Echo parakeet

Appearance

The echo parakeet is 34–42 cm long and weighs 167–193 g, which makes it smaller than the other, now extinct, Mauritian parrots. The wingspan is 49–54 cm, each wing is 177–190 mm long, the tail is 164–200 mm, the culmen is 21–23 mm, and the tarsus is 20–22 mm. The female is somewhat smaller than the male on average. It is generally green, with a darker back and yellowish underside. The male is lighter and the female darker overall. It has two ring collars on the neck, which are incomplete, failing to meet at the back. The male has one black and one pink collar, which appears crescent shaped in side view, and has blue suffusion above it. The female has an indistinct black collar and a green collar, which becomes dark green across the cheeks and yellow-green at the back of the neck. The male has a black, narrow line running from the cere to the eye. The outer primary feathers of some males are tinged with blue. The upper bill of the adult male is bright red, the lower blackish brown, while the upper bill of the female is dark, almost black. The iris is yellow, varying from pale to greenish, but individuals with pink or white irides have also been noted. The skin around the eyes is orange, and the feet are grey, varying from greenish to blackish. The bill of the juvenile is red-orange, similar to that of the adult male, until two to three months after it fledges, when it changes to black, similar to that of the adult female. The immature is similar to the female.

Distribution

The echo parakeet is now restricted to forested areas of Mauritius with native vegetation, which covers less than 2% of Mauritius as of 2017, namely the Black River Gorges National Park in the southwest. They occupy only about 40 square kilometres, and use about half of this area regularly. Within the park, there are four northern populations and two southern. In the upland forest, they prefer large, mature trees such as "Canarium paniculatum", "Syzygium contractum", "Mimusops maxima", "Labourdonnaisia" sp. Other important feeding areas include lowland, intermediate and scrub forests. There are annual fluctuations in how often echo parakeets are seen in their habitats, which reflect population density. While the distribution of the species is tied to native forests, its numbers and distribution decreasing as these are destroyed, several early accounts indicate its distribution was always thin. The echo parakeet also formerly occurred in heavily degraded areas, which were therefore only lightly wooded. Though now sedentary, the parakeet may have moved between areas seasonally in search for food; if cyclones had stripped trees of fruits, for example.

A 2012 genetic study by the British zoologist Claire Raisin and colleagues showed that before the programme of captive breeding, echo parakeets from the more isolated Bel Ombre regions in the southern part of Black River Gorges National Park were genetically different from the rest of the population, but that the genetic diversity was dispersed across the bird's range after the period of intense managing, when birds were moved between areas. The genetic differentiation between the populations may originally have been due to forest clearing, which isolated them from each other.

Behavior

The echo parakeet is arboreal and keeps to the canopy of the forest when it feeds and rests. It usually moves around alone or in small groups and is less gregarious than the rose-ringed parakeet. When flying, the echo parakeet is good at exploiting updraughts while traversing ridges and flying over cliffs. It flies more slowly than the rose-ringed parakeet and has slower wing beats. It is adept at flying, though only for short distances, and is able to manoeuvre rapidly between the openings of the canopy. Like other Mauritian birds, echo parakeets are tame, more so during winter when food is scarce; they become more wary during the summer, when food is more readily available, and it becomes more difficult for humans to approach the birds. Breeding birds in nests are not disturbed by nearby cars and are not alarmed when their nests are examined. Echo parakeets mostly moult their feathers during summer, with variation in timing between individual birds and years. The body starts moulting in late winter, continuing for months, and the primary moult starts between November and January, well before the tail moults in March or April. Most of the echo parakeets have fully moulted by the end of June. The longevity of the species is unknown, but it can reach at least eight years.

The activity patterns of the echo parakeet are similar to those of other "Psittacula" parakeets in most respects. They mainly forage during mid-morning and mid- and late afternoon, and bad weather does not disrupt this activity. Groups rest and preen on large trees during the middle of the day; these trees are usually not used for roosting. They are most active and vocal during the afternoon when they travel to and from feeding areas. They are very excitable during the hour before dusk, when they fly around in groups calling frequently, and briefly perch in treetops, before circling around again. They usually roost in sheltered areas on hillsides and ravines, preferring trees with dense foliage, where they perch close to the trunks or in cavities. The number of birds recorded in individual roosting sites ranges from one to eleven. The birds usually leave a roosting site quietly in the morning, though some have been observed staying for several more hours.

Reproduction

The breeding behaviour of the echo parakeet is similar to that of other "Psittacula" parakeets, most of which can breed by the time they are two years old.

Food

The echo parakeet mainly feeds on native Mauritian plants, though small amounts of introduced plants are also eaten, and eats parts such as fruits, leaves, flowers, buds, young shoots, seeds, twigs, and bark or sap.