WHITE-CROWNED PARROTS
AT DUSK
At dusk, shrill, excited screeches shatter the
calm as a flock of maybe 30 thick-bodied birds with broad wings held at right angles from
their bodies approach from down in the valley. Even though all you can see is black
silhouettes you know they can't be anything but parrots or parakeets. My list of
upland-Chiapas birds at http://www.backyardnature.net/chiapas/birds-ch.htm
lists two parrot and four parakeet species potentially to be seen here. A quick glance
with binoculars shows that these sky-screechers have short, squared tails, so they're one
of the two species of parrots, not any of the sharp-tailed parakeets.
Of the two parrot species potentially to be seen here the White-fronted Parrot is a
large Amazon type (27 cm long) while the White-crowned Parrot is a smaller (24 cm) member
of the genus Pionus. By "Amazon type" I mean a member of the large
genus Amazona. Bird fanciers often refer to "Amazon parrots" when
they're talking about "typical parrots."
If you've seen lots of flying parrots, the moment our evening flock comes into view you
can tell that these are smaller than most species because of their quicker
maneuverability. Also, it'd be unusual for such large flocks of the big Amazons to form.
Even when all you see is black silhouettes it's clear that, if they're either larger
Amazons or smaller White-crowned Parrots, these are the smaller ones, portreyed in a
painting at http://www.1-costaricalink.com/costa_rica_fauna/white_crowned_parrot.htm.
In that illustration the bird's red shoulders are a figment of the painter's
imagination. The birds' shoulders are bronzy-brown shoulders. Otherwise the colors are OK.
They're pretty birds.
In their tight little flock they wheel through the sky right at treetop level until
abruptly they vanish into the crown of a tall tree. They screech and screech and you
wonder what they could be saying they haven't said a thousand times that same day, but
their level of enthusiasm continues at the intensity of kids screaming at a playground.
Nothing is more social, more needing of attention of fellow members of the community, than
a parrot or parakeet, so when you see how gleefully they interact you feel bad if you've
ever kept one alone in a cage. Atop these tall trees they don't let you get too close. You
inch closer and closer until maybe you can see their white crowns but then they explode
from their treetop, screeching like crazy, and head back into the valley. Only the lucky
ever see the birds' amber eyes, bluish chest, red tail coverts and those off-color
shoulders.
This is about as high in elevation as White-crowneds get. I can't see this species
without recalling my 1996 birding trip when I penned the following in hot, humid, lowland
Oaxaca:
At dusk I steal into an abandoned coffee plantation
with security very much on my mind. I am intensely focused on watching for someone
following me, on not being seen, of choosing a random spot and camouflaging the tent as
best I can. As darkness falls I hear parrots in the "mother tree" above me and
stick my head from the tent's door. Two White-crowned Parrots are fighting, one dangling
from a Peperomia-covered limb by a single toe while the other attaches itself by the beak
to its adversary's wing, and what they're saying is clearly parrot-cussing.
Notes and drawings from my 1996 birding trip reside at http://www.backyardnature.net/mexbirds/
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