Bird Guide

Green-cheeked Parakeet vs Santarem Parakeet

Green-cheeked Parakeet (Pyrrhura molinae)

Green-cheeked Parakeet

Pyrrhura molinae

Medium77 gWoodland

The green-cheeked parakeet is 25 to 26 cm (9.8 to 10 in) long and weighs 62 to 81 g (2.2 to 2.9 oz). The sexes are the same sizes. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. m. molinae are dull brown from forehead to nape and have green cheeks, ashy brown ear coverts, and a creamy white ring of bare skin around the eye. Their upperparts are green. Their chin, throat, and the sides of their neck are a scaly brown and whitish. Their belly is dull reddish and their lower flanks and vent area are green. Their wing is mostly green, with bluish flight feathers. Their tail is dull reddish. Voice: The green-cheeked parakeet's flight calls "comprise rather high-pitched notes with a grating quality and usually given in fast series, e.g. "krree krree krree", but also single "kuree" notes." From a perch it "utters high-pitched, more melodious notes, such as a bisyllabic "rrekeet" or "keew"." However, perched birds are often silent.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: jeanpaulboerekamps · CC0
Santarem Parakeet (Pyrrhura amazonum)

Santarem Parakeet

Pyrrhura amazonum

Small59 gForest

Total length c. 22 cm (8+3⁄4 in). As other members of the Pyrrhura picta complex, it is a long-tailed mainly green parakeet with a dark red belly, rump and tail-tip (tail all dark red from below), a whitish or dull buff patch on the auriculars and bluish remiges. The cheeks and ocular region are dark maroon. The nominate subspecies (P. a. amazonum) has a narrow blue forehead-band and pale grey scaling to the chest. The remaining subspecies, P. a. snethlageae and P. a. lucida, have little or no blue to the forecrown and their chests are, uniquely for the P.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Green-cheeked Parakeet and Santarem Parakeet.