The Pearly Parakeet more commonly known as the Pearly 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...

 that is endemic to east Amazonian forests

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

 in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Its taxonomic history is potentially confusing. It was formerly known as Pyrrhura perlata, but following a review it was discovered that the type specimen, long believed to belong to this species, actually was a juvenile

Juvenile (organism)

A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...

 of the closely related Crimson-bellied Parakeet

Crimson-bellied Parakeet

The Crimson-bellied Parakeet , more commonly known as the Crimson-bellied Conure in aviculture, is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is found in forests in the south-central Amazon Basin in Brazil and Bolivia. It remains locally fairly common, and is consequently considered to be of...

. Consequently, P. perlata was transferred to that species, while the next name in line for the Pearly Parakeet, P. lepida, became its valid scientific name. While the Pearly Parakeet remains locally fairly common, it has suffered due to extensive habitat destruction

Habitat destruction

Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity mainly for the purpose of...

, especially in the eastern part of its range where the subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 coerulescens may be approaching extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

.