Olive-throated parakeet

Appearance

This is a green parakeet with a brown throat and orange eyes in adults, brown eyes in juveniles. Its flight call is a noisy screech; the species also utters harsh twittering sounds and piercing chirps. Measures 21.5–24 cm and weighs 75–85 g .

Distribution

The species occurs in two widely disjunct population, with the nominate subspecies restricted to Jamaica and the ''astec'' group occurring from north-eastern Mexico through the Yucatan Peninsula and along the Caribbean slope of Central America as far south as north-western Panama. The two are very similar and most authorities consider them to be part of a single species, but some have recommended splitting them, in which case the former becomes the Jamaican parakeet and the latter the Aztec parakeet .

Habitat

The olive-throated parakeet inhabits wooded hill and mountain slopes but also makes use of cultivated areas and scrubland in humid or semi-arid areas up to moderate elevations above sea level, being most common at heights of around 1,000 m .The parakeet feeds on the buds and fruit as well as some crops, which has resulted in it being regarded as a pest species in some areas. The species reportedly nests only in arboreal termite nests found in trees of at least medium size.