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Posted by David Simpson on 13:42:48 02/25/09
Hi all,
I ran across an old notebook containing an description of a group of parrots that used to fly through my old neighborhood in Cocoa, FL. I remember the birds coming by for many months at irregular intervals. On this particular day, 02 Jan 91, I was able to view them from about 6m away for 20 minutes as they fed on the berries of a Chinaberry Tree. They were approximately 12-14" in length. They were of the conure type, probably some sort of Aratinga. I will transcribe the field notes in hopes that some Psittaphyle can shed some light on the subject.
Tail: Long and pointed. Green on top. Uniform yellowish cast on underside and coverts.
Wing: Pointed, uniformly green on top. Yellow underneath at the bend of the wrist (underside) there was a bright orange patch evident in flight and shortly after landing. when the birds were perched, the patch appeared to be an orange stripe w. the middle third of it being yellow.
Back, belly and undertail coverts uniformly green.
Head and neck: mostly green w. varying amounts of red flecks the cere was brown and there was a patch of bare white skin around the eye. The bill was bone white and small. The back of the head seemed to have a faint turquoise cast to it.
White-eyed conure is the closest I can come up with in Forshaw, but it has distinctly red and yellow patches at the bend of the wing. These birds had a prominent orange patch as I recall. It could be some sort of juvenile plumage, but the birds were around for more than a year and they did not change in appearance.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
David Simpson
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