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Thick-billed Parrot | Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha
Araparkiet | Cotorra serrana occidental
The Thick-billed Parrot is a large green parrot with a heavy black bill that lives in the pine and pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental in north-western Mexico. It feeds almost entirely on pine seeds, which it breaks out of the cones with its bill, and moves through the mountains following the seed crop. It formerly wandered irregularly into Arizona and New Mexico.
Voice
Loud, rolling and rasping krraa-krraa and chattering, almost laughing series, often from a whole flock at once; audible over a great distance.
Recording: Richard E. Webster — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
38–40 cm. Bright green with a long, pointed tail and long, pointed wings that make it look like a small macaw in flight. The forehead, a stripe above the eye, the bend of the wing and the thighs are red. The bill is black and heavy, the bare eye-ring yellowish. From below the wing shows a yellow band across the underwing coverts, clearly visible in flight. Young birds have a pale horn-coloured bill and less red on the head and wing. The sexes are alike. Flight is fast and direct, often in flocks.
Confusion species
Maroon-fronted Parrot Rhynchopsitta terrisi of the Sierra Madre Oriental is slightly larger and darker green, has a dark maroon-brown instead of red forehead and no yellow under the wing; the ranges do not overlap. Military Macaw Ara militaris is much larger, with a much longer tail and a bare, pale pink face. Green Parakeet Psittacara holochlorus is smaller, all green and has a pale bill.
Habitat
Old-growth conifer and pine-oak forest in the high mountains, mostly between 1500 and 3500 m, with large pines for food and old dead trees with cavities, often old woodpecker holes, for nesting. In winter also lower, in pine-oak and mixed forest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Only in Mexico. It breeds in the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Chihuahua and northern Durango, locally into eastern Sonora. After the breeding season the birds move south and to lower slopes in Durango, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Jalisco and Michoacán; the winter range varies from year to year. Outside the guide area it occurred irregularly in Arizona and New Mexico until the 1930s; an attempt to reintroduce it to Arizona in the 1980s and 1990s failed.
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From July to October flocks can be seen at breeding sites in the mountains of western Chihuahua, especially early in the morning as they fly, calling loudly, to the pine forests.
Conservation status
Endangered. Its range has shrunk sharply through logging of old-growth conifer forest, which removes food and suitable nest trees. Forest fires, drought and trapping also play a part. Nest trees are protected in the main breeding areas.
Scientific name
Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha | (Swainson, 1827)
Swainson described the species in 1827 as Macrocercus pachyrhynchus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Rhynchopsitta was introduced in 1854 by Bonaparte. Rhynchopsitta is Greek, from rhunkhos 'bill' and psitta 'parrot': 'bill-parrot', after the heavy bill. pachyrhyncha is Greek, from pakhus 'thick' and rhunkhos 'bill', after the heavy black bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mexican Plateau.