Red-billed Parrot

The red-billed parrot is 27 to 29 cm (11 to 11 in) long and weighs about 272 g (9.6 oz). All of the subspecies have the eponymous red bill. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. s. sordidus have a dull green head whose feathers have dull blue edges; their eye is surrounded by bare grayish skin. Their back, wings, and inner tail feathers are olive green; their outer tail feathers are blue. Their upper breast is dull blue that becomes buff-olive with a pink tinge on the belly. Their undertail coverts are red. Immature birds have a green head and breast and yellowish green undertail coverts. Subspecies P. s. antelius is paler than the nominate and has very little blue on the breast. P. s. saturatus is darker than the nominate and P. s. ponsi is darker than saturatus. Subspecies P. s. corallinus is larger and greener than the nominate, and its mantle and back have gray and blue tinges. P. s. mindoensis is similar to corallinus but somewhat yellower.

The subspecies of the red-billed parrot have a disjunct distribution. They are found thus:

P. s. saturatus, Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta P. s. ponsi, from the foothills of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta east into Serranía del Perijá that straddles the Colombia-Venezuela border P. s. sordidus, northern Venezuela from Falcón and Lara east to Miranda P. s. antelius, the northeastern Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre, and Monagas P. s. corallinus, discontinuously from the Eastern Andes of Colombia south through eastern Ecuador to central Peru and separately in central Bolivia P. s. mindoensis, western Ecuador The red-billed parrot inhabits a variety of wooded landscapes including the interior, clearings, and edges of humid to wet lowland and submontane evergreen and semi-deciduous forests; cloud-, secondary, and gallery forests; and coffee plantations. In elevation it is mostly found between 500 and 1,500 m (1,600 and 4,900 ft) but ranges as low as 100 m (300 ft) and as high as 2,400 m (7,900 ft).

Little is known about the red-billed parrot's foraging behavior or diet, though the latter is known to include fruits and blossoms.