Mini portrait: Bolivian Mitred Parakeet

1,0 Bolivian Mitred Parakeet (Psittacara mitratus mitratus).

Bolivian Mitred Parakeet, or Bolivian Mitred Conure (Psittacara mitratus mitratus, until spring 2013 known as Aratinga mitrata mitrata), is currently one of the 25 recognized species/subspecies belonging to the genus Psittacara, according to "Howard & Moore's Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World", Vol. I, from spring 2013 as well as the latest version 4.1 (August 2018), "Errata and Corrigenda to Volume I". However, subsequently due to new scientific discoveries, all the 5 different subspecies of the Blue-crowned Parakeet (Thectocercus acuticaudatus) have been removed from the Psittacara genus since they today are categorized in their own Thectocercus genus.

The Bolivian Mitred Parakeet has two subspecies, respectively the Northern Mitred Parakeet (Psittacara mitratus chlorogenys), which mainly comes from Peru, and the Tucumán Mitred Parakeet (Psittacara mitratus tucumanus), which mainly comes from Argentina. Neither of these 2 subspecies is mentioned further in this mini-portrait.

This species has a long "belt-shaped" distribution area in western South America going from north central Peru (east of the Andes mountains) down through the middle of Bolivia and on across the border to Argentina and on to the central part of the country.

Most Psittacara species/subspecies have predominantly green plumage and are medium-sized parakeets characterized by having a long wedge-shaped tail. The Red-masked Wedge-tailed Parakeet is approximately 38 cm long and the sexes look the same, but often the female generally appears to be smaller and somewhat less intensely coloured just as the red feather areas are smaller.

All representatives of this genus are also characterized by being extremely loud and therefore their distribution in human care (read: captivity) is not as large as the number of species actually warrants. In the 1960’s, the most frequent representative of this "new" genus in Denmark was the Red-masked Parakeet (Psittacara erythrogenys, then known as Aratinga erythrogenys), but nowadays you very rarely come across representatives of the Psittacara genus in human care. However, for historical reasons in the Latin - including not least Spanish-speaking - countries in South America and Southern Europe, many of these birds, which were previously common in Denmark, are still kept as tamed pet birds.

The members of the Psittacara genus are intelligent birds that can be extremely tame, and the world-renowned American film producer and director Steven Spielberg also had an eye on this several years ago. Through his (and others') film company, DreamWorks SKG, he back in 1998 published a feature film for the whole family, which was built around one of these parakeets. The film was marketed under the title, "Paulie", and the main role was played by a Blue-crowned Parakeet (Thectocercus acuticaudatus), which admittedly is now placed in its own Thectocercus genus. The film demonstrates how intelligent - and funny - birds belonging to this genus really are, although in usual Hollywood style a number of film tricks are of course also used.

It is not uncommon to experience feather plucking as a problem in parakeets belonging to the Psittacara genus, a problem that has been observed among the various species even before systematic commercial hand-feeding of baby parrots unfortunately became widespread. Many of these birds, who by nature are quite curious and need to investigate everything, were not offered the right conditions in human care and were unfortunately often kept in small cages without any kind of offer of behavioral enrichment. All these parakeets are by nature very active and have a great need to gnaw, and with their often proportionately large beaks they can easily destroy woodwork, perches, etc.

In human care, the Bolivian Mitred Parakeet is rarely seen staying on the ground of the aviary, which must be attributed to its lifestyle in the wild, where it likes to stay in tall, dense tree forest, typically in mountain areas, where it is commonly distributed in a wide range of sporadic locations within the distribution area. The total distribution area is estimated by BirdLife International to be approximately 1,200,000 km2, which is a huge area.

The Bolivian Mitred Parakeet has previously been subject to extensive international trade. Since 1981, when the species was listed on CITES, list II, worldwide trade has been registered with 158,149 specimens, cf. UNEP-WCMC CITES Trade Database, calculated as of January 2005. Nevertheless, Birdlife International has assessed the population in the wild over a number of years as being stable. It is also emphasized by the fact that its status in the wild is assessed to belong to the category "Least Concern", i.e. a species that is not threatened with extinction.

In addition to the Bolivian Mitred Parakeet, my own experiences with the Psittacara genus mainly concentrate on the now very rare Hispaniolan Parakeet (Psittacara cloropterus chloropterus), which is somewhat smaller than the Bolivian Mitred Parakeet, and with an almost entirely green plumage. The Hispaniolan Parakeet comes from the island of Haiti (Hispaniola), and behaviorally it is very similar to the Bolivian Mitred Parakeet. The Hispaniolan Parakeet also had a subspecies (Psittacara chloropterus maugei) from Mona Island that was previously declared extinct; this species is categorized by some taxonomies as an independent species post mortem.

Jorgen Petersen

Conceived/Updated: 31.08.2012 / 06.01.2024 

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A pair of Bolivian Mitred Parakeet (Psittacara mitratus mitratus), the male sitting in the front.