Painted Parakeet

The painted parakeet is 20 to 23 cm (7.9 to 9.1 in) long; the nominate subspecies weighs 46 to 85 g (1.6 to 3.0 oz). The sexes are the same in all subspecies. Adults of the nominate subspecies are blue from their forehead to their hindcrown that becomes deep maroon on the hindcrown and nape. They have a narrow blue collar below the nape. Their face is maroon with a ring of bare grayish skin around the eye, and their ear coverts are whitish. Their upperparts are mostly green with a dull red lower back and rump. The sides of their neck and their breast are buff with a reddish brown scalloped appearance. The center of their belly is dull red and the rest of their underparts are green. Their wing is mostly green with a red carpal area and blue primaries. Their tail is mostly maroon with a green base. Their iris is dark. Immatures are similar to adults but without the red carpal and with a whitish eye ring. The Perija parakeet resembles the painted parakeet but with a blue forecrown that becomes brown with a blue tinge on the hindcrown, a pale iris, pale gray-brown ear coverts, a dark red belly patch, and a maroon-red tail. The Subandean parakeet differs from the painted parakeet with a dull blue and red forehead, a bright maroon-red face, a buff and gray scalloped breast, a green carpal area (sometimes with a few red feathers), and a deep red tail.

The painted parakeet is found from southeastern Venezuela to the Guianas and northern Amazonian Brazil. It inhabits terra firme and várzea forests, forested savanna, and coastal sand-ridge forest. In elevation it mostly occurs in the lowlands but is found as high as 1,800 m (5,900 ft).

The painted parakeet feeds on fruits, seeds, and flowers of a very wide variety of plants and trees. It typically forages in flocks of up to about 30 individuals.