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Posted by Susan Epps on 11:56:53 04/11/08
Identifying parrots and parakeets can be like identifying gulls and shorebirds. It is important to be able to age the birds. Way too often people with limited experience with juvenile birds may mistake a bird for a hybrid or some species other than what it truly is.
For example, for 3 years I watched 3 Amazon parrots and wondered if they were hybrids. At the fourth molt they all proved to be pure Red-lored Parrots. It just took several years to reach adult plummage. Another time I saw 2 Amazons that looked like a young yellow-headed and a yellow-crowned. After their first molt both proved to be Blue-fronted Parrots.
People in Seattle had been trying to make the parakeet there into all sorts of hybrids. When I saw the birds last summer it was obvious they were pure Red-fronted Parakeets of the subspecies frontata.
Sometimes the best answer is "I don't know."
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