The Rose-fronted Parakeet (Pyrrhura roseifrons), also known as the Red-crowned Parakeet (leading to easy confusion with the Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae), or, in aviculture

Aviculture

Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds and the culture that forms around it. Aviculture is generally focused on not only the raising and breeding of birds, but also on preserving avian habitat, and public awareness campaigns....

, the Rose-fronted Conure, is a species of parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...

 in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Psittacidae. It is found in the western Amazon basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

 in eastern Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, far south-eastern Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, north-western Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

 and far western Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It includes the Wavy-breasted Parakeet (P. roseifrons peruviana), also known as the Wavy-breasted Conure, which sometimes is considered a separate species (see Taxonomy).

Description

Total length ca. 22 cm (8½ in). As other members of the Pyrrhura picta complex, it is a long-tailed mainly green parakeet with a dark red belly, rump and tail-tip (tail all dark red from below), a grey-scaled chest, a whitish or dull yellow patch on the auriculars and bluish remiges. The forehead, ocular region and carpal edge are red in the nominate race (P. r. roseifrons). Its bare eye-ring is typically dark greyish (sometimes indistinct) bordered by yellowish-white. The remaining subspecies, P. r. peruviana and P. r. dilutissima, lack any bright red in their plumage, but most of their crown and ocular region are very dark brownish-maroon (often appear blackish), while the forecrown is blue. Their eye-ring is grey. All races have dark grey legs.

Habitat and behavior

It occurs in tropical humid lowland forest and adjacent habitats. It is social and typically seen in pairs or groups. It feeds on fruits, seeds and flowers. The nest is placed in a tree cavity. It is fairly common in most of its range and occurs in several protected areas, e.g. Manú National Park

Manú National Park

Manú National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Madre de Dios and Paucartambo, Cusco. Before becoming an area protected by the Peruvian government, the Manú National Park was conserved thanks to its inaccessibility. The park remains fairly inaccessible by road to this day. In 1977, UNESCO...

.

Taxonomy

It has typically been considered a subspecies of the Painted Parakeet

Painted Parakeet

The Painted Parakeet , more commonly known as the Painted Conure in aviculture, is a species of bird in the Psittacidae family, the true parrots. Its taxonomy is highly complex, and has undergone significant changes in recent years. As here defined, it is restricted to forests in northern South...

. While reviewing this group, Joseph (2002) discovered that an undescribed population existed in northern Peru (later also found in far south-eastern Ecuador). It was described as Pyrrhura peruviana (Hocking, Blake and Joseph, 2002). It was further recommended that P. roseifrons should be considered a monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 species instead of a subspecies of P. picta. Ribas et al. (2006) confirmed by mtDNA that P. roseifrons should be considered a species separate from P. picta (otherwise P. picta would be paraphyletic), but also showed that peruviana was very close to, and therefore arguably better considered a subspecies of, P. roseifrons. Consequently, SACC

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...

 voted to recognize P. roseifrons as a species with peruviana as a subspecies. Arndt (2008) recently described another taxon

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 from this complex, dilutissima, as a subspecies of P. peruviana, but under the here used taxonomy, it becomes a subspecies of P. roseifrons.

The taxonomic status in relations to Bonaparte's Parakeet and the so-called "group 6" (per Joseph, 2002) remains unclear. Arndt (2008) recently described

Bird species new to science described in the 2000s

This page details the bird species described as new to science in the years 2000 to 2010:-Number of species described per year:-Countries with high numbers of newly described species:* Brazil* Colombia* Peru* Indonesia-2000:...

 the latter as a distinct species, P. parvifrons, but this has yet to receive widespread recognition (e.g. by SACC).