Red-crowned parakeet

The red-crowned parakeet or red-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae), also widely known by its Māori name of kākāriki, is a small parrot from New Zealand. It is characterised by its bright green plumage and the red pattern on its head. This versatile bird can feed on a variety food items and can be found in many habitat types. It used to be classified as near threatened as invasive predators had pushed it out of its historical range but it is now at least concern. This species that used to occupy the whole country is now confined to only a few areas on the mainland and some offshore islands. Red-crown parakeet are green parrots with large tails. They are easiest to identify by their bright yellow-green plumage, and crimson forehead, lores, eye-stripes and front of the crown. They also have red patches on either sides of the rump. While they are flying, their dark blue outerwing can be visible. Red-crowned parakeets have grey or pale brown legs and feet. Their bills are white to grey with a black tip. Females are slightly smaller with a yellow stripe on the underwing. Their bill is also smaller and narrower. Juvenile red-crown parakeets look similar to adults. However, their bill has a slight pinkish tinge. Moreover, the iris of young parakeets starts off as dull black or brown, and becomes increasingly red as they age. Juvenile males also sport a stripe under the wing like the females. We can recognise red-crowned parakeets by their soft musical chattering calls. Those vocalisations are stronger and lower-pitched than the yellow-crowned parakeet's. During flight and take off, they also emit a ki-ki-ki-ki-ki or kek-kik-kek sound. The red-crown parakeet is a member of the order Psittaciformes, also known as the parrots. It is part of the genus Cyanoramphus, which currently includes 12 species of parakeets. C. novaezelandiae was once lumped with several other parrots from New Zealand's outlying islands, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island, but these have now been afforded full species status. Since many of the Cyanoramphus species are very morphologically similar, several of them have only recently been upgraded to the species level in light of results from molecular analyse.