El Oro parakeet

The El Oro parakeet is monotypic. ==Description==

The El Oro parakeet is long and weighs . Adult males have a mostly green head with a red forehead and lores. Their upperparts are green. Their throat, the sides of their neck, and their breast are green with grayish buff bars giving an indistinct scaly appearance. The rest of their underparts are green with some faint dull reddish on the belly. Their wing is mostly green with red primary coverts; their primaries are blue. Their tail is maroon with a green base and a dusky maroon underside. Their bill is dusky and their iris is dark with bare pinkish skin surrounding it. Females are almost the same as males but with much reduced red on the forehead. Immature birds are similar to adults but with even less red on the head and wing and none on the belly. ==Distribution and habitat==

The El Oro parakeet is found only on the west slope of the Ecuadoran Andes in Azuay and El Oro provinces. It is known only from an area of about that is wide and long. It inhabits humid subtropical and tropical forest mostly between of elevation but has been found as low as and as high as . ==Behavior==

Movement The El Oro parakeet is not known to have any pattern of movements. Vocalization The El Oro parakeet's most common call is "a series of grating notes with a rather hoarse quality, e.g. "crreeet crreeet crreeet" " that is given both from a perch and in flight. Perched birds also call with single "chuk" or "krrr" notes, though perched birds are often silent. Members of a flock "call frequently and simultaneously, producing a noisy chattering." ==Status==

The IUCN originally assessed the El Oro parakeet as Vulneralble but since 2000 has listed it as Endangered. It has a very limited range and an estimated population of fewer than 1000 mature individuals. "Remaining habitat is fragmented, and both range and population are thought to be declining." About 75% of the El Oro parakeet's population is found there and nearby. ==References==