The Sulphur-winged Parakeet (Pyrrhura hoffmanni), also known as the Hoffmann's 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 medium-small 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...

 endemic to humid highland forests and woodlands in 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 western 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...

. It occurs up to 3000 m asl

Above mean sea level

The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

, and locally down to 1300 m in the wet season. It is named for the German naturalist Karl Hoffmann

Karl Hoffmann (naturalist)

Karl Hoffmann was a German physician and naturalist.Hoffmann was born in Stettin and studied at Berlin University. In 1853 he travelled to Costa Rica with Alexander von Frantzius to collect natural history specimens. He served as a doctor in the Costa Rican army during the invasion of William...

.

Description

The Sulphur-winged Parakeet is 23 cm long and weighs 75 g. The adult is mainly green. Scaled with orange-yellow on the head and chest. There is a red spot on the auriculars and the tail is broadly tipped dull red (entirely dull red from below). The outer primaries are blue, but the most obvious feature in flight is the extensive yellow on the inner wing. Young birds are similar to the adults, but duller and with much less yellow in the wing.

Behaviour

The flight call of the Sulphur-winged Parakeet a grating toweet-deet-deet-toweet, and when perched it has a reedy zeeweet.

Food and feeding

Sulphur-winged Parakeet feeds in flocks of 5-15 birds at treetop level, taking various seeds and fruits including fig

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...

s.

Breeding

The white egg

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

s are laid in an unlined nest cavity 8–20 m high in a tree, which may be an old woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....

hole or a broken stub.