The Brown-throated Parakeet (Aratinga pertinax), commonly known as the St. Thomas Conure or Brown-throated Conure in aviculture

Aviculture

Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds and the culture that forms around it. Aviculture is generally focused on not only the raising and breeding of birds, but also on preserving avian habitat, and public awareness campaigns....

, is a species of parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...

 in the Psittacidae family. It is found widely in woodland, savanna and scrub in northern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, the Guianas, the ABC islands in the Netherlands Antilles

Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...

, and northern Brazil (mainly the Rio Negro/Branco

Branco River

The Rio Branco is the principal affluent of the Rio Negro from the north; it is enriched by many streams from the sierras which separate Venezuela and Guyana from Brazil. Its two upper main tributaries are the Urariquira and the Takutu...

 region) with a disjunct

Disjunct distribution

In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but widely separated from each other geographically...

 population in south-western Pará

Pará

Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

. Another disjunct population is found in southern Central America in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

 and Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, and is sometimes considered a separate species, the Veraguas Parakeet (A. ocularis). The Brown-throated Parakeet has been introduced

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 (where now possibly extirpated), the U.S. Virgin Islands (mainly St. Thomas

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...

, hence the alternative name St. Thomas Conure), and various other islands in the Lesser Antilles

Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...

 (at least Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

; recent sightings also from Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

 and Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

).

Description

The Brown-throated Parakeet is mostly green, with the lowerparts being a lighter green than the upperparts. Black/grey beak. Some blue in the wing feathers. Head and face colours depend on the subspecies. Though most subspecies are brown-throated, both A. p. pertinax and A. p. xanthogenia have most of the head, including the throat, orange-yellow.

Taxonomy

There are several subspecies which have varying colours particularly of the crown, face and underparts.

Aratinga pertinax (Linnaeus, 1758):

• Aratinga pertinax aeruginosa (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Aratinga pertinax arubensis (Hartert, 1892)
• Aratinga pertinax chrysogenys (Massena & Souance, 1854)
• Aratinga pertinax chrysophrys (Swainson, 1838)
• Aratinga pertinax griseipecta Meyer de Schauensee, 1950
• Aratinga pertinax lehmanni Dugand, 1943
• Aratinga pertinax margaritensis (Cory, 1918)
• Aratinga pertinax ocularis (Sclater, PL, 1865)
• Aratinga pertinax paraensis Sick, 1959
• Aratinga pertinax pertinax (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Aratinga pertinax surinama Zimmer & Phelps, WH, 1951
• Aratinga pertinax tortugensis (Cory, 1909)
• Aratinga pertinax venezuelae Zimmer & Phelps, WH, 1951
• Aratinga pertinax xanthogenia (Bonaparte, 1850)

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