Blue-headed Parrot

Sightings
This was our only sighting of Blue-headed Parrot in Trinidad when a flock of some twenty birds were perched on telephone wires along the Blanchisseuse Road. By walking up a narrow track, I was able to get to eye level with the birds and photograph them at close range.

Species
Blue-headed Parrot Pionus menstruus inhabits forest and semi-open country, including cultivated areas. It is largely restricted to humid or semi-humid regions, but locally extends into drier habitats, at least along rivers. They eat fruit and seeds, and sometimes grain. They roost communally in palm and other trees, and large numbers can be seen at their roost sites at dawn and dusk.

Status and distribution
It is a species of least concern although thought to be decreasing in its large breeding range of some ten million square kilometres. It is a resident bird in tropical and subtropical South America and southern Central America, from Costa Rica, Venezuela and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Brazil. It is an uncommon resident found in hill forest and central savannas of Trinidad but absent on Tobago. There are three subspecies of which P. m. menstruus is found on Trinidad as well as east Colombia to north Bolivia, the Guianas and north-east Brazil.

References
BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 144.

Photograph
1/500th of a second, f5.6 and ISO 640 in dull afternoon light.