Red-breasted Parakeet

A Red-breasted Parakeet Psittacula alexandri flock of around 20 birds was in the tops of trees in a car park near the entrance to Khao Yai National Park. This was proving to be a very productive birding spot in the slowly improving light. This was the only time that this species was recorded on the tour. A stocky and relatively short tailed Parakeet with an extraordinary face pattern, this photos shows a male with a red bill on the left and a female with black bill lower to the right.

Red-breasted Parakeet is a species which tends to keep in small flocks and is usually quiet when feeding in tree tops. Its preferred habitat is open deciduous forest, secondary growth and cultivations. This species has been uplisted from Least Concern on the basis of new information about its population trend. It is listed as Near Threatened because it is suspected to be undergoing a moderately rapid population decline owing to on-going trapping pressure, persecution and habitat loss.

Red-breasted Parakeet is among the more widespread species of the genus and is the species which has the most geographical variations. It is easily identified by the large reddish patch on its breast. An alternative name is the Moustached Parakeet depending on subspecies. Most of the subspecies are confined to small islands or a cluster of islands in Indonesia. One subspecies occurs in the Andaman islands, and one subspecies occurs in continental South east Asia and partly extending to north eastern parts of South Asia along the foothills of the Himalayas. Some of the island races may be threatened by the wild bird trade. The nominate race, which occurs in Java, is close to extinction. The subspecies in Thailand is possibly P.a.fasciata.

Feral populations of this species have now established themselves in cities like Mumbai and small numbers occur in other cities such as Chennai and Bangalore in India.

References: Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp (1998) Birds of the Indian Subcontinent p.422, published by Helm; BirdLife; Wikipedia