The white-winged (or canary-winged) parakeet is distributed over the central part of the Amazon basin, from southeast Colombia and northeast Peru east to northeast Amazonian Brazil, and thence north over the Atlantic Ocean littoral as far as French Guiana. In addition, there are feral populations in Lima (Peru), on Puerto Rico, and in parts of the mainland USA, e.g. in California and Florida. In its native range, the species prefers seasonally flooded forests, including those on river islands, as well as second growth and areas around settlements, but amazingly almost nothing has been published concerning the white-winged parakeet’s ecology and behavior in the wild. Like other Brotogeris parakeets, this is a small-bodied, basically green bird, with graduated rectrices, which comes to life in flight when the blue, white, and yellow markings in the wings become fully appreciable, although they are also visible, to some extent, at rest. |
