding ecology of Rüppell's Parrot, Poicephalus rueppellii, in the Waterberg, Namibia, Ostrich, 73:3-4, 127–134, DOI: 10.1080/00306525.2002.11446741

External links

* Rüppell's parrot �
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
Rüppell's parrot Birds of Southern Africa Rüppell's parrot Rüppell's parrot {{parrot-stub