Pionus sordidus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Size and Weight

The red-billed parrot (Pionus sordidus) has a total length of 27 to 29 cm (11 inches) and an average weight of about 272 g (9.6 oz).

Shared Bill Trait

All recognized subspecies of this parrot have the species' namesake red bill.

Nominate Subspecies Head Features

For the nominate subspecies P. s. sordidus, adult birds have a dull green head with individual feathers edged in dull blue, and bare grayish skin surrounds their eye.

Nominate Subspecies Body Coloration

Their back, wings, and inner tail feathers are olive green, while their outer tail feathers are blue. Their upper breast is dull blue, which transitions to buff-olive with a pink tinge on the belly, and their undertail coverts are red.

Immature Bird Plumage

Immature red-billed parrots have a green head and green breast, with yellowish green undertail coverts.

Subspecies Appearance Variations

Each subspecies can be distinguished by its appearance: P. s. antelius is paler than the nominate subspecies and has very little blue on the breast; P. s. saturatus is darker than the nominate; P. s. ponsi is darker than P. s. saturatus; P. s. corallinus is larger and greener than the nominate, with gray and blue tinges on its mantle and back; P. s. mindoensis is similar to P. s. corallinus but has a somewhat yellower overall tone.

Subspecies Geographic Ranges

The subspecies of the red-billed parrot have a disjunct distribution, with each occupying a separate range: P. s. saturatus is found in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; P. s. ponsi ranges from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta east into Serranía del Perijá, on the Colombia-Venezuela border; P. s. sordidus is found in northern Venezuela, from Falcón and Lara east to Miranda; P. s. antelius occurs in the northeastern Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre, and Monagas; P. s. corallinus is distributed discontinuously from the Eastern Andes of Colombia south through eastern Ecuador to central Peru, with a separate population in central Bolivia; P. s. mindoensis is found in western Ecuador.

Preferred Habitats

The red-billed parrot lives in a wide variety of wooded landscapes, including the interior, clearings, and edges of humid to wet lowland and submontane evergreen and semi-deciduous forests, as well as cloud forests, secondary forests, gallery forests, and coffee plantations.

Elevation Range

Most red-billed parrots occur between 500 and 1,500 m (1,600 and 4,900 ft) in elevation, though the species' full elevation range extends as low as 100 m (300 ft) and as high as 2,400 m (7,900 ft).