White-capped parrot

The white-capped parrot's taxonomy has not been settled. The International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World consider it to be a full species.[3][4] The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) and the Clements taxonomy treat it and the plum-crowned parrot (P. tumultuosus) as subspecies of the speckle-faced parrot under the binomial P. tumultuosus.[5][6] The SACC declined to split the speckle-faced in 2005 but recognizes that a 2007 study suggests that the split is valid.[7][8][5]

The white-capped parrot is 28 to 30 cm (11 to 12 in) long and weighs about 229 g (8.1 oz). The adult's forehead is white, sometimes with some scattered pink feathers. Their crown, the rest of their face, their throat and their breast are dusky violet or dull purple with plum pink flecks. Their back, wings, and belly are green. Their undertail coverts and the base of their tail are red; the rest of their tail is green with some blue on the outer feathers. Their bill is pale yellowish horn-colored, their iris dark with whitish skin around it, and their legs and feet gray.[9][10]

The white-capped parrot is found from western Venezuela through Colombia's Eastern Andes and both slopes of the Andes in Ecuador into northwestern Peru. It inhabits the canopy and edges of subtropical and temperate forest at elevations between 1,500 and 3,200 m (4,900 and 10,500 ft).[9][10][11]

The IUCN has assessed the white-capped parrot as being of Least Concern. It has a large range but its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered uncommon.[10][11]