Rose-ringed Parakeet
The Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), also known as the Ring-necked Parakeet, is a gregarious tropical Afro-Asian parakeet species that has an extremely large range. Since the trend of the population appears to be increasing, the species has been evaluated as Least Concern by IUCN in 2009.
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| Rose-ringed Parakeet |
image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:J.M.Garg
Rose-ringed parakeets are popular as pets. Its scientific name commemorates the Austrian naturalist Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer.
This non-migrating species is one of few parrot species that have successfully adapted to living in 'disturbed habitats', and in that way withstood the onslaught of urbanisation and deforestation. In the wild, this is a noisy species with an unmistakable squawking call.
Description
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| Rose-ringed Parakeet |
Rose-ringed parakeets measure on average 40 cm (16 in) in length including the tail feathers. Their average single wing length is about 15–17.5 cm (5.9–6.9 in). The tail accounts for a large portion of their total length.
The Rose-ringed parakeet is sexually dimorphic. The adult male sports a red neck-ring and the hen and immature birds of both sexes either show no neck rings, or display shadow-like pale to dark grey neck rings
The Rose-ringed parakeet is sexually dimorphic. The adult male sports a red neck-ring and the hen and immature birds of both sexes either show no neck rings, or display shadow-like pale to dark grey neck rings
image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/
Phylogeny and distribution
Four subspecies are recognized, though they do not differ much:
- African subspecies:
- African-ringnecked (aka ARN) Parakeet (P. krameri krameri): West Africa in Guinea, Senegal and southern Mauritania, east to Western Uganda and Southern Sudan.
- Abyssinian-ringnecked (aka Aby-RN) Parakeet (P. krameri parvirostris): Northwest Somalia, west across northern Ethiopia to Sennar district, Sudan.
- Asian subspecies:
- Indian-ringnecked (aka IRN) Parakeet (P. krameri manillensis) originates from the southern Indian subcontinent and has feral and/or naturalized populations worldwide. In Australia, Great Britain (mainly around London), the United States, and other western countries, it is often referred to as the Indian Ring-Necked Parakeet/Parrot.
- Boreal or Neumann's ringnecked (aka BRN) Parakeet (P. krameri borealis) is distributed in Bangladesh, Pakistan, northern India and Nepal to central Burma; introduced populations worldwide in localities.
- A phylogenetic analysis using DNA (see Psittacula) showed that the Mauritius Parakeet (Psittacula echo) is closely related to this species, and probably needs to be placed between the African and Asian subspecies. Consequently, this species is paraphyletic.
Diet
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| Rose-ringed Parakeet |
In the wild, Rose-ringed parakeets usually feed on buds, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and seeds. Wild flocks also fly several miles to forage in farmlands and orchards causing extensive damage. They have been found to feed extensively on pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) during winter in India. They also breed during winter unlike most other South Asian birds.
Aviculture
Rose-ringed Parakeets are popular as pets and they have a long history in aviculture. The ancient Greeks kept the Indian subspecies P. krameri manillensis, and the ancient Romans kept the African subspecies P. krameri krameri. Colour mutations of the Indian-ringnecked Parakeet subspecies have become widely available in recent years.
image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lipkee/
