• Class: Aves
• Order: Psittaciformes
• Family: Psittacidae
• Genus: Agapornis
• Region: Africa

Overview: by Mike Perrin, Philip McGowan, Colleen Downs, Craig Symes, & Louise Warburton

Africa & the species:
Africa is a large continent containing relatively few parrot species.
There are 21 species that are native to Africa and the islands of Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles.
They inhabit a variety of habitats, ranging from closed forests to arid zones.
Most of these species have allopatric distributions (i.e., do not overlap) (Fry et al. 1988) and in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa only one species occurs.
All species are monogamous and typically both sexes are similar in appearance (sexually monomorphic), although both sexes in arid zone species are dissimilar in appearance (dimorphic), as is the forest-dwelling grey-headed lovebird Agapornis cana of Madagascar and the Cape parrot Poicephalus robustus.

Continental Africa is home to 18 species belonging to four genera.
The African grey parrot Psittacus erithacus from West Africa is the only member of the genus Psittacus and is a common cage bird in many countries throughout the world.

The genus Poicephalus contains nine predominantly large-bodied species.
There is some uncertainty concerning the taxonomy of the Cape parrot P. robustus and recent data suggest that there may be three species rather than the currently accepted one (Wirminghaus unpublished data).

The range sizes of the Poicephalus parrots differ greatly.
The large Cape parrot P. robustus is found in northern Namibia, northern Botswana, north-east South Africa and northern Ethiopia.

In contrast the small yellow-fronted parrot P. flavifrons is endemic to Ethiopia. Species in the
genus are distributed among most major habitat types, ranging from arid scrub (e g. Rüppell’s parrot P. rueppelli of northern Namibia and southern Angola) to lowland forests
(e.g., Jardine’s or red-fronted parrot P. gulielmi found in west Africa and locally in central and east Africa).
The third genus found in Africa is Agapornis, the smallbodied lovebirds typically found in large flocks.

As with the larger Poicephalus parrots, geographical range sizes vary across the genus.
The widely distributed red-headed lovebird A. pullaria, can be found from eastern Sierra Leone to Uganda and Ethiopia whilst the very localised black-cheeked lovebird A. nigrigenis is almost entirely confined to an area of less than 5,000km² in Zambia (Dodman 1995).
They also occur in most habitats, from arid areas of southern Angola, Namibia, and western South Africa, where the rosy-faced (or peach-faced) A. roseicollis lovebird occurs, to forests, which the black-collared lovebird A. swinderianus prefers.

Some lovebirds, including Fischer’s lovebird, have established feral populations in cities and others have become established on the Seychelles, where there are no naturally occurring parrots.
The only native representative of the Psittacula is the echo or Mauritius parakeet P. eques from Mauritius, one of the most threatened birds in the world (Collar et al. 1994).

Another species in this genus, the rose-ringed parakeet P. krameri, has become established across a large tract of central Africa from Senegambia eastwards to Uganda and Ethiopia, since it was first introduced in the early 1900s.

Madagascar is home to one lovebird species, the greyheaded, and two vasa parrots Coracopsis. Both vasas also occur on the Comoros Islands, and the lesser vasa C. nigra is also found in the Seychelles. All three are to be found in groups, the vasa parrots being found in small groups, and the lovebird in flocks of up to 30 birds. The lesser vasa, C. nigra, is more likely to be found in forest habitat that the greater vasa and can be found at higher altitudes (Langrand 1990).
Although considered common (Langrand 1990), the rapid pace of forest loss on Madagascar suggests their status should be carefully monitored.

The biological characteristics of the two main genera, Poicephalus and Agapornis, are strikingly different and may influence their responses to human interference.
The Poicephalus parrots are large and tend to remain in pairs whereas the smaller lovebirds tend to be found in groups.

The lovebirds have a much greater reproductive potential as they tend to have larger clutches (three to six in the wild, up to eight in captivity, as opposed to one to four in Poicephalus) and their incubation period is a few days shorter than in the larger parrots (Fry et al. 1988).
As they can also lay two clutches in a season, there is the potential for increasing numbers much more rapidly than is possible with the Poicephalus species.

Threats:
The diverse habits of the African parrot fauna is reflected in the variation in pressures facing the species.
Some species appear to be at low risk of extinction at present, such as Meyer’s parrot Poicephalus meyeri, despite occasional illegal trapping.
Others are seriously at risk, such as the echo parakeet which is considered to be Critically Endangered. Across the group as a whole the two main threats are thought to be trapping for the bird trade and habitat loss.

The bird trade:
Trapping for the bird trade has long been a problem for some species, including Fischer’s, masked or yellow-collared Agapornis personatus, black-cheeked Agapornis nigrigenis, and rosy-faced Agapornis roseicollis lovebirds, the Senegal parrot Poicephalus senegalus, and the African grey parrot Psittacus erithacus.
Other species are now appearing in the bird trade and such trade may pose a significant threat for species such as Rüppell’s, red- or orange-bellied P. rufiventris and Jardine’s parrots.

Trade is predominantly from Senegal, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Poicephalus and Psittacus) in West Africa, and Tanzania (Poicephalus) in East Africa.
A key problem here is the lack of appropriate legislation, and the lack of enforcement of such legislation where it exists.
Addressing this issue and those related to it will be necessary before Africa’s threatened parrots can be considered safe from extinction.

Habitat loss:
Habitat loss faces many species, but it is difficult to predict how the impact of often subtle changes in land-use may affect parrots.
For the large-bodied parrots that tend to be dependent upon climax forest the effects may be clear (e.g., Cape parrot), but for species inhabiting open country, changes can be far from obvious (e.g., black-cheeked lovebird).
Whilst the effects of outright habitat loss, such as deforestation, might be straightforward to determine, the consequences of a decrease in the suitability of habitats through increasing desertification and the intensification of agricultural practices are far less easy to assess, but may be no less dramatic.




Original Article by The World Parrot Trust
All images are for illustration purposes only & from various sources with prior permission.